May 2022 Summaries

Pulumi has introduced a new feature that allows users to create dynamic Stack READMEs in the Pulumi Service, which automatically update based on Stack Outputs. This enhancement enables users to document and share essential information about their cloud infrastructure stacks, such as configuration, outputs, and managed resources, while keeping everything current as changes occur. Unlike traditional source control READMEs, these Stack READMEs are dynamically populated with output variables, allowing for real-time updates and accurate links to resources like dashboards and documentation. This integration aims to streamline operational activities by consolidating critical stack information within the Pulumi Service UI, reducing the need to switch between various tools, and maintaining up-to-date documentation across development, testing, and production environments. Users can utilize README templates to reference stack outputs and resource properties, enabling them to create consistent and informative documentation that evolves with their infrastructure.

Buoyant, Civo, Cockroach Labs, Fairwinds, Pulumi, and Jetstack are collaborating to support World Central Kitchen (WCK), a non-profit providing meals in response to humanitarian crises, by donating $2 for each virtual booth visitor during KubeCon. WCK is actively offering meals to those affected by the crisis in Ukraine and refugees in surrounding countries. Visitors to the virtual booths of these companies can contribute to this cause while exploring a wealth of cloud native resources such as demos, tutorials, and live sessions. Pulumi showcases its cloud engineering platform for unified infrastructure management, Buoyant introduces its fully managed Linkerd service mesh and related content, Civo offers insights on its managed Kubernetes service, Cockroach Labs presents its distributed SQL database on Kubernetes, Fairwinds provides resources on Kubernetes governance and security, and Jetstack highlights its cert-manager tool for securing workloads. This initiative not only promotes valuable tech resources but also supports a meaningful charitable mission.

Pulumi has introduced a new Service Provider that allows users to manage the Pulumi Service itself using Infrastructure as Code (IaC), as a response to high demand from their community. The Service Provider, developed during a company hackathon by Solutions Engineer Piers Karsenbarg, builds on the Pulumi Service REST API, enabling programmatic configuration of infrastructure resources such as Teams, Access Tokens, Stack Tags, and Webhooks across various languages like TypeScript, Python, Go, .NET, Java, and YAML. This development empowers users to manage cloud infrastructure comprehensively, including metadata like Projects, Stacks, Previews, Updates, Organizations, and Audit Logs. The Service Provider is accessible to both Pulumi's hosted and self-hosted customers, requiring access tokens for authentication. Pulumi plans to expand the functionality of the Service Provider based on user feedback and usage patterns, encouraging users to contribute further feature requests and bug reports to their GitHub repository.

Pulumi's Universal Infrastructure as Code platform has introduced support for AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) constructs, allowing users to deploy AWS CDK constructs directly from within Pulumi programs, bypassing the need for CloudFormation. This integration offers a more streamlined and efficient deployment process, leveraging Pulumi's features like Policy as Code and audit logs, while enabling users to benefit from AWS CDK's high-level libraries and constructs. Now, Pulumi users can combine resources from both platforms in a single project, facilitating interoperability across more than 80 cloud and SaaS providers supported by Pulumi. The AWS CDK on Pulumi project, currently in public preview, is focused on enhancing developer productivity by providing a seamless experience, merging the strengths of AWS CDK's well-architected infrastructure patterns with Pulumi's broad ecosystem and direct AWS integration. This initiative is expected to foster closer collaboration between the AWS CDK and Pulumi communities, expanding the possibilities for cloud engineering projects.

Pulumi has expanded its infrastructure as code capabilities to support Java, enabling developers to build, deploy, and manage cloud infrastructure across platforms like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and more, using Java and other JVM languages. This integration permits developers to utilize their preferred IDEs and programming tools to declare infrastructure needs through familiar Java constructs, automate resource management, and enforce security and compliance policies. Pulumi’s approach facilitates collaboration between developers and infrastructure teams by leveraging programming languages to simplify modern cloud patterns such as containers and serverless functions. The Java support, currently in preview, aims to gather user feedback for further enhancement, while offering a robust open-source SDK that integrates with CI tools to ensure dependable deployment workflows.

Pulumi has seen significant growth and innovation since the launch of Pulumi 3.0, expanding its Universal Infrastructure as Code platform with a host of new features and language support. The platform now supports Java, allowing access to its extensive software engineering ecosystem, and introduces Pulumi YAML for a simpler interface catering to users who do not require a full programming language. Pulumi has also extended its Crosswalk for AWS to all languages, enabling easier and more secure infrastructure tasks on AWS, and launched AWS CDK on Pulumi, which allows the use of AWS CDK constructs within Pulumi deployments. Additionally, the platform now includes over a dozen new packages for cloud and SaaS providers, enhancing its multi-cloud capabilities. These advancements build on Pulumi's core technology, CrossCode, which facilitates sharing components across languages and converting infrastructure into Pulumi code. The updates aim to unify cloud platform, operations, and application development teams, offering a comprehensive solution for managing complex cloud infrastructures across more than 80 providers.

