The Serverless Mindset and Infrastructure as Code
Tags: serverless, aws, devops, cloud
Published: 2023-12-05 19:01:36

---
title: The Serverless Mindset and Infrastructure as Code
published: true
date: 2023-12-05 12:12:03 UTC
tags: serverless,aws,devops,cloud
canonical_url: https://danielleheberling.xyz/blog/serverless-mindset-iac/
---

[![AWS Application Composer Canvas](https://danielleheberling.xyz/static/735287d984024a2b218d6206dc725b7c/fcda8/app-composer-canvas.png)](/static/735287d984024a2b218d6206dc725b7c/3b000/app-composer-canvas.png)

Originally, I wanted to blog about my favorite [re:Invent](https://reinvent.awsevents.com/) announcements. But as I started, I saw a higher level theme and decided to write on that instead.

_Disclaimer that this post contains my individual opinions and yours might differ. I welcome your polite/engaged feedback and encourage you to continue this conversation._

## Relevant Announcements

- [AWS Step Functions Workflow Studio is now available in AWS Application Composer](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-step-functions-workflow-studio-is-now-available-in-aws-application-composer/)
- [AWS Application Composer IDE extension](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/ide-extension-for-aws-application-composer-enhances-visual-modern-applications-development-with-ai-generated-iac/)

## A Lightbulb Moment

My time spent as a software engineer at `$day_job` is mostly writing Infrastructure as Code (IaC). When reflecting on the [Serverless mindset](https://ben11kehoe.medium.com/serverless-is-a-state-of-mind-717ef2088b42), I believe that some aspects of this mindset conflict with how I spend most of my time at `$day_job`.

✅ _Pros of the status quo:_ writing IaC is repeatable, scalable, fun, and I’m good at it! 🙂

🚫 _Con of the status quo:_ I find myself wanting to spend more time focusing on providing business value and less time thinking about tooling or specific settings for my cloud resources.

Then a thought occurred to me: **What if we didn’t have to write IaC? Why not have a deployable diagram of the application instead?**

This is where I think tools such as [AWS Application Composer](https://aws.amazon.com/application-composer/) and [AWS Step Functions Workflow Studio](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/step-functions/latest/dg/workflow-studio.html) are headed in a positive direction via their drag and drop visual interfaces.

[![Danielle Tweet](https://danielleheberling.xyz/static/85f0959f0e563d77293b492aaf982fce/fcda8/danielle-tweet.png)](/static/85f0959f0e563d77293b492aaf982fce/0d0e4/danielle-tweet.png)

## To a Brighter Future

[Werner Vogels](https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/about.html) said in his keynote that “the most dangerous phrase in the English language is: ‘we’ve always done it this way’.” I think this applies to how we’ve historically approached IaC with Serverless development.

[![Grace Hopper Quote](https://danielleheberling.xyz/static/3e62ee96242aab999f2387ff5cda2e5d/1c72d/hopper-quote.jpg)](/static/3e62ee96242aab999f2387ff5cda2e5d/e5166/hopper-quote.jpg)

Anecdotally, I’ve noticed that some experienced builders are ignoring updates to tools like this because they already know how to write IaC and think they don’t need a visual interface. I politely disagree.

To me, being able to more quickly collaborate, share, and deploy cloud resources is a huge win for everyone, regardless of experience level or job title. The primary focus can then be providing business value rather than figuring out how to write IaC for a specific cloud resource.

We have so much more to offer than expertise in the tools that we use. Embrace the Serverless mindset and demand a brigher future. 😎

[![Optimistic future](https://danielleheberling.xyz/static/ec676fd9dab6621077788ad33f7bbccf/fcda8/future.png)](/static/ec676fd9dab6621077788ad33f7bbccf/51800/future.png)