Using the Cloud Development Kit

Developers are used to creating reusable libraries and using things like loops to take care of repetitive tasks. The Cloud Development Kit (CDK) allows those with a programming background to use a variety of languages (TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Java, and C#) to create CloudFormation templates using techniques that they know, such as the following:

• Logic (if statements, for loops)
• Object-oriented techniques
• Organization via logical modules

This is in contrast to CloudFormation templates, which require you, your developers, or DevOps personnel to write them in either JSON or YAML, although both of these options are somewhat universal in nature and can be picked up in a short time with or without a programming background. CloudFormation templates are also quite limiting in the number of programmatic options and logic that you can perform while creating your stacks:

Figure 7.12 – CDK workflow

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