Brian Grant
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bgrant0607.bsky.social
Brian Grant
@bgrant0607.bsky.social
1.8K followers 20 following 45 posts
CTO/cofounder of ConfigHub. Original lead architect of Kubernetes and creator of its declarative configuration model.
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bgrant0607.bsky.social
Overview of ConfigHub and the problems we are trying to solve on TNS: thenewstack.io/tech-veteran...
Tech Veterans’ New Approach To Eliminate ‘Configuration Hell’
Startup ConfigHub treats configuration as data rather than relying on endless opaque files generated in CI/CD pipelines.
thenewstack.io
November 26, 2025 at 3:58 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
Are you tired of writing the same kinds of configuration templates over and over again? Do you wish that configuration changes weren't so manual and error-prone?

Configuration as data could change that.

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#Kubernetes #GitOps #InfrastructureAsCode
Configuration needs an API
If configuration had an API, you could build and use tools to edit, inspect, and validate configuration.
medium.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:55 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
If you've ever had to "break glass" and change the state in the cluster directly rather than through git, you probably had to update the values or templates in git by hand afterwards. What if you could do that automatically?

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#Kubernetes #GitOps
What is Bidirectional GitOps?
An explanation of bidirectional GitOps and why and when it can be useful.
medium.com
November 17, 2025 at 5:24 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
Is maintaining multiple copies of fully rendered WET configuration feasible? How does ConfigHub do it without templates or patches? Is it even simpler?

Hopefully this post will answer those questions:
medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#Kubernetes #GitOps
How are Variants managed in ConfigHub?
Variants — similar but different related configurations — are very common. How does ConfigHub manage them using WET configuration?
medium.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:10 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
The past couple of weeks I've written about Configuration as Data.

This week I'm unveiling ConfigHub:
medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

If you're going to KubeCon and/or FluxCon in Atlanta, come see ConfigHub in action at our sessions. Links in a followup.

#Kubernetes #GitOps #InfrastructureAsCode
Introducing ConfigHub
Why ConfigHub manages configuration as data.
medium.com
October 28, 2025 at 5:30 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
Last week I defined "Configuration as Data". This week I sketched a real, if trivial, example of what that looks like in the context of Kubernetes, and compare it with Helm.

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#Kubernetes #GitOps #InfrastructureAsCode
A concrete example of Configuration as Data
A simple, concrete example of Configuration as Data.
medium.com
October 21, 2025 at 5:50 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
What is Configuration as Data? Why would anyone want to use that approach to manage configuration?

I wrote a brief post to explain it:
medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

If you already use the rendered manifest pattern, you're partway there.

I'll bee talking about it at Kubecon.

#Kubernetes #GitOps
What is Configuration as Data?
Explanation of “Configuration as Data” and its potential benefits.
medium.com
October 13, 2025 at 3:02 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
Do you use the rendered manifest pattern? Or when a project has a plain YAML installation, do you choose that? Do you wish you could? In this post, I explain why I do, using a specific chart as an example.

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#kubernetes #helm #gitops #infrastructureascode
I shouldn’t have to read installer code every day
I don’t want helm charts to be my interface to off-the-shelf components on a daily basis. Kubernetes resources are simpler.
medium.com
July 9, 2025 at 3:25 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
I've been trying AI coding assistants and agents for the past year. They finally seem good enough to use. WDYT?

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

What coding agents have you had success with?
Coding agents have turned a corner
Coding agents can now find and cherrypick the context they need, and plan and perform multi-step tasks.
medium.com
June 26, 2025 at 2:26 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
I've used quite a few terms in my posts, and sometimes they are misunderstood. So I created a glossary. Let me know what you think.

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

Is this useful? Not useful? Do you agree with my definitions?

#kubernetes #infrastructureascode #gitops
Kubernetes Configuration and Infrastructure as Code Taxonomy
A glossary of Kubernetes Configuration and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) terminology.
medium.com
April 7, 2025 at 5:02 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
What tools are available for managing applications across fleets of Kubernetes clusters? I took a look at what's out there. This is what I found.

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

Did I miss your favorite tool?

#Kubernetes
Managing Applications across Fleets of Kubernetes Clusters
What tools are available to manage applications across a fleet of Kubernetes clusters?
medium.com
March 31, 2025 at 6:36 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
A couple posts from our other investors:
pear.vc/confighub-ra...

encoded.vc/investment-i...
March 27, 2025 at 7:32 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
We finally have a website! And a few more clues regarding what we're up to.

www.confighub.com/news/configh...
crane.vc/announcing-c...
techcrunch.com/2025/03/26/c...
ConfigHub secures $4M to address the configuration crisis of application operations
Cloud-native leaders launch ConfigHub to unify configuration management with modern automated development workflows and compliance.
www.confighub.com
March 26, 2025 at 3:07 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
What is Infrastructure From Code, and what are its benefits and challenges?

