What is AWS CDK and Why Should You Use It?

In this blog, discover how AWS CDK can streamline your workflow and reduce errors. Learn about the best practices for CDK, Why it’s a must-have tool for modern cloud development, and how you will use it as an AWS Certified Developer Associate. From defining infrastructure as code to automating deployments, read through the numerous benefits that can save you time and effort. 

AWS CDK: Create, Configure, and Deploy AWS Services

It is an open-source framework for developing software that defines cloud infrastructure as code that can be deployed via AWS CloudFormation, utilizing modern programming languages. 

Code-based documentation is substantially faster than CloudFormation or Terraform. There, you frequently visit the documentation website. Instead of reading everything you expect to need beforehand, it allows you to explore and discover as you write code. You never know what you might need.

Creating contexts manually in AWS does not scale and manage the project, especially if the project is big and has a lot of moving pieces and configurations. It can also be complex to create these projects manually in AWS. You can use it to build these projects with just code in your choice of programming language: Python, C#, Java, Typescript, and Go. 

• Use these languages to create constructs.
• Compose them into Stacks and Apps
• Command-Line Toolkit
• ‘Synthesis’ AWS CloudFormation templates.

You can define your applications’ infrastructure at a high level by using the constructs library that AWS CDK offers. This library covers a wide range of AWS services and features.

Also Read: An Ultimate Guide to Become a HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate

How Does the AWS CDK Work?

Working through the Getting Started section of the AWS CDK Developer Guide is the best way to get started with AWS CDK. Deploy and define your first application in a matter of minutes. Use the AWS CDK Command Line Interface (CLI) to interact with your CDK applications.

Constructs and Resources

Constructs are the essential building blocks in the AWS Cloud Development Kit that let developers easily define AWS resources. For one or more services, like Amazon S3 buckets, EC2 instances, AWS Lambda functions, and more, these constructs contain configuration information and glue logic. Developers can create custom constructs for reusable components, and it offers pre-defined constructs for AWS resources and their configurations.

The ability to define AWS resources and write runtime code using the same programming language is one of CDK’s biggest benefits. This special feature simplifies the development process and boosts productivity by enabling developers to write infrastructure and runtime code in the same IDE.

Additionally, developers can create custom components that meet their organization’s security, compliance, and governance requirements by extending existing ones using CDK. These components are easily shared across the organization, allowing for quick customization and the ability to bootstrap new projects with best practices by default.

It is a valuable tool for developers who are looking to build on AWS without needing to be an expert in infrastructure management.

Stages

CDK presents the stages for managing deployment environments. Stages enable developers to specify various configurations for development, testing, staging, and production environments. This allows for consistent deployment across multiple environments while maintaining specific configurations for each.

Stacks

Stacks are sets of AWS resources that are deployed together as a unit. CDK organizes resources into stacks, allowing for logical separation and independent management of various components of your infrastructure. Stacks allow for easier resource management, updates, and deletion. 

The Workflow With AWS CDK Typically Involves the Following Steps:

• Install CDK: To get started, install the AWS CDK CLI and set up the application using your AWS login credentials. Use the programmatic credentials for a continuous update of your credentials tokens.

• Write CDK Code: Using your preferred programming language, write CDK code to define your AWS infrastructure. Utilize the CDK’s high-level constructs to specify resources and their settings.

• Synthesize: it synthesizes the code into CloudFormation templates. These templates represent the AWS resources defined in your code in a declarative format.

• Deploy: Use the CDK CLI to deploy the synthesized CloudFormation templates to AWS. This step sets up your AWS account’s designated resources.

Simplify Cloud Management: The AWS CDK Solution

1. While AWS SDK is not the sole solution to create your infrastructure using code, CDK is developed and maintained by AWS; you would have native, quick, and long-term support from AWS.

2. Familiar Programming Languages: CDK supports a variety of programming languages, including TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, C#, and Go. This implies that you can define and manage cloud infrastructure using the coding skills you already possess. There are no particular differences between these implementations: the choice can be based solely on the user’s familiarity with one language or another.

