AWS Perspective

3 minute read | Last updated 2-Aug-2022 | An icon depicting a retail tag with a heart for 'favourite' AWS Cloud

AWS Labs has a lot of open source code up on GitHub. This repo helps you visualize your AWS workloads and highlight areas of cost.

AWS Perspective builds out a simple-ish solution that creates architecture diagrams of your current workloads.

I call out a few more details in the Twitter thread below…

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AWS Perspective sounds like a real service. sadly, it’s not. it is however another @awscloud Labs repo we’re taking a look at

this one is up at https://github.com/awslabs/aws-perspective

☁️ #cloud #devops

marknca @marknca tweeted at 17-Nov-2021, 18:03

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this thread is unrolled at https://t.co/4d3MidmVDs

you can read the last thread (on Amazon QuickSight embedding) at https://markn.ca/2021/amazon-quicksight-embedding-sdk/

☁️ #cloud #devops

marknca @marknca tweeted at 17-Nov-2021, 18:03

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so, AWS CloudFormation designer does something similar (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/working-with-templates-cfn-designer.html) but only for CFN templates

this solution just looks at the actual @awscloud resources running/created and visualizes theme, regardless of CFN status/linkage

☁️ #cloud #devops

marknca @marknca tweeted at 17-Nov-2021, 18:03

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it builds diagrams like this

☁️ #cloud #devops

marknca @marknca tweeted at 17-Nov-2021, 18:03

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as you can imagine, that’s very handy.

getting a visual layout of what’s running makes it a lot easier to;

understand your solutions
spot issues (potential & actual)
understand where costs are
talk about your workloads

☁️ #cloud #devops

marknca @marknca tweeted at 17-Nov-2021, 18:03

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honestly, the ability to show teams what you’re talking about might be THE top advantage of this project

that clear shared understanding of what’s out there and how they are connected is very valuable

☁️ #cloud #devops

marknca @marknca tweeted at 17-Nov-2021, 18:03

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this solution is quite mature and has a formal implementation guide up at https://docs.aws.amazon.com/solutions/latest/aws-perspective/welcome.html

this guide walks you through the step-by-step to get up and running and how to get the most from this project

☁️ #cloud #devops

marknca @marknca tweeted at 17-Nov-2021, 18:03

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one word of warning though, there’s a lot running in this solution. this is the default build

☁️ #cloud #devops

marknca @marknca tweeted at 17-Nov-2021, 18:03

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that’s pretty heavy. but if you’re building a lot in @awscloud, it could be worth it. these aren’t theoretical diagrams. they represent the reality of your environment

that’s a worthwhile investment!

/ ☁️ #cloud #devops

marknca @marknca tweeted at 17-Nov-2021, 18:03

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