What is AWS AppConfig?
AWS AppConfig is a capability of AWS Systems Manager that helps you safely change application behavior in production without redeploying code. Using feature flags and dynamic free-form configurations, you control how your application runs in real time.
You can gradually roll out new features to specific users, monitor their impact, and expand availability with confidence. Block lists, allow lists, throttling limits, and logging levels can be updated instantly without a deployment.
Core Features
- Feature flags: Controlled release of new capabilities to targeted users, with instant rollback if issues occur
- Free-form configurations: Store and retrieve arbitrary configuration data and update it without redeploying code
- Validators: Ensure that configuration data is syntactically and semantically correct before deployment
- Deployment strategies: Gradually roll out changes over a defined period of time
- Automatic rollback: Amazon CloudWatch integration rolls a configuration change back automatically when an alarm triggers
- Experimentation: A/B tests and gradual rollouts using production traffic, integrated into existing feature flag workflows
Typical Use Cases
Trunk-based development: Ship code that remains hidden from users until you are ready to release it, removing the need for long-lived branches and complex merges.
Operational tuning: Adjust logging levels, throttling limits, or service limits in production without redeploying.
Allow and block lists: Control access to features or restrict specific users in real time, without modifying application code.
Centralized configuration storage: Manage configuration data consistently across workloads, including data held in S3, Secrets Manager, or Parameter Store.
Benefits
- Change production behaviour without a new deployment
- Layered safety through validation, gradual rollout, and automatic rollback
- Fine-grained access control via IAM, encryption via AWS KMS, and auditing via AWS CloudTrail
- The AppConfig Agent supports EC2, Lambda, Amazon ECS, and Amazon EKS
- Available in several EU regions
Integration with innFactory
As an AWS Reseller, innFactory supports you with AWS AppConfig: introducing feature flags into existing applications, designing deployment strategies and CloudWatch alarms for automatic rollback, integrating the AppConfig Agent into ECS, EKS, and Lambda environments, and optimizing cost through caching.
Typical Use Cases
Technical Specifications
Frequently Asked Questions
What does AWS AppConfig do?
According to the documentation, AWS AppConfig helps you safely change application behavior in production without redeploying code. Using feature flags and dynamic free-form configurations, you control how your application runs in real time.
How does AppConfig prevent faulty configurations?
AppConfig provides three safety mechanisms: validators ensure configuration data is syntactically and semantically correct before deployment, deployment strategies roll changes out gradually over a defined period, and the Amazon CloudWatch integration automatically rolls a change back if an alarm triggers.
Which configuration sources are supported?
AWS AppConfig can deploy configuration from the AWS AppConfig hosted configuration store, AWS Secrets Manager, Systems Manager Parameter Store, or Amazon S3.
How do applications retrieve the configuration?
The recommended path is the AWS AppConfig Agent, which caches the deployed configuration and exposes it through a local endpoint. Alternatively, the application calls the StartConfigurationSession and GetLatestConfiguration APIs directly. Each retrieval is a metered event.
What does AWS AppConfig cost?
Pricing is pay-as-you-go based on configuration data and feature flag retrieval. AWS recommends using the AppConfig Agent to help optimize costs. Rates are published on the AWS Systems Manager pricing page.
Note: All product information on this page has been compiled with care, but is provided without guarantee and may be outdated or incomplete. Cloud services evolve rapidly — features, pricing, SLAs, and availability change frequently. Authoritative and up-to-date information can only be found on the official product page of AWS (official documentation). This page does not represent an offer by AWS.