This kind of tool was sorely needed. I've used countless online diagraming tools with support for AWS icons and every one takes an unnecessarily long amount of time to get working. I ultimately settled on making my own diagrams in PowerPoint using the AWS PPT template. This tool is much easier to use and makes things look great without much effort.
Please don't dump time into making it mobile friendly. Nobody with any sense is trying to diagram their infrastructure from a mobile phone, so you may as well focus on higher value features. Preferably ones you can charge for so I'm not mourning the loss of this great tool in six month's time!
I hear you, but I at least want to make it work on tablet sizes for some quick editing or presentation, and for viewing the results on phones (probably no editing).
Some feedback: "In the delta of your current understanding and the reality of the cloud, lies cost savings and insight." This sentence was a little confusing. Maybe:
Cloudcraft make it easy and clear where your could is and where it could go.
Thank you, as a non-native English speaker this is extremely valuable feedback. I'll rework the text.
One idea is that could literally run a infrastructure diff of your architecture and your live environment, for example after a deployment or between two points in time: You may have resources left over by accident, or not captured in the design.
I like the delta sentence. It is artful. The only reason the intent is unclear is a lack of context. I didn't see anything else on the page that references difs or deltas.
I am looking forward to trying cloudcraft on Monday when I have to document a cluster of ec2 instances.
I must echo the other reply: the "delta" phrase communicates far more than the "simpler" rewording does, to the point where the simplified text reads as little more than meaningless marketing fluff. Perhaps it would be clearer to word it as "Between your current understanding ..." instead of "In the delta of your current understanding ..." But keep the rest the same; it's a beautiful sentence.
Or if we want to be picky: Cloudcraft allow you to dump your own understanding into a diagram, which may or may not be correct.
I was hoping from the article wording of a tool using some form of read only grant to amazon to draw the diagram for you, but this is just seems one step above dia.
I was thinking of offering features for larger teams like collaborative editing and sync with a live AWS environment as addons in the future if it proves popular.
Resizing the grid is one of the top next things (https://trello.com/b/mv14mX1U/cloudcraft-roadmap), but it also requires adding panning and zooming of the canvas itself so it's going to a take a little while.
How are you getting accurate pricing for AWS components? I know Amazon's Simple Calculator uses an undocumented pricing endpoint, but that endpoint could change and become inaccurate.
Pages like https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing use a JSONP request to get a big messy chunk of pricing data. I have parsed that, and serve it with a custom API that does the calculations from the Cloudcraft backend to the React-based frontend.
However, AWS just announced a proper pricing API! Check out https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-aws-price-list-api
This will make life much easier, it does however not yet cover all services, for example ElastiCache is still missing while Cloudcraft already serves pricing for it.
The visuals aren't 3D. The OP's mirrors AWS' own architecture diagrams in their guides and case studies. It's unfortunate CloudFormations Designer doesn't create visuals like the ones AWS' own designers use.
the 3d representation comes straight from the official "corporate" style used by Amazon. I think it's only logic for him to use that style, plus that perspective has the benefit of fitting more information in less space comparatively to a flat 2d diagram.
The grid and everything on it is custom made on top of HTML5 Canvas, that's probably 80% of the code, many of the elements are isometrically projected at runtime. The menus and dialogs are done using Material-UI (http://www.material-ui.com) and React.js
This is awesome. Wouldn't it be cool is this were wired up to an orchestration tool like Terraform to visualize TF states?
Another level would be container infrastructure. Our new project is Docker/Kubernetes so the AWS infrastructure mostly just vanilla resources. It would be fantastic to have a similar tool for the internals of our micro SOA.
BTW, I think it's key to stay clear of trying to become an orchestration/deployment tool in itself, but integrating with formats like CloudFormation and Terraform should be doable.
Terraform can generate graphs of your dependencies using the unix "dot" program. And then there is terraforming which can create terraform scripts from your existing infrastructure. So maybe if you can change terraform to output a file that cloudcraft can use. I'm not sure if has an import. I don't want to have to sign up just to play with it.
It scrolls down to the Pricing section where it says:
"Cloudcraft is entirely free to use! You can use it to create professional AWS visualizations and diagrams for any use, in both commercial and non-commercial projects.
"What you create is yours. We support and encourage you to export to Wikis, documentation, formal RFPs, posters on your team wall..."
FWIW react components are alerting :)
"Warning: Failed propType: Invalid prop `value` of type `string` supplied to `DropDownMenu`, expected `object`. Check the render method of `SelectField`."
The app is beautiful. The most important you hit right on target is the perspective. Visually this perspective allows the best understanding.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 128 ms ] threadhttps://aws.amazon.com/cloudformation/details/#designer
Here's an actual screenshot kindly posted by Jeff Barr of what the UI looks like https://twitter.com/jeffbarr/status/674357220847443968
Cloudcraft make it easy and clear where your could is and where it could go.
Something a little simpler and more direct.
One idea is that could literally run a infrastructure diff of your architecture and your live environment, for example after a deployment or between two points in time: You may have resources left over by accident, or not captured in the design.
I am looking forward to trying cloudcraft on Monday when I have to document a cluster of ec2 instances.
"Somewhere in the difference between your current understanding and the reality of the cloud, lies cost savings and insight."
I was hoping from the article wording of a tool using some form of read only grant to amazon to draw the diagram for you, but this is just seems one step above dia.
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／ ノ {_i＿_)
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Drawing diagrams is and will remain free.
The tool is awesome, btw! Thank you VERY MUCH.
However, AWS just announced a proper pricing API! Check out https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-aws-price-list-api This will make life much easier, it does however not yet cover all services, for example ElastiCache is still missing while Cloudcraft already serves pricing for it.
Would be awesome if it supported non-AWS (more generic) resources as well.
Another level would be container infrastructure. Our new project is Docker/Kubernetes so the AWS infrastructure mostly just vanilla resources. It would be fantastic to have a similar tool for the internals of our micro SOA.
Great job!
BTW, I think it's key to stay clear of trying to become an orchestration/deployment tool in itself, but integrating with formats like CloudFormation and Terraform should be doable.
"Cloudcraft is entirely free to use! You can use it to create professional AWS visualizations and diagrams for any use, in both commercial and non-commercial projects.
"What you create is yours. We support and encourage you to export to Wikis, documentation, formal RFPs, posters on your team wall..."
The app is beautiful. The most important you hit right on target is the perspective. Visually this perspective allows the best understanding.
Minor complaint. I couldn't find how to restart the tutorial.