Introduction

AWS CodeArtifact is a fully managed software artifact repository service. It is a fully managed software artifact repository service that makes it easy for organizations of any size to securely store, publish, and share packages used in their software development process. It eliminates the need for you to set up, operate, and scale the infrastructure required for artifact management so you can focus on software development. CodeArtifact allows fetching public packages securely in your VPC without going over the internet. 

Read on to see how this article describes in detail why you would need CodeArtifact, how it works, its advantages and a comparison of its alternatives. 

 Why use AWS CodeArtifact?

CodeArtifact eliminates the need for you to set up, operate, and scale the infrastructure required for artifact management so you can focus on software development. With CodeArtifact, you only pay for what you use and there are no license fees or upfront commitments.

 It works with commonly used package managers and build tools such as Java-based Maven and Gradle, JavaScript-based npm and yarn, Python-based pip and twine, making it easy to integrate CodeArtifact into your existing development workflows. CodeArtifact can be configured to automatically fetch software packages from public artifact repositories such as npm public registry, Maven Central, and Python Package Index (PyPI), ensuring teams have reliable access to the most up-to-date packages.

Developers can use AWS CodeArtifact to create centralized repositories for sharing software packages approved for use across their development teams. CodeArtifact’s integration with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) provides them with the ability to control who has access to the packages. Further, CodeArtifact’s support for AWS CloudTrail gives leaders visibility into which packages are in use and where, making it easy to identify packages that need to be updated or removed. CodeArtifact also supports encryption with AWS Key Management Service so customers can control the keys used to encrypt their packages.

How does CodeArtifact work?

To get started with AWS CodeArtifact, you will first need to create a domain for your organization, which will aggregate your repositories. 

Domains are used to perform the actual storage of packages and metadata, even though they will be consumed from a repository. 

From the CodeArtifact console, select Domains from the left-hand navigation panel, or instead create a domain as part of creating my first repository, by clicking Create repository.

Source: https://aws.amazon.com/

To add packages to a repository, configure a package manager such as npm or maven to use the repository endpoint (URL). You can then use the package manager to publish packages to the repository. 

You can also import open-source packages into a repository by configuring it with an external connection to a public repository such as npmjs, NuGet Gallery, Maven Central, or PyPI. 

You can make packages in one repository available to another repository in the same domain. To do this, configure one repository as an upstream of the other. All package versions available to the upstream repository are also available to the downstream repository. 

All packages that are available to the upstream repository through an external connection to a public repository are available to the downstream repository. 

What are some alternatives to AWS CodeArtifact?

Some of the alternatives of AWS CodeArtifact include;

fpm

It helps you build packages quickly and easily (Packages like RPM and DEB formats).

Conan

Install or build your own packages for any platform. Conan also allows you to run your own server easily from the command line.

Dist

Dist is a private docker container registry and a maven repository hosted in the cloud. It is fast, secure, reliable, with quality support. It runs its own purpose built CDN to ensure secure and fast access to your images and artifacts.

Packagist

Packagist aggregates public PHP packages installable with composer. It lets you find packages and lets Composer know where to get the code from. You can use Composer to manage your project or libraries’ dependencies.

Gemfury

Gemfury is a hosted service for private and custom packages to simplify deployment. Once you upload your packages and enable your Gemfury repository, you can securely deploy any package to any host. Your private RubyGems, Python packages, and NPM modules will be safe and within reach on Gemfury. Install them to any machine in minutes without worrying about running and securing your own private repository.

Summary

AWS CodeArtifact, a fully managed, software artifact repository service, makes it easy for businesses of any size to store, publish securely, and share software packages used in their software development process. It eliminates the need for you to set up, operate, and scale the infrastructure required for artifact management so you can focus on software development.