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What are the best practices for managing infrastructure drift in cloud environments?
Asked on Feb 20, 2026
Answer
Managing infrastructure drift in cloud environments is crucial for maintaining consistency and reliability in your deployments. Drift occurs when the actual state of infrastructure deviates from the desired state defined in your Infrastructure as Code (IaC) configurations. To effectively manage drift, you should implement a combination of monitoring, automation, and IaC best practices.
Example Concept: Use a GitOps approach to manage infrastructure drift by ensuring that all infrastructure changes are made through version-controlled IaC files. Regularly apply these configurations using tools like Terraform or AWS CloudFormation to detect and correct drift. Implement automated drift detection mechanisms that alert the team when discrepancies are found, allowing for prompt remediation.
Additional Comment:
- Regularly audit your infrastructure using IaC tools to detect and correct drift.
- Integrate drift detection into your CI/CD pipeline to automate checks.
- Use cloud-native tools like AWS Config or Azure Policy for continuous monitoring.
- Ensure all infrastructure changes go through a version-controlled process.
- Educate your team on the importance of adhering to IaC practices to prevent manual changes.
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