Hacktoberfest Update: Microtica open-source components
Tags: hacktoberfest, showdev, opensource, devops
Published: 2020-10-08 11:23:16

As an update to our [Hacktoberfest announcement](https://dev.to/microtica/microtica-the-devops-automation-platform-with-open-source-components-2gdh), where we are calling devs to contribute to our open-source infrastructure components, we wanted to explain what these components represent and how to contribute. 

# Open-source components

One of the core concepts in [Microtica](https://microtica.com/) is infrastructure components that allow developers to create and release their cloud infrastructure in a standardized way. Components can be packaged, deployed, and combined with each other to build complex solutions. Once the component is created, it can be reused in any number of projects and environments. 

The basis of the component is an **AWS CloudFormation template**. Provisioning of infrastructure on AWS is simplified by AWS CloudFormation. It helps you create templates for the service or application architectures you need. These templates can be used by AWS CloudFormation for quick and reliable provisioning of services or applications. 

You can use the [AWS CloudFormation sample templates](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/cfn-sample-templates.html) as a starting point for creating your own. They demonstrate how you can create templates for various uses. For example, one sample template describes a website with a custom DNS name, hosted on Amazon S3, and served via Amazon CloudFront.

*On top of this functionality, Microtica adds additional values:*
- much easier to distribute on different cloud accounts and regions
- integrated with the powerful Microtica Pipelines
- optimized for promotion from one to another environment (dev -> test -> production)
- self-contained. Pipeline definition, validation schema and infrastructure templates all in one package which makes the distribution of the infrastructure much easier

Microtica already provides the following open-source components:
- [Serverless MySql](https://github.com/microtica-components/component-aws-serverless-mysql)
- [AWS EKS](https://github.com/microtica-components/component-aws-eks)
- [AWS Elasticache] (https://github.com/microtica-components/component-aws-elasticache)
- [AWS VPC](https://github.com/microtica-components/component-aws-vpc)
- [AWS DynamoDB](https://github.com/microtica-components/component-aws-dynamodb)
- [AWS S3](https://github.com/microtica-components/component-aws-s3)

You can take a look and get familiarized with the concept. We are constantly growing the catalog of open-source components that are provided as ready-to-use in Microtica. 

The idea behind creating **open-source components** is to provide developers with reusable pieces of cloud infrastructure that require NO additional coding. 

By contributing to this project you help developers around the world to quickly start building their solutions in the cloud.

You can contribute by committing your created CloudFormation templates that represent a reusable cloud infrastructure. After we review and test these templates, the ones that are accepted will be published and available in the [Microtica portal](http://portal.microtica.com/) **for free usage**.

You can refer to our [GitHub repository](https://github.com/microtica-components/mic-cloudformation-hub) if you’d like to be a contributor to our mission of making cloud development accessible to all developers. 

# Happy coding ❤︎