We performed a comparison between AWS CloudFormation and HashiCorp Terraform based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Configuration Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."I can see that the patch management process is much improved with the bundled patch management option available in Microsoft Intune compared to the KPI deployment required by the other deployment solutions."
"While I don't think you can ever have full visibility and control, Intune certainly allows us to see the applications being used and tells us if things like Windows patches aren't applied to machines. It does a good job. That visibility makes life a little easier."
"Maturity makes it a stable product."
"One of the main features of the solution is it allows the management of many devices in different ways."
"The feature I like the most is that we can perform remote tasks. If we want to retire or wipe out personal data or corporate data from a device, we can use Microsoft Intune remotely, and with the click of a button, data is removed automatically. Nothing needs to be done from the end-user side."
"The tool's most valuable feature is Autopilot."
"I can reach devices or computers over the internet. I don't need to worry about the network connectivity between the offices. I can manage any device. That is the most important part."
"The product has eased the deployment of Microsoft apps to the devices. We can manage it properly. We can control it and push the updates. Another company helped us with the deployment. However, we can do it internally."
"It allows defining the infrastructure as code using templates, which describe the desired state of the infrastructure."
"The most valuable features of AWS CloudFormation are all the resources documentation is located in one location, simple resource reverting, and ease of use of the full package for new users."
"The most valuable feature of AWS CloudFormation is the simple tracking of infrastructure."
"Scripting does what we need to reinstall something from scratch."
"There is a cost-benefit to using CloudFormation that comes about because of the automation that it provides."
"The nested stacks would be one of the more valuable features."
"Automations make it pretty easy to provision AWS, development, or deployment environments."
"I appreciate the flexibility of infrastructure as code. With CloudFormation, we can define ground rules, control usage limits, and scale our infrastructure up or down programmatically. Having this level of control through code on infra is a major benefit. That's the beauty of CloudFormation."
"The most valuable features of HashiCorp Terraform are automation and management capabilities."
"The feature "Terraform Plan" is the most valuable in HashiCorp Terraform as it allows us to see the differences between the current infrastructure and the one we are about to deploy, keeping things safe. Additionally, we appreciate the use of the modules as it helps in making the application scalable."
"This solution makes it easier to manage a multi-cloud environment and have your entire infrastructure as code."
"The ARM template is very easy to work with, which is a big help to us."
"Provides automation which has increased our efficiency."
"The most valuable feature is the great community support."
"It is the customization of Terraform's modules that I find most valuable."
"One of the most valuable features is that it offers the ability to create a VPC, Virtual Private Cloud and VPN connectivity to the VPC can be automated without having to do it manually."
"China blocks Google and Google Play Store, which makes installation challenging. Microsoft Intune is a company software, which has to be installed to the app portal or Microsoft Software Center."
"An area for improvement is the absence of seamless integration, particularly with external dashboards."
"I'd suggest adding more features for macOS in Intune. There should be more functionality for managing macOS. There should be a better capability for pushing things down on macOS. Currently, Intune is not capable of managing macOS at the same level as Windows."
"Areas for improvement in Intune include expanding support beyond Samsung devices to accommodate other Android manufacturers like Redmi and Motorola."
"The UI also needs improvements because it is complex for end-users. We have had feedback from a few users in our organization who found the UI is not feasible for tracking and analyzing all the processes and monitoring all the devices."
"Microsoft Intune's support for Mac devices is lacking and could be improved."
"Some enrollment features could be improved."
"Microsoft Intune could improve by being more user-friendly and having it geared toward device management. The graphic interface is not very good."
"CloudFormation is not particularly good at handling cross-account dynamic references. If you try to refer to an object that CloudFormation has created in a separate AWS account, it tends to fall apart. That's because it is a byproduct of the multi-tenant configuration. This is the most glaring shortcoming in my perspective because you can't dynamically reference objects in other accounts that CloudFormation has created, but it is not a shortcoming that you can't overcome. This is the only pain point that I've come across that didn't have a workaround natively. Sometimes the confirmation is slow, and it could be faster. The downside to CloudFormation when you're fully embracing it is that the AWS services do not get released immediately fully CloudFormation enabled. If you need to use the latest AWS service that just got announced or reinvented, you're not going to be able to continue with CloudFormation for the first X number of months. This is because they develop the products separately, and then they hand it to the CloudFormation team, which later on develops a CloudFormation integration. So, if you need to be on the newest thing AWS has, CloudFormation is often going to be a constraint that prevents you from doing that."
"The product should be made cloud-agnostic, allowing users to deploy the same environment with minimal tweaks across different cloud platforms, similar to Terraform. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have the ability to manage templates outside of the AWS environment."
"There is less support for on-premise environments."
"It would help all users if AWS improved the auto-generation of the CloudFormation file."
"The conditions that can be added in AWS CloudFormation are not as powerful as any programming language."
"For improvement, it's crucial that AWS provides options in terms of computing services, DB related services, and machine learning solutions. If I'm not hands-on with a particular service, like machine learning applications, I struggle to write the CloudFormation code."
"If you are a developer or a more technical person, it's very difficult to learn the complete syntax or because CloudFormation includes a new way to write infrastructure code."
"If Amazon could extend CloudFormation to other cloud platforms, that would be good. Currently, it is only limited to AWS."
"Terraform could create more examples in the documentation."
"It would be nice if they could put our infrastructure on graphics or at least provide a map of our infrastructure."
"If you are copying something from a well running machine to a remote machine, there are some issues with the current version, but it is acceptable."
"Automation is needed to import everything at once from a manual environment or by a specific resource group."
"They have added a feature that helps us to import existing resources to our workspace, but if they can help us to create the code for the import, as well, then it would be a great addition."
"With cloud providers always adding new resource types, there are certain resources that Terraform does not support. It would be great if it could support those resources as well."
"When a misconfiguration or drift occurs, fixing the issue can be difficult. For instance, if there is a change in API calls while a script is running, it can be challenging to make corrections. This may require additional review and modifications to the code. I recall an instance where an industry budget creation process was altered, and it took significant time to amend the code. In fact, I had to add five or six different script portions to resolve the issue."
"From a user's perspective, it would be great if a UI tool is made available in the open source version as well, but I don't think it may be introduced because of the high costs for it announced by HashiCorp in its licensed version...HashiCorp Terraform can improve backward compatibility."
AWS CloudFormation is ranked 8th in Configuration Management with 27 reviews while HashiCorp Terraform is ranked 7th in Configuration Management with 38 reviews. AWS CloudFormation is rated 8.2, while HashiCorp Terraform is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of AWS CloudFormation writes "Pretty easy setup with great automations for provisioning that save time and money". On the other hand, the top reviewer of HashiCorp Terraform writes "Easy to use, technically strong, and great for multi-provider or multi-cloud environments". AWS CloudFormation is most compared with AWS Systems Manager, Spring Cloud, Red Hat Satellite, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Microsoft Configuration Manager, whereas HashiCorp Terraform is most compared with Red Hat Satellite, SaltStack, Microsoft Configuration Manager, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and BMC TrueSight Server Automation. See our AWS CloudFormation vs. HashiCorp Terraform report.
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