6 ms·

Show HN: Cloud Maker – Rapidly create cloud architecture diagrams

123 points by t4l0s 7y ago

t4l0s 7y ago
We’re building a visual design platform for cloud infrastructure. We’ve just released our public preview which allows you to diagram solutions for AWS, Azure and GCP for free. Included out of the box are the latest icons for each platform and we offer a streamlined experience for creating cloud infrastructure diagrams versus generic drawing tools. We’d love to hear your feedback!
- zarmin 7y ago
  I've always wanted a infrastructure diagram tool that would actually create the architecture using my AWS account. How feasible is that?
  - arkadiyt 7y ago
    cloudcraft.co supports this (on their paid plan), and there are also some open source tools like cloudmapper (only for AWS): https://github.com/duo-labs/cloudmapper https://github.com/duo-labs/cloudmapper
  - t4l0s 7y ago
    We're currently working hard on exactly this feature :)
  - PeterBarrett 7y ago
    There is also cloundcraft.co [1] which I have been using for a year or so now and would recommend. 1. https://cloudcraft.co/ https://cloudcraft.co/
    - jhabdas 7y ago
      CloudCraft is quite nice, I first saw it used here [^1]. Seeing diagrams drawn out in perspective is extremely useful. [1]: https://serifandsemaphore.io/how-to-host-wordpress-like-a-boss-b5993fcfbd8e https://serifandsemaphore.io/how-to-host-wordpress-like-a-bo...
  - crucialfelix 7y ago
    AWS has one, though I found it too clunky to actually use https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/working-with-templates-cfn-designer-overview.html https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGui...
- trdtaylor1 7y ago
  1. Examples. 5+. Draw in a user. 2. On prem installs need to be fully creatable. Draw in smaller users. 'Azure' can be on self hosted on prem. Small and medium businesses dwarf large businesses for new Azure sales.
- phoenix24 7y ago
  congratulations on the launch!
arkadiyt 7y ago
Gave it a try. Here's my feedback in no particular order: - I couldn't get into my account to start playing around for a while because your email verification is flagged as spam - Basic resources like AWS Security Groups are missing. The product seems to heavily lean towards Azure - I like that you provide an infinite grid for free (cloudcraft only has this on their paid plan) - I don't like the clutter of having all the Azure/GCP/AWS resources grouped by type ("Compute", "Databases", etc). 99% of companies are single-cloud and it would be more convenient if I could filter down to just AWS - Lots of UI buttons are missing tooltips - I have no idea what your icons mean - There's no account editing, you can't change your password & there's no 2fa support
- softwarelimits 7y ago
  > I don't like the clutter of having all the Azure/GCP/AWS resources grouped by type ("Compute", "Databases", etc). 99% of companies are single-cloud and it would be more convenient if I could filter down to just AWS But it would be very cool to have details abstracted in a way that it would be easier to build architectures for several cloud providers with one diagram.
  - andyfleming 7y ago
    Or a “generic cloud” set
  - jcims 7y ago
    This sounds great in theory but I would be interested to see if anyone has successfully abstracted the provider out if their architecture. In my experience the only way to do this is to limit your service to leveraging the lowest common features of services that are common to each privider.
    - 420codebro 7y ago
      It’s a fairy tale.
    - thawkins 7y ago
robot 7y ago
I think this is an idea with great potential. Making it work seamlessly would be a challenge. For example: Elastic Beanstalk for NodeJS gives you a good starting point for a web backend. However, I had to hand-edit the EBS environment configurations to add Redis, Postgres, force HTTPS, and so on. I'd love to add a CI/CD pipeline when I find the time. Could I do these with your tool? Probably not today. It would be awesome to be able to drag and drop gateways, firewalls, set in/out ports. Conceptually this is all one should need to get an EBS set up.
- t4l0s 7y ago
  That's the plan - the next feature we're working on will allow you to deploy the architecture you've defined in your diagram.
alephnan 7y ago
Cloud providers should auto-generate these kinds of graphs and make this available as part of their Web UI.
- social_quotient 7y ago
  Agreed. In AWS for example you can add name/tags to things. Would be cool if it could import all of the stuff like “Name:project” and then attempt to flow it out. It could also read firewall and port settings to determine what’s public facing. Maybe as an added value it could scan related s3 buckets and try to visualize their settings as well. You could more easily see that buckets are u intentionally public or not. Cool ideas!
- ForHackernews 7y ago
  I'm sure they will, if it looks like 3rd party services are making money at it. This is the problem with building your product on one of these platforms: you're just doing their market research for them for free.
  - twistiti 7y ago
    Or maybe even offer to acquire you?
easytiger 7y ago
When i click "Sign Up Free", you go to a page that only has "Sign In" options. You then have to click (i did in a UI bruteforcing attempt) "Sign In with Email" to find a tiny font saying "Do you need an account" It's like you are trying to hide email sign ups.
- t4l0s 7y ago
  Thanks for the feedback - will take a look at improving the UX on that user journey!
ollybee 7y ago
This Seems similar to https://www.happi.io https://www.happi.io
sjbase 7y ago
Feature request: automatically generate architecture diagrams from Terraform (or other 'infrastructure-as-code') files.
- t4l0s 7y ago
  Really appreciate the feedback - that's on our backlog!
- OJFord 7y ago
  You may be aware (and I understand that it's noiser than 'architecture diagram') but terraform can output for graphviz. I believe I've read AWS can too, so if you're 100% on AWS that's probably pretty close to what you'd want.
nodesocket 7y ago
I am fan of CloudCraft which has some awesome AWS specific features such as importing resources from AWS, cost reports, and auto-syncing resources. Adding Google Cloud is a heavily requested feature which I am sure they are working on. How does Cloud Maker differ, stack-up to CloudCraft?
- nivertech 7y ago
  Does CloudCraft allows generation of CloudFormation or terraform templates from the diagram?
gitgud 7y ago
A lot of these architecture diagram tools have been popping up lately. Seems like something that could be generated from accessing each of the cloud providers right?
andreareina 7y ago
Requiring a signup for a free trial of something that doesn't inherently need an account pretty much instantly turns me off.
novaleaf 7y ago
what about the other way around? Generate a diagram from your existing cloud (and then maybe tweak the diagram then round-trip it)
PanMan 7y ago
I was excited about this, as I need to update our architecture diagrams. However, first feedback: * Heroku didn't return anything in the search * AWS API gateway neither. * ok, I'll start from our webserver (on heroku). No general webserver icon either. * I'll start with the DB. No generic DB icon. MariaDB only for Azure.. So far, all my starting points are dead ends. I could work partially around them by selecting other services (mariaDb does exist as a Azure service), but that feels ugly/hacky..

