March 2021 Summaries

Infracost has introduced a new "infracost diff" command inspired by "git diff" to compare monthly cloud cost estimates for Terraform projects between their current and planned states. This tool highlights differences in cloud costs by identifying changes in various components, such as AWS EC2 instances and their associated resources like EBS block devices, which can impact costs significantly. It provides detailed insights, such as the effect of reducing the size of a Provisioned IOPS SSD Storage, which can save substantial costs annually, although implementing such changes may not be straightforward. Additionally, for new resources like AWS Lambda functions, the tool can display cost structures based on usage, allowing users to input usage estimates through a YAML file to better predict expenses. The "infracost diff" command supports CI/CD integrations, is open-source, and encourages community feedback through GitHub and Slack.

"Shift left" is a concept gaining traction in Software Engineering and DevOps, emphasizing the introduction of processes earlier in the software development cycle, initially starting with testing through practices like Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD). This principle has expanded beyond testing to include security, resulting in the emergence of DevSecOps, where tools like those from Snyk and Anchore integrate automated security scanning into workflows to identify and address vulnerabilities proactively. However, there is a concern that shifting too much responsibility to engineering teams without adequate tools can hinder developer velocity. The concept is also extending to cloud cost management, suggesting that addressing cloud costs proactively and continuously, rather than as a reactive measure, is essential for sustainable fiscal management. Infracost is an example of a tool designed to integrate cost-awareness into existing workflows, aiding teams in managing cloud expenses without compromising their development speed.