Infrastructure drift happens when the cloud resources you’re running don’t match what’s defined in your Infrastructure as Code (IaC) configurations. It’s a common issue that can arise for all kinds of reasons—from emergency hotfixes, to automated scaling events, or even a quick manual tweak to address an urgent need. The problem is, these changes often fly under the radar. With exploding costs being one of the biggest risks with unaddressed drift, it's common for teams like yours to be unaware of the problem until the monthly cloud bill lands in your inbox—and by then, the costs have already piled up.
With infrastructure drift, it’s those small, untracked deviations that can add up without you noticing, and quietly inflate your cloud costs. You may be inadvertently causing drifts to happen if you’re:
- Upgrading instance types manually but forgetting to update your Terraform files
- Scaling resources up during peak demand and neglecting to scale them back down later
- Adding new cloud services or features outside your IaC workflow
- Tweaking storage or networking settings that push you into higher pricing tiers
What’s worse is that if you’re still in the “blissful ignorance” stage of drift management, you run the risk of the problem spiraling out of control before it’s addressed. (Our own data shows only half of organizations address cloud drift within 24 hours, and 13% don’t address it at all). Thankfully, there’s now a dedicated solution to this problem — and with Firefly, you can now identify, fix and gauge the financial impact of your drifts from a single platform.
Firefly’s newly announced Drift Cost Impact Analysis feature helps teams understand the financial implications of infrastructure drift—so you can not just detect and address drifts, but take action before the next billing cycle catches you off guard.
Introducing Cost Impact Analysis for Infrastructure Drift
With Firefly's Drift Cost Impact Analysis, DevOps and platform engineering teams can finally embrace a new powerful way to manage the financial implications of infrastructure drift.
By providing real-time visibility into the cost differences between your IaC-defined state and actual cloud resources, this tool helps you:
- Quickly identify cost-increasing drift with detailed notifications delivered via Slack or Microsoft Teams.
- Prioritize strategically, so you know which drifts to address first to minimize negative impact
- Understand the financial impact by calculating the monthly cost difference between your desired and actual infrastructure states.
- Make informed decisions with actionable recommendations on whether to accept or revert changes based on their cost impact.
- Track recurring patterns of cost-related drift over time to improve governance and optimize spending.
Part of Firefly's broader cost management capabilities, Drift Cost Impact Analysis empowers teams to maintain control over cloud costs while staying agile and responsive to infrastructure changes.
How It Works
When Firefly detects infrastructure drift, it automatically:
- Calculates the monthly cost of the current IaC-defined state
- Determines the cost of the actual running configuration
- Computes the delta between these values
- Includes this cost analysis in drift notifications via Slack or Microsoft Teams
- Provides recommendations on whether to accept or revert the changes
This information helps teams quickly understand the impact of infrastructure changes and take appropriate action.
Understanding Comprehensive Cost Control with Firefly
The new cost impact analysis feature is part of Firefly's broader approach to infrastructure cost management, working seamlessly with our existing capabilities:
Shift-Left Cost Forecasting
Using the same cost engine that powers our drift analysis, Firefly's workflows enable teams to predict infrastructure costs before deployment, validate changes against cost policies during CI/CD, and importantly — prevent costly misconfigurations from reaching production.
Historical Tracking and Analysis
Firefly maintains detailed records of drift patterns and their cost implications. That means you, and your team, have the power to identify recurring cost-increasing changes, spot trends in infrastructure modifications, and make data-driven decisions about infrastructure management: all at your fingertips.
Intelligent Recommendations
When cost-impacting drift is detected, Firefly provides smart recommendations instantly. You can expect to always get the additional context you need to act, like the nature and extent of the changes, any historical patterns and outcomes, your current infrastructure state, and any potential security and compliance implications to be aware of.
Practical Implementation Guide
To make the most of Firefly's cost-impact analysis capabilities, follow these best practices, compiled by our experts:
1. Configure Notification Channels
Set up integration with your preferred communication platforms (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams) to receive real-time alerts about cost-impacting drift.
2. Establish Review Processes
Define clear workflows for evaluating and responding to cost-related drift notifications:
- Who should review cost-impact alerts?
- What criteria determine whether to accept or revert changes?
- How should teams document their decisions?
3. Implement Preventive Measures
Use Firefly's workflow guardrails to prevent unnecessary cost increases:
- Set up shift-left cost forecasting in your CI/CD pipeline
- Define clear policies for resource modifications
- Establish approval workflows for significant infrastructure changes
4. Monitor and Optimize
Regularly review drift patterns and cost impacts to:
- Identify opportunities for optimization
- Adjust policies and thresholds as needed
- Improve infrastructure governance processes
In short, by combining real-time drift detection, cost impact analysis, and proactive governance through workflow guardrails, Firefly offers a comprehensive solution for managing infrastructure costs across the entire lifecycle – from initial deployment through ongoing operations.
Manage Your Drift Costs with Firefly
Ready to gain better visibility into the cost impact of your infrastructure drift? Firefly's new cost analysis feature is available now. Our platform helps you maintain control over your cloud costs while enabling the flexibility and agility your teams need to operate effectively.
Request a demo to dive into the platform and learn more about how Firefly can help your organization manage infrastructure drift and optimize cloud costs.