123 points by t4l0s 7y ago

We’re building a visual design platform for cloud infrastructure. We’ve just released our public preview which allows you to diagram solutions for AWS, Azure and GCP for free. Included out of the box are the latest icons for each platform and we offer a streamlined experience for creating cloud infrastructure diagrams versus generic drawing tools. We’d love to hear your feedback!

zarmin 7y ago
I've always wanted a infrastructure diagram tool that would actually create the architecture using my AWS account. How feasible is that?
- arkadiyt 7y ago
  cloudcraft.co supports this (on their paid plan), and there are also some open source tools like cloudmapper (only for AWS): https://github.com/duo-labs/cloudmapper https://github.com/duo-labs/cloudmapper
- t4l0s 7y ago
  We're currently working hard on exactly this feature :)
- PeterBarrett 7y ago
  There is also cloundcraft.co [1] which I have been using for a year or so now and would recommend. 1. https://cloudcraft.co/ https://cloudcraft.co/
  - jhabdas 7y ago
    CloudCraft is quite nice, I first saw it used here [^1]. Seeing diagrams drawn out in perspective is extremely useful. [1]: https://serifandsemaphore.io/how-to-host-wordpress-like-a-boss-b5993fcfbd8e https://serifandsemaphore.io/how-to-host-wordpress-like-a-bo...
- crucialfelix 7y ago
  AWS has one, though I found it too clunky to actually use https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/working-with-templates-cfn-designer-overview.html https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGui...
trdtaylor1 7y ago
1. Examples. 5+. Draw in a user. 2. On prem installs need to be fully creatable. Draw in smaller users. 'Azure' can be on self hosted on prem. Small and medium businesses dwarf large businesses for new Azure sales.
phoenix24 7y ago
congratulations on the launch!

