GitOps vs Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Differences & Overlaps

GitOps and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) are two distinct but complementary practices in managing infrastructure and application deployments. While IaC focuses on defining and provisioning infrastructure through code, GitOps emphasizes using Git as the single source of truth to automate deployment, reconciliation, and maintenance processes. GitOps strengthens CI/CD workflows by integrating version control and automated synchronization, often using tools like Argo CD or Flux for continuous delivery. In contrast, IaC uses tools like Terraform or Ansible to manage infrastructure configurations, which can be executed manually or via CI/CD pipelines. GitOps promotes a pull-based workflow, ensuring continuous compliance and automated recovery by regularly aligning the live environment with the desired state in Git. Despite their differences, both approaches can work together to create a scalable and secure infrastructure management system, with tools like Spacelift providing orchestration solutions that combine the strengths of both methodologies.