Using snapshots is one way that companies would prep their deployments prior to Docker. It works, but the process is not as efficient or cost effective.
- Speed: Launching a new Amazon instance is a lot slower than launching a Docker container (Time=$)
- Cost: Extra AWS cost in storing your snapshots.
- Maintainability: Using snapshots for this type of process takes too much time to maintain. Every time you need to make a change, your going to have to launch a new instance, make your changes, then create a new snapshot - When you create a new snapshot, you’ll need to update your deployment tools to use the new AMI ID. It’s not so bad when it’s only one or two, but dozens/hundreds…
- Code creep: It’s hard to track the changes you’ve made to your snapshots. Especially if there is more than one admin making changes over several months/years.