arkadiyt 7y ago

Gave it a try. Here's my feedback in no particular order: - I couldn't get into my account to start playing around for a while because your email verification is flagged as spam - Basic resources like AWS Security Groups are missing. The product seems to heavily lean towards Azure - I like that you provide an infinite grid for free (cloudcraft only has this on their paid plan) - I don't like the clutter of having all the Azure/GCP/AWS resources grouped by type ("Compute", "Databases", etc). 99% of companies are single-cloud and it would be more convenient if I could filter down to just AWS - Lots of UI buttons are missing tooltips - I have no idea what your icons mean - There's no account editing, you can't change your password & there's no 2fa support

softwarelimits 7y ago
> I don't like the clutter of having all the Azure/GCP/AWS resources grouped by type ("Compute", "Databases", etc). 99% of companies are single-cloud and it would be more convenient if I could filter down to just AWS But it would be very cool to have details abstracted in a way that it would be easier to build architectures for several cloud providers with one diagram.
- andyfleming 7y ago
  Or a “generic cloud” set
- jcims 7y ago
  This sounds great in theory but I would be interested to see if anyone has successfully abstracted the provider out if their architecture. In my experience the only way to do this is to limit your service to leveraging the lowest common features of services that are common to each privider.
  - 420codebro 7y ago
    It’s a fairy tale.
  - thawkins 7y ago

robot 7y ago

I think this is an idea with great potential. Making it work seamlessly would be a challenge. For example: Elastic Beanstalk for NodeJS gives you a good starting point for a web backend. However, I had to hand-edit the EBS environment configurations to add Redis, Postgres, force HTTPS, and so on. I'd love to add a CI/CD pipeline when I find the time. Could I do these with your tool? Probably not today. It would be awesome to be able to drag and drop gateways, firewalls, set in/out ports. Conceptually this is all one should need to get an EBS set up.

t4l0s 7y ago
That's the plan - the next feature we're working on will allow you to deploy the architecture you've defined in your diagram.

alephnan 7y ago

Cloud providers should auto-generate these kinds of graphs and make this available as part of their Web UI.

social_quotient 7y ago
Agreed. In AWS for example you can add name/tags to things. Would be cool if it could import all of the stuff like “Name:project” and then attempt to flow it out. It could also read firewall and port settings to determine what’s public facing. Maybe as an added value it could scan related s3 buckets and try to visualize their settings as well. You could more easily see that buckets are u intentionally public or not. Cool ideas!
ForHackernews 7y ago
I'm sure they will, if it looks like 3rd party services are making money at it. This is the problem with building your product on one of these platforms: you're just doing their market research for them for free.
- twistiti 7y ago
  Or maybe even offer to acquire you?

easytiger 7y ago

When i click "Sign Up Free", you go to a page that only has "Sign In" options. You then have to click (i did in a UI bruteforcing attempt) "Sign In with Email" to find a tiny font saying "Do you need an account" It's like you are trying to hide email sign ups.

t4l0s 7y ago
Thanks for the feedback - will take a look at improving the UX on that user journey!

ollybee 7y ago

This Seems similar to https://www.happi.io https://www.happi.io

sjbase 7y ago

Feature request: automatically generate architecture diagrams from Terraform (or other 'infrastructure-as-code') files.

t4l0s 7y ago
Really appreciate the feedback - that's on our backlog!
OJFord 7y ago
You may be aware (and I understand that it's noiser than 'architecture diagram') but terraform can output for graphviz. I believe I've read AWS can too, so if you're 100% on AWS that's probably pretty close to what you'd want.

nodesocket 7y ago

I am fan of CloudCraft which has some awesome AWS specific features such as importing resources from AWS, cost reports, and auto-syncing resources. Adding Google Cloud is a heavily requested feature which I am sure they are working on. How does Cloud Maker differ, stack-up to CloudCraft?

nivertech 7y ago
Does CloudCraft allows generation of CloudFormation or terraform templates from the diagram?

gitgud 7y ago

A lot of these architecture diagram tools have been popping up lately. Seems like something that could be generated from accessing each of the cloud providers right?

andreareina 7y ago

Requiring a signup for a free trial of something that doesn't inherently need an account pretty much instantly turns me off.

novaleaf 7y ago

what about the other way around? Generate a diagram from your existing cloud (and then maybe tweak the diagram then round-trip it)

PanMan 7y ago

I was excited about this, as I need to update our architecture diagrams. However, first feedback: * Heroku didn't return anything in the search * AWS API gateway neither. * ok, I'll start from our webserver (on heroku). No general webserver icon either. * I'll start with the DB. No generic DB icon. MariaDB only for Azure.. So far, all my starting points are dead ends. I could work partially around them by selecting other services (mariaDb does exist as a Azure service), but that feels ugly/hacky..