New AWS CloudFormation Stack task actions for change sets

Use the AWS CloudFormation Stack task in Bamboo to create, execute and delete AWS CloudFormation change sets:

You can now view change sets before updating your stacks in AWS CloudFormation. This helps you understand the resource-level changes (e.g. adding, deleting, or modifying instances) which CloudFormation will apply to your live stack when you are updating your AWS infrastructure. Previously, you could not see the specific changes that CloudFormation would apply to your stack before submitting changes.
You can create one or multiple change sets for your existing stack by submitting a modified template, new parameter values (e.g. the instance type for your EC2 instances), or both. The change set will display a list of proposed changes, such as which resources CloudFormation will add, modify, or delete. You can then instruct CloudFormation to implement the changes to your stack.

Continuous Delivery approval workflows

The introductory blog post also emphasizes the main use case for Continuous Delivery with Bamboo and Tasks for AWS:

“In addition to additional insight into potential changes, this new model also opens the door to additional control over updates. You can use IAM to control access to specific CloudFormation functions such as UpdateStack, CreateChangeSet, DescribeChangeSet, and ExecuteChangeSet. You could allow a large group developers to create and preview change sets, and restrict execution to a smaller and more experienced group. With some additional automation, you could raise alerts or seek additional approvals for changes to key resources such as database servers or networks.”