# Why use CloudFormation for MediaTailor and CDN integration
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AWS Elemental MediaTailor automation with AWS CloudFormation provides significant advantages for broadcast professionals managing streaming workflows. Manually configuring MediaTailor with a content delivery network (CDN) can be time-consuming and error-prone. Using CloudFormation automation offers the following advantages.
+ **Consistency**: Ensures the same configuration is deployed every time, reducing human error.
+ **Version control**: Store your infrastructure as code in a version control system for tracking changes.
+ **Rapid deployment**: Deploy complex configurations in minutes instead of hours of manual configuration.
+ **Environment replication**: Easily replicate configurations across development, testing, and production environments.
+ **Documentation**: The template itself serves as documentation of your infrastructure.

Here's how the automated workflow compares to manual configuration:


| Manual setup (multiple steps) | Automated setup (single template) | 
| --- | --- | 
| Create MediaTailor playback configuration | Deploy one CloudFormation template with parameters | 
| Create CloudFront distribution | 
| Configure cache behaviors | 
| Set up security configurations | 

The automated workflow for setting up MediaTailor with CloudFront follows these steps:

1. Deploy the CloudFormation template with your content origin and ad server parameters

1. CloudFormation creates and configures all necessary resources:
   + MediaTailor playback configuration for ad insertion
   + CloudFront distribution with appropriate cache behaviors
   + Security configurations for content protection

1. Use the CloudFormation outputs to access your ad-enabled stream URLs

1. Stream your content with dynamically inserted ads