Crosswalk for AWS is a collection of libraries designed to simplify the use of AWS infrastructure through Pulumi's Infrastructure as Code framework. These libraries, which are among the most widely used high-level components in the Pulumi ecosystem, provide simplified abstractions over key AWS services such as ECS, API Gateway, VPC, and more, allowing for the easy deployment of containerized and serverless applications with minimal code. Crosswalk enables application and service development teams to manage their own infrastructure while leveraging AWS's full capabilities and adhering to best practices for security and architecture. It supports all Pulumi languages, including TypeScript, Python, .NET, Go, Java, and YAML, and is available in the Pulumi Registry. The libraries also facilitate seamless integration with existing AWS resources and are designed to accommodate evolving needs, allowing users to customize and extend their infrastructure as projects grow. Additionally, Crosswalk for AWS offers guidance and examples for various common use cases, enabling quick deployment and scaling of applications, whether using serverless architectures, Kubernetes with EKS, or custom VPC configurations. Users of the existing TypeScript version of AWSx can transition to the new multi-language capabilities or continue using the TypeScript-specific implementations under the classic namespace.

Pulumi has introduced Pulumi YAML, a simple, YAML-based interface for its Infrastructure as Code (IaC) platform, expanding the flexibility of cloud infrastructure deployment. While Pulumi traditionally allowed developers to use languages like TypeScript, Python, and Java, Pulumi YAML is designed for smaller-scale use cases where a full-fledged programming language may not be necessary. It provides a straightforward way to define cloud infrastructure, utilizing YAML's widespread recognition in cloud environments like Kubernetes and Docker. Pulumi YAML can interoperate with existing Pulumi languages and access all core features such as native providers, secrets management, and more. It supports the creation of complex infrastructure setups while offering a path to convert to other Pulumi-supported languages if greater complexity is needed. Pulumi's platform capabilities, including policy as code and integration with the Pulumi Service, are fully available to Pulumi YAML users. Additionally, the open-source nature of Pulumi YAML allows for integration with other languages that compile to YAML/JSON, enabling diverse applications and seamless scaling of infrastructure projects.

Pulumi has introduced the Puluminaries program to honor and recognize experts and leaders within its community who actively contribute to its growth and development. Launched officially at PulumiUP in 2022, this initiative highlights individuals who excel in programming and infrastructure, provide invaluable feedback, and educate others through workshops and content. Notable members of the inaugural cohort include Engin Diri, who participates enthusiastically in PulumiVision livestreams; Joshua Studt, a contributor to the Automation API for C#; Kat Morgan, who shares her knowledge through workshops and webinars; Komal Ali, who has improved Pulumi's Python SDK and Automation API; Paul Hicks, known for his comprehensive expertise and community support; Ringo De Smet and Simen A. W. Olsen, who co-founded the Pulumiverse for collaborative efforts; and Rizel Scarlett, recognized for her teaching and participation in events. Pulumi encourages community members to nominate others who demonstrate similar dedication and expertise.

Pulumi's mission to simplify cloud programming by integrating infrastructure as code with general-purpose languages has significantly reshaped how modern cloud applications are developed. Initially, the reliance on cumbersome config scripts and proprietary domain-specific languages made cloud infrastructure management tedious and unappealing to developers. Pulumi's approach emphasizes the cloud as a new operating system, enabling developers to leverage the full potential of modern cloud capabilities while addressing distributed computing challenges. By treating cloud resources as programmable building blocks, Pulumi facilitates an innovative environment where infrastructure is dynamic and scalable, moving beyond static, configuration-based tools. This evolution reflects a broader shift in the industry towards provisioning-based infrastructure as code tools, which allow for more agile and robust cloud management. The widespread adoption of Pulumi's model, highlighted by similar developments like AWS's Cloud Development Kit, underscores the growing importance of programmable infrastructure in the era of distributed computing.

Pulumi is hosting a series of workshops, PulumiUP, in collaboration with over 70 integration partners to teach users how to build, deploy, and manage cloud services using Infrastructure as Code (IaC). The workshops cover a range of platforms and technologies, including Kubernetes, Azure, AWS, and Oracle Cloud, and utilize Pulumi's tools in combination with partners like NGINX, GitHub, and Codefresh. Highlights include sessions on deploying applications with Kubernetes, using Azure Native Provider, building web apps with Auth0, and implementing GitOps workflows. The events feature hands-on labs, live-coding sessions, and crash courses, showcasing Pulumi's capabilities and their integrations to enhance cloud infrastructure provisioning and application deployment.

Pulumi recently celebrated its fifth anniversary and to mark the occasion, the company is launching a multi-part series focusing on infrastructure as code. The series will explore various themes such as the excitement surrounding infrastructure as code, its foundational concepts, its internal workings, the convergence of applications and infrastructure, and the advent of the cloud engineering era, with a bonus section on the future of this technology. The first installment has been published, and subsequent parts will be released in the coming weeks. Pulumi expresses enthusiasm for both their past achievements and future prospects.

Pulumi has expanded its community engagement by making its Slack archives publicly accessible via Linen at https://archive.pulumi.com, enabling easier access to a wealth of information previously confined within Slack's search capabilities. The decision to open the Slack archives comes in response to the growing need for users to access valuable cloud engineering insights and feedback shared among its over 7,000 members and 200,000 messages. While Slack remains a popular real-time collaboration tool, its limitations in searchability prompted Pulumi to offer a more accessible platform, enhancing the community's ability to find information and accelerate their cloud engineering projects. This initiative also allows the Pulumi team to interact more effectively with users and gather feedback, thereby enriching the Pulumi ecosystem.