AWS releases private cloud cookbook

Amazon Web Services has released a tool that lets people create a recipe for a Virtual Private Cloud from a single template file.

The upgrade, which lets developers use a CloudFormation template file to describe a set of EC2 resources and their supporting infrastructure, cuts the steps it takes to design and launch a private cloud system on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, the company announced in a blog post on Wednesday.

"CloudFormation allows you to separate the network and VPC configuration from the resources needed to run an application," Jeff Barr, a senior manager for cloud computing at Amazon, wrote.

Virtual Private Cloud came to Europe in 2010. The technology is designed to bridge private datacentres and the company's public cloud.

The templates can be worked on by multiple people, so an administrator could define the network topology, then check the template in and an application developer could add in the specific AWS resources, Barr said.

The CloudFormation upgrade marks another step by Amazon into the enterprise, as the cloud computing giant seeks to make it easier for companies to locate their data within its IT infrastructure.

CloudFormation was launched in February, 2011.