Cloud infrastructure complexity has reached critical mass.
The majority of organizations are now operating in multi-cloud environments and across a variety of cloud services. And according to data from Gartner, this sprawl has led to a 63% increase in misconfigurations and a rise in security incidents over the last year. For DevOps and platform engineers, the challenge is clear: how to maintain control and visibility across an increasingly difficult-to-manage cloud landscape
Worryingly, the cloud chaos crisis is already hitting enterprises where it hurts most — their bottom line. IDC's 2024 Cloud Pulse Survey reveals that nearly ¾ of organizations have experienced unexpected cloud cost overruns. Plus, Firefly's own State of IaC Report 2024 shows that 90% of large-scale deployments using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) experience drift, with half of these cases going undetected.
This perfect storm of financial drain and operational blindspots is pushing DevOps teams to the brink — and desperately in search of a better way to wrangle their cloud.
Sound familiar? Here’s your guide to taking back control (and here's the YouTube version, in case you'd prefer to watch and learn instead).
5 Tips to Take Control over Cloud Chaos
Introducing Firefly: the Cloud Infrastructure Automation platform that's revolutionizing how the most agile and efficient DevOps and Platform Engineering teams tame cloud chaos.
The key to uncomplicating your cloud? Address the core challenges of cloud complexity, ideally with a unified approach to automate, manage, and govern your entire cloud footprint —from ClickOps auditing to drift detection and remediation.
Here’s a roundup of Firefly's top 5 tips to control cloud chaos.
Tip #1: Track your IaC coverage
IaC coverage is a critical metric displayed in the Firefly dashboard, showing the percentage of cloud resources managed through Infrastructure as Code versus manual operations (ClickOps). This feature provides visibility into your cloud estate's management status, breaking down resources by their current state: managed, unmanaged, or drifted.
Understanding your IaC coverage is crucial because:
- It reveals the true state of your cloud infrastructure management
- Helps identify unmanaged resources that need codification
- Serves as a key performance indicator for cloud health and resiliency
Unmanaged infrastructure often lacks proper backup and version control, increasing risk and reducing operational efficiency.
How IaC coverage works with Firefly
Firefly automatically compares your Git repository declarations with actual cloud resource configurations. This comparison allows Firefly to accurately determine which resources are covered by IaC and which are not. The dashboard provides a clear overview, enabling teams to prioritize codification efforts and improve overall cloud governance.
Tip #2: Audit your ClickOps operations
Firefly's Click-blame feature identifies users who bypass IaC processes by making manual changes through cloud console operations (ClickOps). This near real-time auditing capability is essential for maintaining infrastructure integrity and enforcing IaC best practices.Auditing ClickOps operations is important because:
- It helps enforce IaC policies across the organization
- Identifies potential security risks from unauthorized changes
- Provides accountability and traceability for all infrastructure modifications
By understanding who has permissions to make manual changes and in which scenarios ClickOps is allowed, teams can better control their cloud environment and reduce the risk of configuration drift.
How stopping ClickOps works with Firefly
Firefly integrates with your cloud provider's audit trail, extracting events marked as created using the console. This data is then analyzed to provide insights into ClickOps activities, including:
- Who performed the action
- What changes were made
- When the changes occurred
Teams can use this information to refine access controls, improve training, and further automate infrastructure management processes.
Tip #3: Generate IaC from existing cloud resources
Firefly's codification feature automatically generates IaC manifests from existing cloud resources, significantly accelerating the process of bringing unmanaged infrastructure under code control.Automated IaC generation is valuable because:
- It saves substantial time compared to manual codification
- Ensures consistency and best practices in IaC implementation
- Accelerates IaC adoption across the organization
- Reduces errors associated with manual code writing
This capability is particularly useful for organizations with large legacy infrastructure footprints or those rapidly transitioning to an IaC model.
How automatic codification works with Firefly
To generate IaC from existing resources:
- Firefly fetches the current configuration of selected resources
- It creates IaC code (in your chosen format) that accurately represents the resource configuration
- The generated code adheres to best practices and uses reusable components where appropriate
- Firefly also provides the necessary import steps to bring existing resources under IaC management without recreation
This process ensures a smooth transition from unmanaged to managed infrastructure, preserving existing configurations while enabling future management through code.
Tip #4: Identify —and remediate— IaC drifts
Firefly continuously monitors your cloud environment, comparing it against IaC state files to detect inconsistencies. When drift occurs, real-time notifications are sent, allowing for quick remediation.Drift detection and remediation are critical because:
- Undetected drift can lead to security vulnerabilities and reliability issues
- It ensures consistency between declared and actual infrastructure states
- Helps maintain operational efficiency and reduces troubleshooting time
- Can have significant cost implications if left unaddressed
Manual detection of drift is time-consuming and error-prone, making automated solutions essential for maintaining infrastructure integrity at scale.
How drift detection and remediation with Firefly works
To identify and remediate drifts with Firefly:
- Firefly compares IaC state configurations with current cloud asset configurations
- It connects cloud assets to their corresponding state files and VCS-declared code
- When drift is detected, Firefly generates relevant remediation steps
- Users can choose to sync changes from Git to Cloud or align Cloud state back to code
This process ensures that your infrastructure remains consistent with your declared intentions, reducing the risk of unexpected behavior or security issues.
Tip #5: Automate IaC scanning with shift-left guardrails
Firefly's shift-left guardrails integrate directly into your CI/CD pipeline, allowing you to catch and fix infrastructure issues early in the development process.Automated IaC scanning with guardrails is crucial because:
- It prevents misconfigurations from reaching production environments
- Reduces the time and cost associated with fixing issues later in the deployment cycle
- Ensures compliance with security and operational best practices
- Provides immediate feedback to developers, fostering a culture of infrastructure quality
Unlike manual reviews or less integrated tools, Firefly's guardrails offer seamless integration and real-time feedback within existing workflows.
How shift-left guardrails work with Firefly
To implement guardrails with our platform:
- Add the Firefly workflow step to your CI/CD pipeline
- Firefly scans your plan output using multiple scanners against predefined guardrails
- If a guardrail is violated, the Firefly step returns a relevant exit code
- This prevents the pipeline from proceeding to the apply stage if violations are detected
By integrating these checks early in the development process, teams can ensure that only compliant and secure infrastructure changes make it to production.
💻 Ready to uncomplicate your cloud with Firefly? Request a demo to learn more.
