The case for boring infrastructure

There's a version of every infrastructure project that reaches for the newest orchestration layer, the trendiest managed service, the architecture that would make for a good conference talk. We rarely build that version.

Most businesses don't need infrastructure that impresses other engineers. They need infrastructure that a new hire can understand in a week, that fails predictably, and that doesn't require the person who built it to still be on staff three years later.

Optimize for the team that inherits it

• Choose managed services over self-hosted complexity unless there's a real reason not to
• Write infrastructure as code so environments are reproducible, not remembered
• Document the 'why' behind every non-obvious decision, not just the 'how'

Boring, well-documented infrastructure is a competitive advantage. It's just not one that shows up in a demo.