With crossplanes, Helm is all you need
The article discusses how using Crossplane and Helm together simplifies cloud infrastructure management. By treating infrastructure as Kubernetes resources and managing them with Helm charts, the approach makes complex cloud provisioning "boring" and reliable, which is praised as a positive outcome for engineering teams.
Background
- **Crossplane** is an open-source Kubernetes add-on that lets teams manage cloud infrastructure (databases, storage, networking) using the same Kubernetes-native tools they use for apps. It turns cloud resources into Kubernetes "custom resources."
- **Helm** is the standard package manager for Kubernetes. Developers use "Helm charts" to deploy configurable groups of Kubernetes objects. The article argues that with Crossplane, Helm can now manage both apps and the underlying cloud infrastructure in one chart.
- The piece builds on a well-known DevOps saying: "boring infrastructure" (stable, predictable, reliable) is good. The author's point is that Crossplane now makes the infrastructure layer boring too — and that's a compliment.
- **Why it matters**: Teams can define everything from cloud databases to app deployments in a single Helm chart, simplifying operations. This is a step toward "platform engineering," where infrastructure becomes invisible to developers.