The Everything Feed - All Packet Pushers Pods D2DO285: The Death of IaC Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
Oct 22, 2025
Malcolm Matalka, co-founder of TerraTeam and an expert in infrastructure-as-code (IaC), joins to debunk the myth that IaC is dead. He highlights IaC's vital role in managing infrastructure lifecycles and contrasts simple YAML with powerful IaC tools like Terraform. Discussion dives into Terraform's practical challenges, such as one-way workflows and drift, while celebrating its wide applicability. Matalka emphasizes that AI is here to assist, not replace IaC, and predicts a future where IaC and control-plane models converge, ensuring IaC's continued relevance.
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From Boto Scripts To Terraform Relief
- Early IaC was ad-hoc scripts like Python, Boto, or PowerShell calling cloud APIs directly.
- Ned and Malcolm recall how brittle scripts were before Terraform simplified management.
Terraform Death Claims Are Overblown
- Bold claims like "Terraform is dead" often signal ignorance or attention-seeking rather than reality.
- Malcolm argues Terraform remains viable and widely used despite periodic doomposts.
IaC As A Human-Readable Abstraction
- IaC is a code-like representation that applies software design principles to infrastructure.
- Malcolm frames Terraform and CDKs as macro-like parsers producing static artifacts for providers.