So far we have been setting up the AWS infrastructure via the Amazon AWS console, which is quite helpful in the initial stages when you are learning the ropes. However, it is good practice to build your cloud infrastructure via code.

AWS provide two services, CloudFormation and AWS OpWorks. CloudFormation focuses on providing foundational capabilities for the full breadth of AWS services, while AWS OpWorks focuses on deployment, monitoring, auto-scaling, and automation, and supports a narrower range of application-oriented AWS resource types including EC2 instances, EBS volumes, Elastic IPs, and CloudWatch metrics.