AWS Backup Expands its Features: Resource Exclusion for AWS CloudFormation Stack

/ Tutorial

Introduction

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is committed to providing flexible, reliable, and cost-effective cloud computing solutions to businesses of all sizes. Among its wide range of services, the AWS Backup feature has been championing the cause of secure data backup and enhanced recovery process. In a bid to expand its esteemed services, AWS has recently launched the resource exclusion for AWS CloudFormation stack, which is available in all AWS regions where AWS Backup is offered. This feature allows users to conveniently exclude individual resources from backup plans.

In this comprehensive guide, we will discuss the benefits and technical aspects of implementing AWS Backup resource exclusion in conjunction with AWS CloudFormation stacks. We will also provide steps to get started with this feature using the AWS Backup console, API, or CLI, ensuring that you have a well-rounded understanding of its implementation and importance.

Table of Contents

What is AWS Backup

AWS Backup plays a crucial role in safeguarding your application data by providing a centralized service for automating the backup of data across the AWS services in the cloud and on-premises. It serves as a cost-effective, fully managed solution to simplify the backup process, offering scalability, automation, and compliance-friendly solutions to manage disaster recovery workflows more efficiently.

Understanding AWS CloudFormation

AWS CloudFormation provides an easy way to model and set up Amazon Web Services resources to save time when managing application-oriented tasks. With AWS CloudFormation, users can leverage programming languages or simple text files to design and provision their own application’s infrastructure in a safe, reliable, and repeatable manner.

AWS CloudFormation provides a common language for modeling and provisioning the AWS resources in your environment in a standardized and automated manner. In other words, you can describe your entire infrastructure explicitly in AWS CloudFormation templates (JSON or YAML files), then use those templates for reliable, repeatable deployments.

AWS Backup Resource Exclusion

Previously, AWS Backup worked by backing up an entire CloudFormation stack, but sometimes, not all resources within a stack require the same level of protection, leading to unnecessary expenditure on backup storage and making restorations more complex. In order to cater to this requirement, AWS introduced the resource exclusion feature for AWS CloudFormation.

The recent upgrade of AWS Backup Resource Exclusion for AWS CloudFormation provides a solution to this by allowing you to selectively exclude individual resources from the backup plan. With this feature, you can specifically define the resources in your stack that you don’t want to be included in the backup plan. This results in cost savings, simplicity, and more manageable restorations. This offering is currently available in all AWS Regions, providing a great option to AWS customers for efficient backup management.

How to Get Started

To integrate and use AWS Backup’s resource exclusion feature with AWS CloudFormation, you may use the AWS Backup console, API, or CLI.

Below are the general steps you will need to follow in order to implement this feature:

  1. Open the AWS Backup console
  2. Choose a backup plan or create one
  3. In the section ‘Backup Settings’, there are options to exclude the resources
  4. Enter the ARNs of the resources that need to be excluded
  5. Save your settings

For a more detailed and complete guide, visit the official AWS Backup documentation. Here, you will get step-by-step instructions along with important details about each process.

Practical Benefits

The AWS Backup resource exclusion for AWS CloudFormation yields several practical benefits:

  1. Flexibility: It gives organizations the flexibility to back up only the necessary resources in a CloudFormation stack, thereby optimizing resource management.

  2. Cost-Effective: By excluding unnecessary resources from the backup regime, you can save on storage costs significantly.

  3. Simpler Recovery: By maintaining lean backup storage, restorations become more straightforward and less time-consuming.

  4. Scalability: It offers scalable solutions, thus helping enterprises adjust their backup strategy efficiently with changing requirements.

Use Cases

Here are few use cases of AWS Backup resource exclusion for AWS CloudFormation stacks.

  1. Financial Organizations: Finance-based organizations have mixed needs when it comes to process criticality and data sensitivity. Some data changes frequently and should be backed up often, while other data sets don’t need backing up. These organizations can benefit greatly from resource exclusion, backing up sensitive data while bypassing non-critical data.

  2. Healthcare Institutions: Healthcare organizations have massive databases of health records, personal data, etc. Using AWS Backup resource exclusion, administrators will be able to sort through data critical for backup and avoid unnecessary expenditures on heavy data loads.

Conclusion

As AWS continues to refine and expand its services, AWS Backup’s resource exclusion for AWS CloudFormation stacks is a significant step towards providing customers with more control over their backup strategies. It is an essential tool for any company looking to optimize data management efficiently. It not only simplifies the backup process but also makes it cost-effective for businesses across the board.

In case you have queries or want to explore more about this service, refer to the official AWS documentation or reach out to the AWS community for expert guidance.

Remember, the optimal usage and setup of this feature depend largely on an organization’s specific needs and existing infrastructure. Start today, make your backup processes more efficient and cost-effective, ensuring your AWS data and applications are secure and recoverable.