Infrastructure Drift
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Infrastructure drift is when your actual cloud infrastructure doesn't match what your code says it should be. Someone clicked around in the console and changed things manually. Now your Terraform state file says one thing and reality says another. It's like coming home and finding your roommate rearranged the furniture — nothing is where your map says it should be.
Real Talk
Infrastructure drift occurs when the actual state of cloud resources diverges from the desired state defined in IaC templates. Causes include manual console changes, automated processes, or failed deployments. Drift can lead to security vulnerabilities, compliance violations, and deployment failures. Detection tools include terraform plan, AWS Config, and specialized drift detection services.
When You'll Hear This
"Someone changed the security group in the console and now we have drift." / "Run terraform plan regularly to catch infrastructure drift before it causes problems."
Related Terms
Drift Detection
Drift detection is the process of comparing what your infrastructure actually looks like versus what your code says it should look like.
Infrastructure as Code
ClickOps means building your cloud infrastructure by clicking buttons in AWS console.
Terraform
Terraform is a tool that lets you describe your entire cloud infrastructure in code files, then type one command to make it real.