June 2021 Summaries

Pulumi has introduced a new pricing model with the launch of Pulumi Team Edition, allowing teams to manage cloud infrastructure as code with a pricing structure based on the number of cloud resources under management rather than user count. This edition supports up to 10 users and offers a free tier to help teams start without cost, while Pulumi Enterprise Edition caters to larger organizations with features like advanced security and policy options, supporting unlimited users and teams. The transition to this model aims to empower more developers and infrastructure practitioners by providing broader access to cloud management tools, aligning costs with infrastructure complexity, and fostering collaboration. The updated offerings, which include generous free Pulumi Credits and prepaid options with discounts, are designed to streamline cloud engineering for organizations of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Existing customers are encouraged to transition to the new editions, and a 14-day free trial is available for new users, with additional support for open source projects and early-stage startups. Pulumi remains committed to its open-source community while expanding its production service to meet diverse cloud management needs.

Pulumi recently hosted two consecutive hackathons, the first of which was open to the community and centered on utilizing their new multi-language component capabilities. These capabilities enable developers to create reusable infrastructure abstractions in one language, making them accessible across all languages supported by Pulumi. Participants were guided through the process by Lee Briggs and generated innovative ideas, such as components for Google Cloud project setups and AWS Lambda functions. The event provided valuable feedback for enhancing the multi-language authoring experience, including suggestions for reducing boilerplate code and improving schema authoring and documentation. Several component demos, like running containers on major cloud providers and simplifying Amazon API Gateway resources, were showcased, with recordings available for viewing. Pulumi is eager to refine these components and plans to share further hackathon results in upcoming posts.

Cloud engineering integrates standard software development practices into the creation, deployment, and management of cloud infrastructure, emphasizing the importance of testing to ensure functional, secure, and reliable systems. Infrastructure testing, akin to software testing, identifies bugs, ensures compliance, and boosts security and performance, ultimately enhancing release velocity and user satisfaction. The text highlights various testing methodologies, including functional and non-functional testing, with a focus on unit, integration, and property tests, especially in infrastructure as code scenarios. Unit tests in cloud engineering often replace external dependencies with mock objects, enabling rapid feedback and suitability for Test-Driven Development (TDD). Property tests assess business requirements and compliance, using real values from cloud providers, while integration tests validate service interactions within ephemeral environments, despite their time and cost implications. Alternative testing models, like the Testing Trophy and Honeycomb, prioritize integration tests due to the rise of distributed architectures. The article underscores the potential of using programming languages for infrastructure deployment to leverage software toolchains for static tests, and promises more detailed examples in a subsequent article.

Hitesh Boinpally, a junior studying Computer Science at the University of Washington, shares his experience interning remotely at Pulumi, where he worked on developing a test harness for Pulumi’s converter tools, specifically arm2pulumi and tf2pulumi. During his internship, he gained hands-on experience with various technologies, including Go programming, AWS cloud infrastructure, and Pulumi's infrastructure as code capabilities, which allowed him to manage changes efficiently. Despite the challenges of remote work, Hitesh appreciated Pulumi's supportive and friendly team environment, which was enhanced by biweekly one-on-one meetings and team events. He also learned about company operations and development processes, thanks to Pulumi's transparency. Expressing gratitude to his mentors and the leadership at Pulumi, Hitesh reflects positively on his first internship experience, emphasizing the skills and relationships he built during his time there, and looks forward to applying his newfound knowledge in future projects.

Pulumi has introduced regular release notes to highlight updates across its ecosystem, which includes updates to the Pulumi CLI, cloud providers in the Registry, and the Pulumi Service. The latest updates feature support for Amazon ECS Anywhere and Amazon App Runner, the introduction of a new Sumo Logic provider, and the addition of 100 new resources in the Azure Native provider. Pulumi has enhanced its core technologies by allowing input parameters to be marked as secret for better data protection, and has improved Pulumi Packages with schema documentation and broader language support. Updates to the Pulumi Service and Pulumi.com include easier acceptance of organization invitations and expanded support for self-hosted Pulumi Service using Azure services and Minio storage. These changes are designed to enhance user experience and expand the capabilities of Pulumi's infrastructure-as-code offerings.

Webiny, an open-source framework for building serverless applications, initially used Serverless Components to manage cloud infrastructure deployments but encountered limitations in customization, reliance on YAML configurations, vendor lock-in, and lack of multi-cloud support. In search of an alternative, Webiny adopted Pulumi, which offers flexibility through TypeScript code, supports multiple cloud providers, and avoids vendor lock-in. Pulumi's integration with Webiny involved adapting its programming model, automating CLI installations, and managing cloud infrastructure state files efficiently. Webiny projects are organized into packages and applications, allowing independent deployment and customization of cloud resources. Pulumi's features, such as stack management and automatic resource tagging, improved infrastructure handling, while plans for future developments include multi-cloud compatibility, project templates, and potential integration with Pulumi's Automation API, aiming to enhance Webiny's serverless application framework and CMS.

Cloud engineering emphasizes the use of software engineering practices, such as refactoring, to enhance code maintainability, performance, scalability, and security without altering external behavior. Refactoring, commonly applied in DevOps for modern applications, can also be utilized in cloud infrastructure through infrastructure as code, offering advantages like improved readability and maintainability of code. Pulumi stands out by maintaining resource identities based on object IDs, allowing for seamless refactoring without recreating resources and utilizing aliases to connect old and new object states. Techniques like Test-Driven Development (TDD), Pull-Up/Push-Down, composing, simplifying method calls, moving features, and preparatory refactoring play pivotal roles in refining codebases, reducing duplication, and facilitating future changes efficiently. Pulumi provides examples in various programming languages, showcasing the potential for refactoring to ensure clean and efficient cloud infrastructure code.