Engineering Insights
Real cost breakdowns, migration war stories, and technical decisions that worked (and didn't).
Run Ansible Playbook From Terraform: Provision and Configure EC2 in AWS
This project demonstrates how to combine Terraform and Ansible to fully automate both infrastructure provisioning and post‑deployment configuration for an AWS bastion host. Specifically, it uses Terraform to define and deploy an EC2 instance as a bastion host, then immediately runs an Ansible playbook to install Docker and Docker Compose v2 on that instance, eliminating manual steps and reducing operational toil. The repository follows a modular directory structure (modules/ec2, modules/sshkey, ansible/) that separates infrastructure definitions from configuration logic. After setting VPC ID, subnet IDs, and SSH key variables, users run terraform plan and terraform apply, then Terraform’s provisioners handle SSH connectivity, bootstrap Ansible installation, and execute the playbook. This pattern streamlines Bastion host provisioning and automation by integrating Terraform with Ansible in a single workflow.
Infrastructure as Code: 5 Best Practices for Scale
Stop clicking in the console. Learn the 5 non-negotiable best practices for scaling your Infrastructure as Code using Terraform.
CI/CD Guardrails: Preventing Friday Deployments
Ship fast without breaking prod. Our 5 guardrails: change windows, policy-as-code, canary releases, SLO-based gating, and automated rollback.
GitOps Best Practices: ArgoCD vs Flux in Production
From the three-repository pattern to progressive delivery with Argo Rollouts. Real-world GitOps architecture that eliminates drift and provides audit trails.
Terraform State Management: Kill Local State
Why committing .tfstate to Git is a security disaster. A guide to setting up robust S3+DynamoDB remote backends with encryption and locking.
Zero-Downtime Database Migration: Our Playbook
Migrating a 2TB database is easy if you can take 8 hours of downtime. Migrating it with zero downtime is an art form—here’s the expand/contract playbook.
Multi-Cloud vs. Cloud-Agnostic: The Difference Matters
Running on two clouds usually means double the pain. True portability comes from open standards (K8s, Terraform) and abstraction layers, not just multiple accounts.
Kubernetes Migration Failures: Top 5 Technical Mistakes
Migrations don't fail because of K8s; they fail because of assumptions. From OOMKills to 'flat network' traps, here are the technical reasons migrations blow up.
Why We Don’t Use Managed PaaS (And When You Should)
PaaS feels like magic until the bill hits $10k. We analyze the 'PaaS Tax', the observability black box, and when it makes sense to migrate to your own ECS or K8s clusters.
The Real Cost of Running Kubernetes on AWS (2025 Edition)
EKS control plane costs are just the tip of the iceberg. A deep dive into hidden costs: cross-AZ traffic, NAT gateways, and unoptimized detailed technical breakdown.