For World Emoji Day, we broke down the highs, lows, and pitfalls of infrastructure as code — one emoji at a time. The result: the first DevOps Emoji Glossary, built for anyone who’s faced IaC drift, broken pipelines, or unexpected automation outcomes.
From terraform maps to firefighting misconfigurations, this glossary translates real infrastructure issues into emoji form. It also highlights areas like FinOps, Cloud DR, and IaC risk — because sometimes, the cloud really is too messy for words. 🧱🔥😵
If you’re a DevOps Manager or part of a DevSecOps team, this one’s for you.
Terraform and IaC Concepts in the DevOps Emoji Glossary
terraform init – 🧱🔨🧰
- Getting the toolbox ready. First step of the chaos.
- What Terrafrom Init – Automation Guide
terraform plan – 🧠📜🤔
- Thinking hard about what to break next.
- What is Terraform Plan
terraform apply – 🚀🔁🏗️
- Apply complete. Consequences pending.
- What is Terraform Apply
terraform destroy – 🟪☠️🔥🗑️
- Hope you saved a backup… oh wait.
- Video Guide – Using the Terraform Destroy Command
Migrating to OpenTofu – 🟪 ➡️ 🟨
- Same syntax. More freedom.
- Migrating to OpenTofu from Terraform
- Our Step by Step guide how to move from Terrafrom to OpenTofu
Terraform Refresh – 🟪🚿☁️
- terraform refresh updates your state file with reality. Sometimes that’s a comfort. Other times… surprise drift.
- Terraform Refresh Docs
Terraform Maps – 🗺️🔢📦
- Terraform Maps let you define key-value pairs – until someone tries to flatten them inside a loop.
- What is Terraform Maps and how use them smartly
Terraform List – 🟪📋
- Lists are ordered data structures. Great for subnet IDs. Less great when you lose count.
Using Terrafrom List – Guide
Drift – 😵🌀🙈
- Infra doing its own thing. Again.
- Learn More: The Definitive Guide For Terraform Drift Detection
ClickOps – 🖱️🚨☁️🤯
- Manual changes: fast now, pain forever.
- What is ClickOps and how to face it
IaC Risk Index – ⚠️📉🔐
- IaC gives you power – but with power comes risk. Misconfigs, exposure, and missing guardrails aren’t just emoji-worthy… they’re real.
DevOps and Cloud Topics in the Emoji Glossary
GitOps – 🤖📥📦
- GitOps is a deployment model where infrastructure is managed through pull requests and Git workflows. It brings automation and consistency — until someone force-pushes
- CNCF GitOps Primer →
FinOps – 💸📊🧮
- FinOps helps teams optimize cloud spend and bring financial accountability to engineering. It’s where cost meets chaos.
- What is Finops
DevOps – 🧱🔧🚀
- DevOps aligns development and operations through automation and tooling. It’s what makes infrastructure both faster — and more fragile.
- DevOps – Defined
DevSecOps – 🔐🧪⚙️
- DevSecOps weaves security into every pipeline, every commit, and every deploy. Less bolt-on, more built-in.
- What is DevSecOps? – Everything You Need To Know
DevOps Manager – 🧠📈🛠️
- Part leader, part fire-fighter, part automation evangelist. If you’ve ever shouted “who clicked that?!” — you might be one.
- Want to become DevOps Manger? Full guide on how to become DevOps Director.
SRE Manager – ⏱️💡🔧
- SRE Managers balance incidents, SLAs, and scaling… usually with a Slack tab open.
- How to become SRE Manager
Cloud DR – ☁️💾♻️
- Cloud Disaster Recovery isn’t just snapshots – it’s about recovering your config, state, and sanity.
- Learn more about Cloud DR
Download the DevOps Emoji Glossary PDF
📥 Want this as a shareable visual deck for your team or Slack channel?
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