February 2026 Summaries

Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs) are self-service platforms designed to streamline the DevOps lifecycle by providing developers with a unified interface to access automation and services. The decision to build or buy an IDP is complex and hinges on factors like organizational scale, DevOps maturity, engineering constraints, and security needs. Building an IDP offers maximum flexibility and customization but requires significant engineering resources and ongoing maintenance. Conversely, buying an IDP allows for quicker implementation and less maintenance but may limit customization and lead to vendor lock-in. Many organizations adopt a hybrid approach, purchasing a core platform while customizing it with additional workflows and integrations. The choice between building or buying an IDP should align with an organization's current operations and future needs, ensuring long-term value. Tools like Spacelift can serve as foundational layers for IDPs, offering infrastructure as code management, CI/CD support, and enhanced collaboration.

Spacelift has enhanced its platform by offering first-class support for Terragrunt, addressing key operational challenges faced by users managing infrastructure at scale. This integration introduces Spacelift-managed state, which simplifies state management by eliminating the need for manual configuration of remote backends like S3 buckets and DynamoDB tables. Additionally, the inclusion of the Terragrunt Show command provides users with clear visibility into planned changes before execution, streamlining the review process and increasing deployment confidence. Previously, while Terragrunt's modularity and DRY principles were appreciated, teams struggled with time-consuming operational tasks that should have been automated. With this update, Terragrunt configurations in Spacelift benefit from enhanced automation and support, allowing both existing and new users to integrate seamlessly without altering their code structure. Spacelift continues to serve as a versatile orchestration solution, enhancing collaboration, automation, and control in the provisioning of cloud-based infrastructures.

Infrastructure orchestration is a sophisticated automation process that coordinates end-to-end infrastructure workflows, ensuring that tasks such as provisioning, configuration, access control, and monitoring are executed correctly and without human intervention. Unlike basic infrastructure automation, which focuses on individual tasks, orchestration integrates these processes into a cohesive system, improving speed, resilience, and scalability. It provides seamless management of complex cloud environments by reducing human error and operational delays, thereby enhancing service reliability and lowering operational costs. Tools like Infrastructure as Code (IaC), GitOps, and container orchestrators such as Kubernetes play a crucial role in implementing infrastructure orchestration. Platforms like Spacelift offer comprehensive solutions to manage these orchestrations by automating tasks, enforcing policies, and providing visibility into infrastructure states. The process ensures secure, consistent deployments and facilitates self-service infrastructure for developers, ultimately allowing organizations to efficiently manage cloud resources at scale.

Spacelift Intent is a tool that leverages AI to transform infrastructure management by allowing teams to provision, manage, and correct infrastructure using natural language, provider APIs, and Spacelift’s governance and state engine. It facilitates experimentation by enabling the easy creation and deletion of infrastructure without the need for Infrastructure as Code (IaC), while ensuring centralized state, history, and auditability. The tool also addresses the issue of unmanaged resources by allowing users to scan and import existing resources for governance and visibility, thus mitigating surprise costs and compliance gaps. Additionally, Spacelift Intent helps detect and remediate configuration drift by comparing tracked states with real states in cloud environments, offering immediate visibility into discrepancies. Through these capabilities, Spacelift Intent enhances infrastructure management by reducing friction, speeding up workflows, and maintaining governance, policy enforcement, and audit trails, thereby enabling more efficient and controlled cloud infrastructure operations.

Organizations are increasingly migrating away from Terraform Cloud and Terraform Enterprise due to concerns over the pricing model, technical limitations, and platform direction. HashiCorp's shift to Resources Under Management (RUM) pricing has caused unpredictability in costs, especially as infrastructure scales. Technical constraints, such as the lack of native workspace dependencies and limited policy enforcement, also complicate complex deployments. Users often find the support and responsiveness inadequate, and HashiCorp's license change to the Business Source License has added to uncertainties. Spacelift emerges as a compelling alternative by addressing these challenges with predictable pricing, robust dependency management, flexible policy enforcement, and support for multiple Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools. It provides seamless workflow customization, built-in drift detection, and strong support, thereby ensuring a smooth migration and reliable infrastructure management.

Multi-cloud infrastructure, which involves utilizing multiple cloud providers, enhances resilience and flexibility at scale but poses unique challenges for DevOps processes by increasing complexity and requiring robust automation. To effectively manage multi-cloud environments, organizations must integrate various technologies such as Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CI/CD pipelines, cloud orchestrators, and policy-as-code, ensuring consistent governance and avoiding tool sprawl. The benefits of multi-cloud DevOps include improved resilience, scalability, and reduced vendor lock-in; however, it also necessitates organizational changes, standardization of workflows, and enhanced visibility and governance across different cloud platforms. Despite the advantages, multi-cloud is not suitable for every team due to its complexity and should only be adopted when specific requirements justify its use. Properly implemented, multi-cloud DevOps can offer significant improvements in service resilience and operational efficiency, but it requires careful planning and the use of integrated solutions like Spacelift to manage the intricacies involved.

Spacelift has announced the removal of three legacy policy types—Task Policies, Initialization Policies, and Stack Access Policies—effective May 30, 2026, as part of its efforts to streamline and improve platform performance. The Task and Initialization policies have already been replaced by more efficient Access Policies, while Stack Access Policies, which were an early attempt at access control, are being retired due to their inefficiencies and complexity, particularly in larger accounts. The company has developed a more effective Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) system that integrates Spaces, Custom Roles, and Stack Roles, making the continuation of the outdated Stack Access Policies unnecessary. Spacelift acknowledges that while the RBAC system may not cover all edge cases, it is committed to engaging with users to address any gaps. The company emphasizes that the deprecation aims to enhance clarity, speed, and reliability, and offers migration support to affected users to ensure a smooth transition.