Separating Concerns: Developers vs. Operations

When you’re building applications for the cloud, you naturally use a cloud provider’s SDK—AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure, for example—to interact with services like storage buckets, queues, or databases. What seems straightforward at first can grow into a challenge. Before you know it, your application logic is tangled up in cloud-specific configuration, and two critical teams—Development and Operations—end up stepping on each other’s toes.

The Real Cost of Mixing Code and Cloud Config

Cloud SDKs were designed to make cloud resources easy to access from your codebase. But the convenience they bring also drags provisioning details into application code. In other words, a developer writes logic to “store a file” and ends up having to specify which S3 bucket, its region, and the permission settings. This bleeds infrastructure concerns into the application domain.

For developers, this means spending extra time wrangling IAM permissions and resource configurations instead of focusing on product features.

For operations, it forces them to decode the application’s code just to understand everything that needs provisioning. Suddenly, managing the application’s infrastructure is more about code archaeology than consistent, reliable deployment strategies.

Why Separating Concerns Matters

In well-functioning organizations, developers and operations each have distinct objectives:

• Developers want to deliver business value quickly. They need to focus on crafting features and refining user experiences, not dealing with the specifics of IAM policies or message queue retention.
• Operations want to ensure those applications run reliably, securely, and cost-effectively in production. They need the freedom to optimize and manage cloud services without rewriting application code.

When either side is forced to handle the other’s responsibilities, it creates friction. This friction can manifest as slower deployments, increased bugs, and a lot of confusion about who is responsible for what.

A Better Way

The key to restoring order is to isolate cloud resource details behind an abstraction. Instead of importing AWS S3 or Google Cloud Storage SDKs directly in your application code, you can use a framework like Nitric that exposes common operations—like creating an API route or storing a file—without tying you to a specific cloud provider.

Consider this code snippet (TypeScript):

import { schedule, bucket } from '@nitric/sdk'

const profiles = bucket('profiles').allow('write'); // Developer expresses "write" intent

schedule('process-often').every('1 days', async (ctx) => {
  const profile = 'image data';
  await profiles.file('image.png').write(profile); // Developer doesn't worry about S3 or GCS
});

Developer’s Perspective

Developers can now write application logic with minimal infrastructure distractions. They know there’s a storage bucket available, but they don’t need to specify which region it’s in or which encryption rules are in place. Their code focuses on creating user value—storing images, sending messages, processing events, etc.

Operations’ Perspective

Operations sees a clearly defined “bucket” resource. They decide whether it’s an S3 bucket, a GCS bucket, or something else. They can choose to enable cross-region replication or encryption, all within their own IaC configuration. Developers aren’t forced to refactor or even touch the code; the ops team simply updates the infrastructure modules as needed.

The Missing Link: Automating the Specification

Abstracting the cloud details is only half the battle. You also need a mechanism to document and communicate which resources each application needs.

Tools like Nitric scan your code to gather a specification of resources used at runtime:

• Buckets
• Schedules
• Queues or Topics
• Access policies
• Services

That spec is automatically generated—no guesswork. As a result:

• Developers don’t have to manually create or maintain a list of necessary resources.
• Operations receives a clear map of what the application needs, making provisioning easier and more consistent.

Here’s an example of the kind of specification that might be generated:

{
  "resources": [
    {
      "id": { "type": "Bucket", "name": "profiles" },
      "bucket": {}
    },
    {
      "id": { "type": "Schedule", "name": "process-often" },
      "schedule": {
        "target": { "service": "demo_services-hello" },
        "every": { "rate": "1 days" }
      }
    },
    ...
  ]
}

Converting Specifications into IaC

Once you have a consolidated specification, you can “transpile” it into Terraform, CloudFormation, or other Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools. For instance, Nitric can automatically generate a Terraform stack using the CDK for Terraform (CDKTF).

• Developers remain blissfully unaware of the provider-specific config.
• Operations is free to create or reuse modules that set up buckets, schedules, or messages exactly how they want. They can decide on replication strategies, naming conventions, and compliance rules—all outside the application code.

The Outcome: Clear Boundaries, Less Friction

By pushing cloud-specific details out of application code, teams can return to their core competencies:

1. Developers focus on creating rich features and experiences.
2. Operations ensures robust, secure, and efficient infrastructure.

This is a sustainable model that benefits both sides:

• Less context-switching: Developers don’t wade into Ops territory.
• Fewer misconfigurations: Operations controls provisioning details centrally.
• Faster deployments: Changes no longer hinge on back-and-forth clarifications or digging into code to find resource dependencies.

Conclusion: Level Up Your Dev–Ops Collaboration

Separation of concerns isn’t a new concept, but it’s often overlooked in cloud development. Mixing infrastructure configurations directly into application code can weigh down both developers and operations, slowing innovation and complicating deployments. By abstracting away cloud SDKs and automating infrastructure specifications, each team can focus on what they do best.

Ready to see it in action? Explore Nitric to discover how you can simplify your application code, streamline provisioning, and enjoy smoother collaboration between Dev and Ops. It’s a win for developer creativity, a win for operational control—and a big win for your entire organization.