Information on Clouds, Containers & Clarity

Kubernetes for infrastructure engineers: what Terraform users need to understand

Sun, 31 May 2026 15:27:37 +1000

Learn how Kubernetes changes the operating model for Terraform users, from declarative objects and state to networking, scaling, Helm, GitOps, and testing.

Terraform drift detection: Why terraform plan is too late

Fri, 29 May 2026 12:36:07 +1100

This focuses on the transition from “Artisan Server Crafting” (manual, undocumented setups) to a disciplined engineering approach. It highlights the importance of the Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) in dependency resolution and the role of the state file as the “memory” of the system

What are the disadvantages of microservices

Sun, 17 May 2026 10:39:23 +1100

Microservices are celebrated for scalability and flexibility, but they come with a significant set of trade-offs that teams often underestimate. This article explores the real costs of going distributed—from steep learning curves and server sprawl, to network fragility, data management nightmares, and the dreaded distributed monolith. If you’re considering microservices, read this first.

Preventing Terraform state conflicts when deploying multiple VMs

Mon, 04 May 2026 11:08:27 +1000

When running Terraform pipelines for multiple VMs, sharing a single state file causes Terraform to overwrite or destroy existing infrastructure. The solution is state isolation; giving each VM its own state file via partial backend configuration or Workspaces. This post covers both approaches, explains idempotency, and outlines best practices for safe, repeatable multi-VM deployments in Azure DevOps pipelines.

How to Manage Terraform State in a Large Team

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 17:41:38 +1100

Prevent Terraform state conflicts in team environments with remote backends and state locking. Learn step-by-step configuration for S3, Azure Blob Storage, and Terraform Cloud, plus proven workflows for large teams managing multi-environment infrastructure. Includes troubleshooting guide for common state file errors.

How to Understand a Large Terraform Based Project

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 18:54:16 +1100

Terraform at scale is best understood as executable documentation. Break down the repository structure, visualize resource graphs, analyze module inputs/outputs, reconcile state, and review workflows. With tools like Rover, Terragrunt, and Terraform-Docs, even 100+ folder projects become approachable and auditable.

Avoid Mistakes When Building a Large Infrastructure Project on Aws Using Terraform

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 16:25:22 +1100

Moving from manual AWS management to Terraform requires more than just learning HCL syntax—it demands a fundamental shift to treating infrastructure as software. This guide covers the essential principles, common pitfalls, and production-grade practices for building large-scale AWS infrastructure with Terraform, including state management, module design, security considerations, and operational workflows.

Drawbacks and Challenges of Microservices Architecture

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 17:30:37 +1100

Microservices architecture introduces significant trade-offs alongside its scalability benefits. This article explores the technical complexity, operational overhead, design pitfalls, and performance challenges that teams face when adopting and maintaining microservices-based systems.

What's the Difference Between Puppet and Ansible

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 11:16:05 +1100

Ansible and Puppet represent two distinct philosophies regarding configuration management, primarily differentiated by their architectural models and execution methods. Puppet operates primarily on a master-agent architecture, utilizing a pull model, while Ansible employs an agentless architecture using a push model.

Architecture and agent requirement

Feature	Puppet (Master-Agent)	Ansible (Agentless)
Agent Requirement	Requires a dedicated agent running on every managed node.	Is agentless, requiring no specialized software installed on the managed nodes.
Control Nodes	The server where Puppet code (manifests) is stored and compiled into catalogs. It often serves as the central Certificate Authority (CA).	Instructions are pushed out from a central control node, which executes the Ansible CLI.
Scaling	Scaling typically involves dividing the workload among multiple machines (workers) for tasks like catalog compilation to handle heavy loads.	Is built for minimal resource usage, eliminating the installation of extra agents or daemons.

Execution model and language

Puppet and Ansible also differ fundamentally in how they achieve configuration goals:

An introduction to Puppet

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 10:39:23 +1100

Puppet is a powerful open-source configuration management and automation platform that enables organizations to implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with precision and scalability. Since 2005, it has become a cornerstone for managing IT systems, deploying software, and enforcing consistent configurations across diverse environments.

How Does Terraform Differ From Puppet and Ansible

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 12:36:07 +1100

In the world of IaC there are a multitude of processes that we use to define but also configure environments. Are they really that different?

Should I be worried about moving to Opentofu from Terraform

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 10:54:43 +1100

This is an insightful question that goes to the heart of current Infrastructure as Code (IaC) governance and risk management.

HAProxy Load Balancing with Docker: A Complete Guide to Building a Two-Node Cluster

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 21:08:56 +1100

Complete guide to building HAProxy load balancing with Docker. Step-by-step tutorial with Docker Compose, health checks, failover, and production best practices.

Zero Downtime Evolution: How Blue Green Deployment and Dynamic Infrastructure Power Service Continuity

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 15:42:39 +1100

To mitigate risks associated with frequent changes, strategies must ensure continuity. Blue-Green deployment is used for safely deploying large or risky changes by shifting traffic between two fully provisioned environments. If issues arise, an instantaneous rollback to the old environment prevents customer impact. Rolling Updates and Canary Replacement are employed for more incremental, lower-risk updates.

