IaC Tools 2025: The Shortlist DevOps Teams Use (now Proton's gone)

Description

AWS Proton is being deprecated in October 2026. In this video I explain what Proton was, why it’s going away, and the best alternatives so you can migrate safely and avoid surprises. I compare AWS’s own suggestions with purpose-built IaC orchestration tools and show where each option fits for teams of different sizes and compliance needs. Spacelift: https://spacelift.io/?utm_source=merge-ready formae: https://platform.engineering/formae/?utm_source=merge-ready InfoQ Article: https://www.infoq.com/news/2025/10/iac-formae/?utm_source=merge-ready Terramate: https://terramate.io/?utm_source=merge-ready Env Zero: https://www.env0.com/?utm_source=merge-ready Merge Ready LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/merge-ready Covered: - What AWS Proton did and the deprecation timeline - Why CloudFormation Git Sync, CodePipeline and CodeBuild are limited for IaC - Better options: Spacelift, HCP Terraform / Terraform Cloud, env0, Terramate, and the new agent-based Formae - Governance, policy as code (OPA/Sentinel), drift detection, state, and GitOps workflows - Practical migration tips and selection criteria Quick recommendations - Spacelift: policy-driven multi-IaC orchestration, strong governance and drift detection - HCP Terraform / Terraform Cloud: first-party Terraform, managed state, policies, registry - env0: governance-first IaC automation with cost guardrails and remediation - Terramate: large-scale Terraform/OpenTofu orchestration and change detection - GitHub Actions: OK for small teams; better DX than CodePipeline/CodeBuild but not IaC-native - CloudFormation Git Sync: only if you must stay all-in on AWS and already use CloudFormation Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:24 What is AWS Proton? 01:13 Deprecation timeline 01:32 Console access and AWS notice 01:53 AWS-recommended options reviewed 03:54 CodePipeline/CodeBuild drawbacks for IaC 06:17 GitHub Actions vs AWS CI/CD 07:18 Third-party options that actually fit IaC 08:04 Spacelift overview 09:45 HCP Terraform / Terraform Cloud 10:13 env0 10:45 Formae (new IaC tool) 11:34 Recap and tool fit 12:47 Quick comparison list 13:05 Outro If this helped, subscribe for more straight-talk DevOps content.