Proton

Introduction to AWS Proton

AWS Proton simplifies the deployment and management of modern applications by offering a managed platform for infrastructure and code.

AWS Proton is a fully managed application deployment service that automates infrastructure provisioning and code deployments for serverless and container-based applications. It helps platform teams define, provision, and manage self-service templates for developers, enforcing consistent standards and best practices.

Proton addresses the complexity of managing and maintaining consistent infrastructure and deployment pipelines for modern applications (microservices, serverless, containers). Without Proton, platform teams often build and maintain custom tools, leading to inconsistent environments, slow developer onboarding, and a heavy operational burden.

Proton acts as a critical enabler for DevSecOps by providing standardized, pre-approved infrastructure templates that embed security and operational best practices. This allows developers to deploy applications quickly while adhering to organizational policies, without needing deep infrastructure expertise.

The service is designed for platform engineers, DevOps teams, and application developers.

AWS Proton Components

Proton organizes infrastructure and application definitions into distinct components.

AWS Proton utilizes several key components to manage and automate application deployments:

Service Templates

CloudFormation templates or Terraform configurations defined by platform teams. These templates include all infrastructure resources (compute, networking, storage, monitoring, security) required for an application or microservice, standardizing infrastructure, enforcing best practices, and providing a self-service catalog for developers.

content: All infrastructure resources (compute, networking, storage, monitoring, security) required for an application or microservice.

purpose: Standardize infrastructure, enforce best practices, and provide a self-service catalog for developers.

versions: Templates can have multiple versions, allowing for controlled updates.

source: Stored in Git repositories.

Environment Templates

CloudFormation templates or Terraform configurations that define shared infrastructure resources like VPCs, load balancers, shared databases, and monitoring tools. They provide a baseline, shared environment for multiple services.

content: Resources like VPCs, load balancers, shared databases, monitoring tools.

purpose: Provide a baseline, shared environment for multiple services.

versions: Support multiple versions.

source: Stored in Git repositories.

Services

Instances of a service template deployed into an environment. These represent an application component (e.g., a microservice) where developers deploy their code.

definition: Instances of a service template deployed into an environment.

content: Represents an application component (e.g., a microservice).

purpose: Developers deploy their code into these pre-provisioned services.

Environments

Instances of an environment template, representing the actual deployed shared infrastructure that hosts multiple services in a consistent, managed way.

definition: Instances of an environment template.

content: The actual deployed shared infrastructure.

purpose: Host multiple services in a consistent, managed way.

Pipelines

Managed CI/CD pipelines for deploying services, typically leveraging AWS CodePipeline and integrating with CodeBuild and CodeDeploy. These pipelines automate code deployments, testing, and infrastructure updates, and can be defined within service templates.

definition: Managed CI/CD pipelines for deploying services.

content: Typically AWS CodePipeline, integrating with CodeBuild, CodeDeploy.

purpose: Automate code deployments, testing, and infrastructure updates.

integration: Can be defined within service templates.

How AWS Proton Works: The Workflow

procedure

The end-to-end process of using AWS Proton involves a collaboration between platform and development teams.

AWS Proton streamlines the application lifecycle from infrastructure definition to code deployment through a structured workflow.

1

Platform Team Creates Templates

💡 To standardize infrastructure and enforce best practices.

Platform team uses CloudFormation or Terraform to define 'Environment Templates' (e.g., shared VPC, ALB) and 'Service Templates' (e.g., Fargate service, Lambda function with associated resources). Stores these templates in a Git repository (e.g., AWS CodeCommit, GitHub) and registers them with AWS Proton.

2

Developer Selects and Customizes a Service

💡 To quickly deploy application components with pre-approved infrastructure.

Developer chooses an available 'Service Template' from the Proton catalog, provides application-specific parameters (e.g., repository URL, desired compute capacity), and submits a deployment request to Proton.

3

Proton Provisions Infrastructure and Deploys Code

💡 To automate the setup of underlying resources and application code deployment.

Proton provisions the underlying infrastructure for the service (e.g., ECS Fargate service, RDS database) based on the template, executes the CI/CD pipeline defined in the service template to deploy the application code, and continuously monitors the deployed service and its infrastructure.

4

Platform Team Manages Template Versions and Updates

💡 To maintain up-to-date and consistent infrastructure definitions across all services.

Platform team updates template versions in Git. Proton facilitates controlled rollout of these updates to existing services/environments and automatically detects and reports configuration drift between deployed instances and their templates.

AWS Proton Use Cases

AWS Proton is well-suited for several scenarios in cloud-native application development and operations.

Proton addresses inconsistent deployments and operational overhead often found with many microservices. Platform teams can define standard service templates for common microservice patterns (e.g., Fargate-based, Lambda-based), allowing developers to quickly deploy new microservices while ensuring consistency and adherence to best practices.

It helps overcome security gaps and non-compliance arising from manual deployments. By embedding security best practices, compliance controls, and monitoring configurations directly into Proton templates, it ensures all deployed applications meet organizational standards from the start.

Proton resolves challenges faced by new developers with complex infrastructure setup. It provides a self-service catalog of pre-approved templates, enabling developers to focus on writing code, significantly increasing productivity and reducing time-to-market.

It simplifies the difficult task of updating and maintaining many interdependent cloud-native applications. Proton facilitates controlled rollout of infrastructure updates and application code changes, leading to streamlined updates, reduced operational toil, and improved reliability.

AWS Proton Benefits

AWS Proton offers several advantages for organizations adopting cloud-native development.

Proton speeds up the development and deployment cycles for applications.

It ensures that deployments adhere to defined organizational consistency and best practices.

Proton minimizes the operational burden on platform and DevOps teams.

The service contributes to a stronger security and compliance stance by embedding controls in templates.

Proton empowers developers with self-service capabilities for infrastructure provisioning.

Learning Objectives