Catching Cost Issues in Infrastructure as Code Artifacts using Linters

Bolhuis, Koen (2024) Catching Cost Issues in Infrastructure as Code Artifacts using Linters. Master's Thesis / Essay, Computing Science.

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Abstract

Cost concerns have historically been a driving factor in cloud adoption. As the complexity of cloud-based software systems grows, and with it the need to manage increasingly intricate infrastructures, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) approaches have become indispensable tools. However, few studies have examined the cost implications of IaC usage for cloud software. In this research, we use an existing dataset that analyzed cost-related commits on IaC artifacts from open-source repositories. We apply thematic analysis to the commits' contents to identify recurring effective and ineffective practices and we compile a catalog of cost management patterns and antipatterns. This catalog can serve as a foundation for improving cost-efficiency, but to foster adoption it would be beneficial to incorporate the patterns and antipatterns directly into the development toolchain. Since static analysis tools such as linters are widely used to improve non-functional properties and catch issues in IaC scripts, and because existing tools both in literature and industry focus on security and code quality concerns as opposed to cost management, we implement selected (anti)patterns as rules in two popular linters, Checkov and TFLint, to aid developers in cost-effective IaC development.

Item Type:	Thesis (Master's Thesis / Essay)
Supervisor name:	Andrikopoulos, V. and Feitosa, D.
Degree programme:	Computing Science
Thesis type:	Master's Thesis / Essay
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	02 Aug 2024 06:57
Last Modified:	02 Aug 2024 06:57
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/33811

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