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#infrastructureascode #infrastructurefromcode
Benefits and Challenges of Infrastructure From Code
What is Infrastructure From Code, how does it differ from IaC, and what are its benefits and challenges?
medium.com
March 10, 2025 at 4:24 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
I thought would be fun to revisit configuration-related proposals that didn't make it into Kubernetes.

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

Do you think we should have merged any of those proposals? What do you think is missing from the K8s resource configuration toolbox?

#kubernetes
Abandoned Kubernetes Configuration Ideas
From the beginning of the Kubernetes project, I had ideas and opinions about how declarative configuration should be supported. That led to…
medium.com
March 3, 2025 at 4:17 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
What are your favorite non-Infrastructure-as-Code automation tools for operations? Have you used notebook-based runbooks? If you also use IaC, how do you deal with drift?

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#infrastructureascode #kubernetes
Non-Infrastructure-as-Code-based Cloud and Kubernetes management and automation tools
There is an another world of automation tools outside Infrastructure as Code (IaC) that can achieve many of the same objectives, and even…
medium.com
February 24, 2025 at 6:20 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
What are configuration languages (aka DSLs)? Why would someone use one? Why would someone create a new one? Do they significantly reduce configuration complexity?

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#infrastructureascode #kubernetes
Can Configuration Languages (DSLs) solve configuration complexity?
Can configuration languages dramatically reduce configuration complexity?
medium.com
February 18, 2025 at 5:06 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
Should all developers deploying to the cloud and/or Kubernetes learn how to use Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools? Can they use IaC tools without understanding how they work and/or without understanding the underlying cloud APIs?

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#infrastructureascode #kubernetes
Should all developers learn Infrastructure as Code?
Should all developers deploying to the cloud and/or Kubernetes learn how to use Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools?
medium.com
February 10, 2025 at 4:59 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
'IaC tools do not “understand” the operational semantics of the infra.'

What does that mean? What are the consequences? Does it have to be that way? Are there tools that do understand more of the semantics?

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#infrastructureascode #infrastructurefromcode #kubernetes
Infrastructure as Code is too generic
Infrastructure as Code tools currently have no awareness of the purposes of configured resources or of the operations being performed.
medium.com
February 3, 2025 at 6:11 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
I'm working on a post about imperative management and automation tools. First I thought it would be useful to discuss how implementations of Infrastructure as Code tools differ from imperative user interface surfaces.

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#infrastructureascode
How Infrastructure as Code tool implementations differ from imperative tools’
How Infrastructure as Code is different from imperative user interface surfaces from an implementation point of view.
medium.com
January 27, 2025 at 4:42 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
Following up my previous couple posts about the mechanisms and capabilities of Infrastructure as Code and as background for upcoming posts, I wrote an overview of a primary construct of most IaC tools: packages.

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#infrastructureascode #kubernetes #gitops
Packages in Infrastructure as Code
If you’ve used Infrastructure as Code (IaC), you’ve almost certainly used IaC packages. This post digs deeper into their uses and pitfalls.
medium.com
January 20, 2025 at 5:08 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
The purpose of IaC depends on the use case, but I claim that the primary capability of IaC is the generation of multiple distinct configurations, variants, from the same IaC source code.

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

Do you agree?

#infrastructureascode #gitops
Variant generation is the primary capability of Infrastructure as Code
Variant generation, i.e. the generation of multiple distinct configurations from the same IaC code, is the primary capability of IaC.
medium.com
January 13, 2025 at 4:38 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
A response to my post about the unidirectional nature of IaC pointed out “compilers have this one-way code-in, object-code-out paradigm” and asked whether this was appropriate for expressing the desired state.

My answer:

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#infrastructureascode #terraform #kubernetes
Evaluating and applying Infrastructure as Code is not like compiling and deploying application code
Practices for building and deploying applications are not ideal for provisioning via Infrastructure as Code, due to critical differences.
medium.com
January 6, 2025 at 5:39 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
I identified twelve anti-factors that make Infrastructure as Code suboptimal. Do any of these anti-factors of IaC resonate with you? Have you encountered challenges I don't discuss? Have you tried an alternative to IaC?

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#infrastructureascode #kubernetes #terraform
The 12 Anti-factors of Infrastructure as Code
I discuss twelve “anti-factors” that make Infrastructure as Code suboptimal. This recaps my IaC posts from 2024.
medium.com
December 30, 2024 at 4:33 PM
bgrant0607.bsky.social
Infrastructure as Code is unidirectional and has an asymmetric experience where changes (writes) and observations (reads) are performed through different tools. What are some consequences of that? Is it really necessary?

medium.com/@bgrant0607/...

#infrastructureascode #kubernetes #terraform
The Unidirectionality of Infrastructure as Code creates Asymmetry
The combination of unidirectionality and exclusive actuation of Infrastructure as Code create an asymmetric user experience.
medium.com
December 23, 2024 at 5:23 PM