Comparison
Infrastructure as codevsPlan and apply
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 →Plan and apply
the tool prints exactly what it will create, change and destroy, and you read the destroy list before typing yes.
The two-phase model of declarative infrastructure tooling: compute the difference between desired and recorded state and show it, then execute it. The plan is the single most valuable safety feature in the category, and reviewing it — particularly the replacements and deletions — is the actual control. A plan is only as good as its freshness, since anything that changes between planning and applying is not in it.
Full entry →