Using the same language for applications and infrastructure enables new developers to quickly start making minor changes to the infrastructure using a familiar language. They learn how to make larger changes by implementing these small ones. You do not need to ramp up to learn new technology when using CDK, unlike Terraform.

3. Infrastructure as Code (IaC): CDK supports this methodology, which lets you specify your cloud resources using code. This facilitates version control, collaboration, and automation of infrastructure provisioning, increasing development speed through a scalable and structured approach.

4. Reusable Constructs: AWS resources and patterns are represented by pre-built constructs that are provided by CDK. These constructs can be reused and customized to speed up development and ensure consistency throughout your infrastructure.

5. Rollback: When a Cloudformation template is run through the CDK framework, it “synthesizes” and applies the template. As a result, it acquires all of Cloudformation’s advantageous attributes, most notably the capability to automatically roll back to the initial state. This is an extremely useful feature, especially when making changes to previously created stacks in a production environment.
6. Improved Collaboration: By using a common language and framework, CDK facilitates collaboration among developers and infrastructure engineers. This can lead to improved communication and shorter time-to-market.

7. Simplified Testing: By integrating CDK with testing frameworks, you can create unit tests for the infrastructure code that you write. This helps to ensure the accuracy and reliability of your deployments.

8. Integration with CI/CD Pipelines: CDK makes it simple to incorporate infrastructure deployment and management into your continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines.

AWS Cloud Development Kit: A Guide to Effective Development With Best Practices

For a bird’s-eye perspective of your applications, infrastructure stacks, resources, and policies, use the AWS CDK Explorer. As you use the Construct Library to define your infrastructure without regard for language and the AWS CDK CLI to deploy your infrastructure and runtime code together, you save a lot of manual work.

• Start with Simple Constructs: Begin with basic constructs to get familiar with CDK’s syntax and concepts.
• Leverage the CDK Community: Explore the CDK community for resources, examples, and support.
• Use Version Control: Maintain version control of your CDK code to track changes and collaborate effectively.
• Consider CDK Patterns: Utilize CDK patterns and best practices to design scalable and maintainable infrastructure.

Comparison to Other AWS Tools

• AWS CDK and CloudFormation differ primarily in that CDK supports nearly all contemporary programming languages, whereas CloudFormation only supports YAML and JSON.
• While AWS SDK offers a collection of tools for developers to communicate with AWS services, AWS CDK is an infrastructure-as-code tool that lets developers define AWS resources in code.

Exploring AWS CDK as an AWS Certified Developer Associate

As an AWS Certified Developer Associate, understanding and utilizing AWS CDK can: automate infrastructure provisioning, improve consistency and standardization, and enhance overall efficiency. CDK integrates seamlessly with various AWS services, provides a growing community and extensive documentation, and allows developers to leverage their existing programming skills. 

CDK can significantly improve cloud application development and deployment by leveraging IaC benefits and familiar programming languages. To gain practical experience in other AWS services, use AWS Hands-on Labs and  Sandboxes to explore and implement different scenarios, building familiarity with the AWS Cloud platform.

• Serverless Applications: Create and deploy serverless applications quickly using Lambda functions, API Gateway, and other serverless services.
• Microservices Architecture: Using CDK, effectively create and manage microservices architecture.
• Infrastructure Automation: Automate the provisioning and management of complex infrastructure environments.
• DevOps Practices: Implement DevOps best practices by integrating CDK into your CI/CD pipelines.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, with additional benefits over competing tools, AWS CDK is a solution that addresses Cloudformation’s shortcomings while retaining its beneficial aspects of infrastructure-as-code tools. While tools like Pulumi and Terraform provide multi-cloud support and language flexibility, they still come with challenges. These tools do not, however, have the same benefits because they still rely on API calls, which means that there is no rollback, and they store the infrastructure’s state in unique files that require management.