I've got a background in programming, but I'm having a tough time wrapping my head around why tools like Terraform and Pulumi focus so much on detecting and correcting cloud drift. Can someone explain why cloud drift is such a big concern for companies today? In the past, database migrations assumed all schema changes would happen through the migration tool rather than manually in the GUI. Why should we expect cloud infrastructure deployments to be any different?
1 Answer
Drift detection is super important because untracked changes can lead to serious risks. It makes things like reproducibility, auditing, and automation pretty fragile. Think of drift detection as a safety net; the idea that all changes go through your Infrastructure as Code (IaC) pipeline isn’t always the case, especially in larger organizations where different teams might not follow the same processes.
Got it! So, are larger companies likely to avoid tools without drift detection, even if they perform better in other areas? Also, do you think just having drift detection is enough, or is automated drift correction a must these days?