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Based on the comments on this thread: Amazon has a real problem if even the HN audience can't easily figure out what a new service is. I actually didn't get i

Based on the comments on this thread: Amazon has a real problem if even the HN audience can't easily figure out what a new service is. I actually didn't get it either, and came to the comments for help.

oh_sigh 6y ago
Literally the first sentence on the site is "AWS Proton is the first fully managed application deployment service for container and serverless applications. Platform engineering teams can use Proton to connect and coordinate all the different tools needed for infrastructure provisioning, code deployments, monitoring, and updates." That seems fairly clear to me. What am I missing?
- shortstuffsushi 6y ago
  It's fully managed (meaning Amazon maintains it?) application deployment service (so, like CodeDeploy?) for container and serverless (again, CodeDeploy?). It allows you to connect and coordinate (?) all the different tools. I use AWS, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CloudFormation, Terraform, CloudWatch, etc. I don't understand from these two sentences where this falls into this, or if it's somehow meant to sit on top of it, etc. Like the GP, I came to this thread to see an explanation of what this actually means.
- jatsign 6y ago
  Perhaps it's just confusing to people like me, who don't work on "platform engineering teams". The sentence is just too packed with terms I have no analogy for. The best analogy I came up with is "It's like kubernetes and jenkins had a baby."
  - loxias 6y ago
    Nah, I worked on a "platform engineering team"/DevOps for a year and I have no idea what this service does or what it's for. I have a vague inkling, like I could make a guess, but even thinking about that makes my head hurt. Probably relevant tho is that I left after a year and am no longer doing DevOps because C/C++ low level mathy or systems oriented coding is fun, and actually makes sense to me. :)
  - oh_sigh 6y ago
    I don't really see the problem with that - you probably aren't the target audience. Good tools will frequently be specialized. You could probably understand the initial blurb for React or some library in whatever your speciality is that may just be confusing to a "platform engineer".
- kempbellt 6y ago
  Literally nothing in that sentence explains what Proton really does, how people will use it, or what problem it solves. What "different tools"? What kind of "infrastructure provisioning"? Code deployments from where, and to what? Monitoring of what? Updates to code, to the infrastructure, to tooling, or something else? Is it an abstraction service that manages CodeDeploy, EKS, and CF underneath? Is it something completely new? It is very fluffy language that tries to make Proton sound awesome, but explains absolutely nothing about what it actually does without any context.
  - oh_sigh 6y ago
    Can the first sentence of anything ever answer those kinds of questions? The first sentence gives a fairly clear high level overview of what it does. You can continue reading to find out more specifics. I feel who have responded to my initial comment want the first sentence to be completely understandable by a layman, but simultaneously technically detailed. Those two goals are frequently mutually exclusive in a short piece of text.
    - kempbellt 6y ago
      "AWS Proton: A one-stop-shop for managing your CodeDeploy, EKS, and CloudFormation and Lambda assets - providing a single place to monitor the state of your infrastructure and role out updates to your code" ^ understandable (or at least Googleable) by a layman. And it includes at least some technical detail that paint a picture of what the service actually does (if it does this). To answer your question bluntly: Yes, it is possible to be much more descriptive and still simple with an opener. As it currently stands, I had to go to the FAQ to see an off-handed note about CloudFormation. No other services, tools, or technologies are specified. I'm just guessing by the buzzwords used to describe the service.
      - jfengel 6y ago
        As a professional developer with a very passing familiarity with AWS, that version is still unclear to me. Lambda is the only one I'm familiar with. I can guess something about CodeDeploy. CloudFormation has always been unclear to me, and a quick Google suggests that it overlaps with Kubernetes. That's OK; I just read this as "not for me". Every time I touch AWS, I get the impression that it's for large-scale deployments of stuff that's way out of my hobbyist league. I'm sure I could get it if I put my mind to it, but I'm just as happy that I don't have to.
- swirepe 6y ago
  >Platform engineering teams can use Proton to connect and coordinate all the different tools needed for infrastructure provisioning, code deployments, monitoring, and updates. It's a monoid in the category of endofunctors.
- splix 6y ago
  Hm, so, guessing from the description, it's like a new Slack, right? like a chat but for devops people somehow?
- zainuahmed 6y ago
  Reading this I think Proton == Waypoint for AWS services only. Still a lot of work to manage infra and cobble everything together and geared more towards platform teams at larger companies vs. everyday developers and startups.

