[yomkippur]

I never use terraform. I use web console first and then if something really needs to be automated I use bash script to string together aws cli. If anything gets more complex than that I do not automate it, instead I use CDK to essentially write infrastructure just like any code.

There is a lot of time wasted in learning a DSL and than wrestling with the limits of what it can do. For most infrastructure scaffolding you can get away with just CLI and anything longer should require something as natural as CDK.

I also will never use Azure or Google! Why should I waste time learning DSL and it's syntaxes when I am using the best Infrastructure as Code provided by AWS? The UI is familiar and I can always reach into CLI to quickly experiment and web console for learning what each parameter does.

Sure there is value in using Terraform but I think all it does is just another Kubernetes type of busywork. 20% gain for 80% investment. Not really a good way to spend your hours, sort of like writing tests before you write code from scratch.

We will disagree but I trust my experience than what I'm told to do exactly because I realize these standards are largely just dog whistling junior developers eager to please their managers to get them on a "free" solution that ultimately bubbles up to the C-suite with some McKinsey or Forrester branded market analysis pdf attached with setting up next steps.

Not only has big corporate interests invaded consumer interest, they've hijacked the open source movement, into just series of raising money and hoping for a large IPO payout or acquisition by other corporate whales. This is why these days avoid popular opinions/standards, especially when large number of people push for them on social media.

TLDR; HashiCorp is a good example of how to use open source offering as a trojan horse to boost the personal wealth of it's investors and founders and I am increasingly wary of "standards" or generating voluntary champions within companies to parrot and becomes salesman for a bit of glory and recognition. THIS NEEDS TO STOP. Very few end up surviving the test of time. Relational database and Java is stronger than ever. Javascript took a good decade to become recognized but it's still treated as a different class than boring technology. Boring and straight forward is resilient, novelty and complex is not.

[raffraffraff]

Perhaps it doesn't apply to your situation, but that happens if you need to build 5 more copies of your current setup? The CDK stuff would be fine as long as your code is DRY, but all that clicking on the console... Also, can other people understand and extend your infrastructure? (Honest questions)

[yomkippur]

you are describing different scenarios here with different scope and i did not say to use web console only

[kfrzcode]

Enjoy your zealotry!

[yomkippur]

not a very useful comment. if you got any rebuttal please fell free to share but the second half of what i wrote probably effects your future if you are in YC or a VC.

enjoy the ever costly capital as rates go to the moon!