Iterating over providers in Opentofu

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 12:49:31 +1100

Learn how to use OpenTofu’s new for_each provider iteration feature to dynamically deploy infrastructure across multiple regions, accounts, or clouds. This tutorial includes step-by-step examples, advanced patterns, and modular DevOps integration strategies for scalable, maintainable IaC workflows.

A practical guide to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) deployment

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 14:29:41 +1000

For cloud-native development, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) provides the perfect foundation for a microservices lab, combining Microsoft Azure’s managed cloud infrastructure with the industry-standard container orchestration platform, Kubernetes.

Terraform modules explained - your ultimate guide to reusable components and devops automation

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 10:52:59 +1000

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has become a pillar of modern DevOps culture, enabling the automation of deployments, reducing manual errors, and promoting standardization. At the forefront of this movement is Terraform, an extraordinarily flexible tool developed by HashiCorp for defining, provisioning, and managing cloud infrastructure. Terraform allows engineers to describe their desired architecture in code—specifically using the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL)—a simple, declarative language

Docker Networking Made Simple: What Every Beginner Needs to Know

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 16:20:10 +1000

A beginner-friendly guide to Docker networking that demystifies key concepts like bridge networks, port mapping, container communication, and isolation strategies. Learn how Docker handles traffic, how to connect containers, and how to avoid common pitfalls — all explained in plain language.

Multiple Environments in Docker

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 12:11:15 +1000

Let’s solve one of the big problems in ensuring an application behaves identically across development and testing.

From Clickops to Gitops Scaling Iac Maturity

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 15:44:27 +1000

The landscape of IT infrastructure management has undergone a profound transformation, moving from manual, error-prone processes to highly automated, code-driven workflows.

The Essential Guide to Docker for Packaging and Deploying Microservices

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 20:05:03 +1000

This comprehensive article introduces Docker, the leading open-source platform for containerization, revolutionizing how applications are built, packaged, and deployed. Explore Docker’s core concepts like images, containers, and Dockerfiles, and understand its pivotal role in modern software development, from enabling microservices architectures to streamlining CI/CD pipelines and facilitating deployment across various environments.

The Diverging Paths of Infrastructure as Code: How OpenTofu Handles State Management Differently from Terraform

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 16:51:52 +1000

OpenTofu represents a fresh fork of Terraform that reimagines how teams store, secure, and collaborate on IaC state. This article dives into the core differences in state handling, highlighting OpenTofu’s modular backends, built-in locking strategies, and seamless migration paths. You’ll learn why projects seeking greater flexibility and community-driven innovation are adopting OpenTofu over Terraform.

Understanding OpenTofu config files

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 21:42:29 +1000

This article breaks down the essential configuration files used by OpenTofu, the open-source fork of Terraform. Learn how files like main.tf, variables.tf, outputs.tf, and terraform.tfstate work together to define, manage, and track infrastructure deployments. Whether you’re migrating from Terraform or starting fresh with OpenTofu, this guide offers practical insights into structuring your IaC projects for clarity, modularity, and long-term maintainability.

Making infrastructure as code (IaC) better: A modular and scalable approach

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 20:00:31 +1000

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has transformed cloud automation—but scaling it effectively requires more than just writing HCL. This article explores how to make IaC better through modular design, immutable infrastructure, secure state management, and ethical architecture. From multi-cloud deployments to observability and CI-driven testing, it offers practical strategies for building maintainable, transparent, and future-proof infrastructure workflows.

What are the different files used by Terraform?

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 18:28:13 +1000

Understanding the core files in a Terraform project is essential for building scalable, maintainable infrastructure-as-code workflows. This article breaks down the purpose and structure of key files like main.tf, variables.tf, outputs.tf, and terraform.tfstate

Why developers are moving away from Terraform—and what they're choosing instead

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 07:59:48 +1000

HashiCorp’s licensing shift triggered a seismic change in the IaC landscape. Here’s why developers are migrating away from Terraform—and what tools are rising to take its place.

How Infrastructure as Code delivers unprecedented time savings

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 18:01:45 +1000

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) transforms cloud operations by replacing manual provisioning with automated, repeatable workflows. This post explores how IaC tools like Terraform dramatically reduce deployment time, eliminate configuration drift, and empower teams to scale infrastructure with speed and confidence.

What is OpenTofu? Terraform’s open-source alternative

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 15:44:20 +1000

OpenTofu is the open-source fork of Terraform, designed to preserve community-driven infrastructure-as-code development after HashiCorp’s license change. This post explores its origins, features, and why it matters for DevOps teams seeking transparency and control.

ClickOps vs. IaC: Why Terraform wins in the modern cloud era

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 13:16:33 +1000

ClickOps is out. Infrastructure as Code is in. This post breaks down the risks of manual infrastructure management—downtime, drift, and deployment fear—and shows how Terraform flips the script. From automation and version control to modular design and multi-cloud support, learn why IaC is the backbone of modern DevOps and how Terraform empowers teams to build resilient, scalable systems with confidence.

What is Terraform?

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 13:16:33 +1000

Terraform is revolutionizing infrastructure management. This guide walks you through its origins, core principles, and practical workflows—from the chaos of manual ClickOps to the elegance of declarative Infrastructure as Code. Learn how Terraform’s modular design, provider ecosystem, and state management empower teams to automate cloud deployments with speed, consistency, and control. Whether you’re new to IaC or scaling multi-cloud environments, this post equips you with the mindset and tools to become a Terraform superstar.