AWS CloudFormation is, putting it simply, an infrastructure as code. It is an AWS service, you do not need to install any additional software. This allows developers and system administrators to design and implement the entire network and server configurations directly from a code template file. CloudFormation handles the ordering and creation of the resources automatically when the template is implemented. When a template is launched to create resources, it is called a stack.

Think of a stack like architectural blueprints. The architect (you) hands the blueprints over to the contractor (AWS) to build it as per your specifications. The contractor knows how to order the construction jobs and what materials are needed.

You can create your own templates, use publicly available ones (such as on GitHub), or use AWS quick start templates. CloudFormation also has a visual designer to help lay out your planned infrastructure. Templates are saved as text files in either the JSON or YAML format. The following image shows an example of the CloudFormation designer. The designer is accessible through your browser:

You could create your own big data IoT analytics playground infrastructure as a stack, and then email the template file to your buddy on the other side of the world where he could replicate it in his own environment in minutes. You can also (and should) keep the template files in source control systems such as git in the event that you need to revert backward or recreate your infrastructure from scratch.

We will use one of the AWS quick start templates to create a secure environment to get started with IoT analytics. The quick start template incorporates AWS best practices into the design. You will have your own mini-data center up and running in a matter of minutes. The template we will be using was designed for high availability and will have room to grow if you decide to expand your use.

Your author recommends that you bring in a consulting company that specializes in creating cloud environments, if you are setting up an environment for your company to use in standard operations. This is to ensure the underlying security and the architecture is set up correctly. It is far easier to have it configured properly from the start than to try to correct it later on.

For experimentation and general analytic use, however, the environment we will create in the walk-through will work fine. It has several security and connectivity best practices in place.