Terraform for foundations, Config Connector for workload-coupled infra
The two tools solve overlapping problems from different angles and must never manage the same live resource.
Speaker notes
- Terraform fits foundational, shared infrastructure reviewed by the platform team in its own repo and tooling — networks, org policy, IAM. Config Connector fits namespace-scoped, workload-adjacent infrastructure a feature team owns alongside their own application manifests, reviewed in the exact same pull request as the Deployment YAML.
- State the hard rule plainly: never let both tools manage the same live GCP resource — each reconciler assumes sole ownership, and two controllers fighting over one resource produces a real, hard-to-debug flapping state where each reverts the other's most recent change.
- This mirrors the earlier finding that these tools 'occupy three layers, not compete' — provisioning foundations, workload-coupled resources, and release delivery are each better served by a different tool, used together deliberately rather than one 'winner' replacing the others.
Deck map
01
One pipeline, built deliberately
02
PCDE sections 1-2, and where this course sits in the track
03
ACE operates a resource; PCDE designs the system
04
One tooling project, not one pipeline per environment
05
Dev, staging, and prod should never share one policy
06
What actually crosses the project boundary: a token, never a key
07
A hand-run command leaves no record of why
08
Local Terraform state is a production incident waiting to happen
09
Cloud Foundation Toolkit and Fabric FAST: forked, never left unmodified
10
Terraform for foundations, Config Connector for workload-coupled infra
11
Git decides, automation reconciles — no human runs apply
12
Cloud Build's whole job: source in, tested artifact out
13
Built-in substitutions are automatic; user-defined ones need an underscore
14
An unfiltered branch trigger is a budget incident waiting to happen
15
Three repository modes, and scanning stops at the virtual layer
16
Cheap checks first, expensive checks last
17
Cloud Build produces; Cloud Deploy promotes — never the reverse
18
Four objects: DeliveryPipeline, Target, Release, Rollout
19
Canary limits exposure; blue/green makes the cutover atomic
20
A human gates production; automation gates everything else
21
Meridian's full path: merge to production, one continuous record
22
Credentials go in Secret Manager; configuration goes in Parameter Manager
23
An ENV baked into a Dockerfile is still build-time injection
24
One question resolves almost every config-placement decision
25
Ephemeral environments need a TTL, or they're not actually ephemeral
26
Rapid, Regular, Stable — and a maintenance exclusion set too late doesn't help
27
A compromised pipeline is every environment it deploys to
28
SLSA grades the pipeline's trustworthiness, not any single artifact
29
Default-deny, or an unlisted cluster accepts anything
30
Only /home survives a session — everything else is rebuilt fresh
31
Every chapter of this course, in one sequence
32
Readiness checklist