oh_sigh 6y ago

Literally the first sentence on the site is "AWS Proton is the first fully managed application deployment service for container and serverless applications. Platform engineering teams can use Proton to connect and coordinate all the different tools needed for infrastructure provisioning, code deployments, monitoring, and updates." That seems fairly clear to me. What am I missing?

shortstuffsushi 6y ago
It's fully managed (meaning Amazon maintains it?) application deployment service (so, like CodeDeploy?) for container and serverless (again, CodeDeploy?). It allows you to connect and coordinate (?) all the different tools. I use AWS, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CloudFormation, Terraform, CloudWatch, etc. I don't understand from these two sentences where this falls into this, or if it's somehow meant to sit on top of it, etc. Like the GP, I came to this thread to see an explanation of what this actually means.
jatsign 6y ago
Perhaps it's just confusing to people like me, who don't work on "platform engineering teams". The sentence is just too packed with terms I have no analogy for. The best analogy I came up with is "It's like kubernetes and jenkins had a baby."
- loxias 6y ago
  Nah, I worked on a "platform engineering team"/DevOps for a year and I have no idea what this service does or what it's for. I have a vague inkling, like I could make a guess, but even thinking about that makes my head hurt. Probably relevant tho is that I left after a year and am no longer doing DevOps because C/C++ low level mathy or systems oriented coding is fun, and actually makes sense to me. :)
- oh_sigh 6y ago
  I don't really see the problem with that - you probably aren't the target audience. Good tools will frequently be specialized. You could probably understand the initial blurb for React or some library in whatever your speciality is that may just be confusing to a "platform engineer".
kempbellt 6y ago
Literally nothing in that sentence explains what Proton really does, how people will use it, or what problem it solves. What "different tools"? What kind of "infrastructure provisioning"? Code deployments from where, and to what? Monitoring of what? Updates to code, to the infrastructure, to tooling, or something else? Is it an abstraction service that manages CodeDeploy, EKS, and CF underneath? Is it something completely new? It is very fluffy language that tries to make Proton sound awesome, but explains absolutely nothing about what it actually does without any context.
- oh_sigh 6y ago
  Can the first sentence of anything ever answer those kinds of questions? The first sentence gives a fairly clear high level overview of what it does. You can continue reading to find out more specifics. I feel who have responded to my initial comment want the first sentence to be completely understandable by a layman, but simultaneously technically detailed. Those two goals are frequently mutually exclusive in a short piece of text.
  - kempbellt 6y ago
    "AWS Proton: A one-stop-shop for managing your CodeDeploy, EKS, and CloudFormation and Lambda assets - providing a single place to monitor the state of your infrastructure and role out updates to your code" ^ understandable (or at least Googleable) by a layman. And it includes at least some technical detail that paint a picture of what the service actually does (if it does this). To answer your question bluntly: Yes, it is possible to be much more descriptive and still simple with an opener. As it currently stands, I had to go to the FAQ to see an off-handed note about CloudFormation. No other services, tools, or technologies are specified. I'm just guessing by the buzzwords used to describe the service.
    - jfengel 6y ago
      As a professional developer with a very passing familiarity with AWS, that version is still unclear to me. Lambda is the only one I'm familiar with. I can guess something about CodeDeploy. CloudFormation has always been unclear to me, and a quick Google suggests that it overlaps with Kubernetes. That's OK; I just read this as "not for me". Every time I touch AWS, I get the impression that it's for large-scale deployments of stuff that's way out of my hobbyist league. I'm sure I could get it if I put my mind to it, but I'm just as happy that I don't have to.
swirepe 6y ago
>Platform engineering teams can use Proton to connect and coordinate all the different tools needed for infrastructure provisioning, code deployments, monitoring, and updates. It's a monoid in the category of endofunctors.
splix 6y ago
Hm, so, guessing from the description, it's like a new Slack, right? like a chat but for devops people somehow?
zainuahmed 6y ago
Reading this I think Proton == Waypoint for AWS services only. Still a lot of work to manage infra and cobble everything together and geared more towards platform teams at larger companies vs. everyday developers and startups.