We performed a comparison between AWS CloudFormation and Chef 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."The main advantage is that Intune performs its intended functions effectively."
"It is a helpful tool to manage BYOD policies."
"Its protection policies are most valuable. It protects mobile devices as well as individual apps. It is pretty scalable, and its documentation is also pretty good. It is also pretty straightforward to deploy."
"Intune's unified endpoint management platform is invaluable."
"The mobile application management, MAM, is the most useful aspect of the solution."
"The most valuable feature is the policy CSPs."
"We have found the solution is capable of scaling."
"The dashboards, the security, and the customization capabilities work very well for us."
"The reusability of the solution is valuable."
"Automations make it pretty easy to provision AWS, development, or deployment environments."
"CloudFormation itself is free to use. You will be charged for the resources you deploy using CloudFormation."
"The solution has helped with automation. I don't have to worry about provisioning machines and ensuring everything is set up. AWS CloudFormation takes care of the entire infrastructure for me."
"What I like best about AWS CloudFormation is that it is a quick and simple way to deploy various applications, like WordPress."
"The nested stacks would be one of the more valuable features."
"The most valuable feature of AWS CloudFormation is the simple tracking of infrastructure."
"AWS Cloud automation reduces the time needed to create AWS resources."
"The most valuable feature is automation."
"It is a well thought out product which integrates well with what developers and customers are looking for."
"I wanted to monitor a hybrid cloud environment, one using AWS and Azure. If I have to provision/orchestrate between multiple cloud platforms, I can use Chef as a one-stop solution, to broker between those cloud platforms and orchestrate around them, rather than going directly into each of the cloud-vendors' consoles."
"Chef is a great tool for an automation person who wants to do configuration management with infrastructure as a code."
"The product is useful for automating processes."
"Chef can be scaled as needed. The Chef server itself can scale but it depends on the available resources. You can upgrade specific resources to meet the demand. Similarly, with clients, you can add as many clients as you need. Again, this depends on the server resources. If the server has enough resources, it can handle the number of servers required to manage the infrastructure. Chef can be scaled to meet the needs of the infrastructure being managed."
"Chef recipes are easy to write and move across different servers and environments."
"Automation is everything. Having so many servers in production, many of our processes won't work nor scale. So, we look for tools to help us automate the process, and Chef is one of them."
"We would like to see support for Chrome and/or devices for Chromebooks."
"There can be some added features, such as an improved dashboard. Any new feature that could be a benefit to our customers would be good."
"It needs incorporation of Knox, ZeroTouch, etc."
"Intune's third-party patch management could be better. It should be easier for the average system admin to keep non-Microsoft applications updated."
"There are a lot of small use cases where we realized that some technical solution was missing in Microsoft in comparison to other products. For example, it lacks something similar to sensing or location-based rules and configurations."
"It would be good if, in addition to the minimal patching and compliance, we could also use Intune for application deployment. For instance, if a device is not patched, Intune should have the ability to push not only a Microsoft patch but also other patches, such as a browser patch."
"What would make this product better is adding more security policies and features in the next upgrade."
"I would like to see the ability to deploy custom packages as a Windows 64-bit package, as opposed to the Windows 32-bit, which is the only one available now."
"The speed of the replication process could improve. It can take some time to replicate that could use a speed increase."
"The solution must enable more hands-on designing of the templates."
"One area where AWS CloudFormation could improve is by offering more flexibility in creating custom templates."
"It would help all users if AWS improved the auto-generation of the CloudFormation file."
"Error-handling features can be improved."
"The conditions that can be added in AWS CloudFormation are not as powerful as any programming language."
"Including certain examples of templates would be advantageous."
"What could be improved in AWS CloudFormation is its user interface, in terms of graphical design, I prefer WYSIWYG."
"I would also like to see more analytics and reporting features. Currently, the analytics and reporting features are limited. I'll have to start building my own custom solution with Power BI or Tableau or something like that. If it came with built-in analytics and reporting features that would be great."
"Third-party innovations need improvement, and I would like to see more integration with other platforms."
"There appears to be no effort to fix the command line utility functionality, which is definitely broken, provides a false positive for a result when you perform the operation, and doesn't work."
"The agent on the server sometimes acts finicky."
"If only Chef were easier to use and code, it would be used much more widely by the community."
"The solution could improve in managing role-based access. This would be helpful."
"Since we are heading to IoT, this product should consider anything related to this."
"There is a slight barrier to entry if you are used to using Ansible, since it is Ruby-based."
AWS CloudFormation is ranked 8th in Configuration Management with 28 reviews while Chef is ranked 16th in Configuration Management with 18 reviews. AWS CloudFormation is rated 8.4, while Chef is rated 8.0. 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 Chef writes "Easy configuration management, optimization abilities, and complete infrastructure and application automation". AWS CloudFormation is most compared with AWS Systems Manager, Spring Cloud, Red Hat Satellite and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, whereas Chef is most compared with Jenkins, AWS Systems Manager, Microsoft Azure DevOps, Microsoft Configuration Manager and UrbanCode Deploy. See our AWS CloudFormation vs. Chef report.
See our list of best Configuration Management vendors.
We monitor all Configuration Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
