Difference between SAM template and Cloudformation template

amazon-web-services aws-lambda amazon-cloudformation serverless-framework
Schleir picture Schleir · May 2, 2018 · Viewed 7.9k times · Source

I'm finding it hard to understand the difference between SAM template and Cloudformation template. I know that SAM template can be used to define Serverless Applications like Lambda, but how does that make it different from Cloudformation template? Is the syntax different? I can still specify the Lambda definitions in cloudformation template. So, my question is why should I care about SAM? Won't knowing about just cloud formation template be sufficient?

Answer

Luis Colon picture Luis Colon · May 2, 2018

From CloudFormation's perspective, SAM is a transform. Meaning: SAM templates are syntactically equivalent, but they allow you to define your serverless app with more brevity. The SAM template eventually gets expanded into full CFN behind the scenes. If you already know CFN, but want to write less YAML code, SAM may be beneficial to you. The idea is to reduce your effort.

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