Imagine writing your cloud infrastructure in a file - YAML or JSON - and then having a service create, update and remove all components in the correct order. That’s exactly what AWS CloudFormation does. You describe what you want (virtual machines, databases, networks, etc.) and CloudFormation handles the rest.

This gives you infrastructure-as-code (IaC), meaning you can version, test and reuse your configurations like regular code. The service manages dependencies, performs rollbacks on failure, and makes it easier to create identical environments across accounts or regions.

For technically minded users: CloudFormation saves you from clicking around the console and lets you work declaratively. You get a “stack” representing the entire infrastructure and can update it by changing your template and redeploying. It’s a smart tool for keeping cloud environments organized, especially as complexity grows.