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Lots of questions and comments about Proton. Very excited to hear them! There is a lot to explain about this service, as we are trying to create order out of several different pieces. This will be a thread of VERY short FAQs to hopefully help clarify. Will keep updating it!
Q: What is this exactly?
A: Proton is an application deployment service. This means that we pull together your infrastructure-as-code, your pipeline, and your observability, to give developers a single interface to go from code in a repo -> running microservice. (1/3)
A: Proton is an application deployment service. This means that we pull together your infrastructure-as-code, your pipeline, and your observability, to give developers a single interface to go from code in a repo -> running microservice. (1/3)
For a developer, the experience of using Proton is similar to using a traditional PaaS: provide a repo, a few parameters, and your code is deployed with a CI/CD pipeline. (2/3)
However, unlike a traditional PaaS. All the infrastructure and tooling in which your microservice will be running on Proton is defined, end to end, by the platform team. This gives the platform team full capacity to control all components of the services. (3/3)
Q: Who is this for?
A: First and foremost, this is a service for platform teams. Platform teams can define all components of their microservice architecture and be confident that it's being used across the organization. (1/2)
A: First and foremost, this is a service for platform teams. Platform teams can define all components of their microservice architecture and be confident that it's being used across the organization. (1/2)
But it's also for developers, who can rely on Proton to deploy their code quickly, in a self-service way, and with. guarantees that it will meet all the standards of the business. (2/2)
Q: Is this not CloudFormation?
A: No. We built Proton to rely on Infrastructure-as-Code, like CloudFormation, so you can use those tested and true tools to model your infrastructure. But that's one piece of the puzzle. (1/3)
A: No. We built Proton to rely on Infrastructure-as-Code, like CloudFormation, so you can use those tested and true tools to model your infrastructure. But that's one piece of the puzzle. (1/3)
With Proton, a deployment includes not just the infrastructure as code, but also the pipeline and observability. And all of the pieces are abstracted away from developers. So as a developer, you don't interact directly with CloudFormation. (2/3)
And, as a platform team, you know for sure that all stacks in use meet your standard. In addition you can see AND UPDATE everything in Proton. When you change your templates, you can use Proton to roll out the updates and not have to chase every team individually (3/3)
Q: Will this only work with CloudFormation?
A: No! We're very excited to support Terraform as well in Proton. Stay tuned for more news on when we will roll it out :) Equally, we plan to roll out support for other tools, like GitHub Actions for CI/CD or DataDog for observability
A: No! We're very excited to support Terraform as well in Proton. Stay tuned for more news on when we will roll it out :) Equally, we plan to roll out support for other tools, like GitHub Actions for CI/CD or DataDog for observability
Q: It takes SO MUCH work to deploy my first service? Why?
A: Proton is first a service to create a platform for developers. As such, you will have to indeed define that platform, including defining the templates for environments and service, and deploying environments (1/
A: Proton is first a service to create a platform for developers. As such, you will have to indeed define that platform, including defining the templates for environments and service, and deploying environments (1/
All of this is done BEFORE developers start to interact with the platform. So indeed it takes a bit, but the investment pays off in microservices then being deployed quickly, consistently, and centrally managed.
Q: Will this work with [INSERT TOOL NAME}?
A: If there is a need for it, yes! Please open an issue in our public roadmap at https://github.com/aws/aws-proton-public-roadmap
A: If there is a need for it, yes! Please open an issue in our public roadmap at https://github.com/aws/aws-proton-public-roadmap
Q: Will this work with Kubernetes?
A: Yes! We have work to do here, but we plan to make Proton work with Kubernetes by using a GitOps model, where Proton becomes a contributor to your GitOps repo and you can define infrastructure using Kubernetes YAML
A: Yes! We have work to do here, but we plan to make Proton work with Kubernetes by using a GitOps model, where Proton becomes a contributor to your GitOps repo and you can define infrastructure using Kubernetes YAML
Q: Is this not Service Catalog?
A: There are many similarities in between the two services. In a nutshell, Proton is a more high-level service and SC is more of a primitive. With SC, you can govern the distribution and deployment of CloudFormation templates. (1/3)
A: There are many similarities in between the two services. In a nutshell, Proton is a more high-level service and SC is more of a primitive. With SC, you can govern the distribution and deployment of CloudFormation templates. (1/3)
Developers will still own those CFN templates. Proton (1) groups the infrastructure with other pieces like CI/CD and observability; (2) abstracts all of that in a single interface for developers; (3) will work with other IaC, like Terraform. (2/3)
So where Service Catalog becomes your tool to vend CFN templates, Proton is your tool to manage the microservices that will be built using those templates
Q: When will you ship [INSERT FEATURE HERE]? I can't really adopt this in my organization until I have it!
A: The answer to all feature questions in product is always "as soon as possible". We try to prioritize features that will be useful to most customers. (1/2)
A: The answer to all feature questions in product is always "as soon as possible". We try to prioritize features that will be useful to most customers. (1/2)
But please add an issue to the roadmap (link above) on comment on whatever is existing! We are always listening
