Comparison
Infrastructure as codevsInfrastructure drift
Infrastructure as code
you change the load balancer by editing a file and opening a pull request, not by clicking around in a console.
Declaring infrastructure in version-controlled files applied by tooling. It gives review, history, and the ability to recreate an environment. The gap to watch is between declared and actual state: manual changes make the next apply either a no-op that lies or a surprise that reverts something load-bearing.
Full entry →Infrastructure drift
somebody fixed it in the console during an incident, and the next apply politely undid the fix.
Divergence between what the code declares and what actually exists, caused by manual changes, other automation or the provider itself. It is inevitable in any estate humans can still reach, and its danger is not the change itself but the next apply, which will reconcile it away without anyone connecting the two events. The incident-time console fix is the classic instance and the reason a follow-up code change belongs in the incident's action list.
Full entry →