Crossplane Has a Free API: Manage Cloud Infrastructure with Kubernetes-Native IaC

What is Crossplane? Crossplane extends Kubernetes to become a universal control plane for cloud infrastructure. Instead of Terraform CLI + state files, you manage AWS, GCP, and Azure resources using kubectl and Kubernetes-native YAML — with drift detection, reconciliation, and GitOps built in. Why Crossplane Over Terraform? Kubernetes-native — manage infra with kubectl, not a separate CLI Continuous reconciliation — drift detection is automatic (Terraform only checks on plan/apply) Compositions — build platform APIs ("give me a database" = RDS + security group + subnet) No state files — Kubernetes IS the state store GitOps ready — ArgoCD/FluxCD apply infra changes like app deployments Quick Start # Install Crossplane helm repo add crossplane-stable https://charts.crossplane.io/stable helm install crossplane crossplane-stable/crossplane \ --namespace crossplane-system --create-namespace # Install AWS provider kubectl apply -f - <<EOF apiVersion: pkg.crossplane.io/v1 kind: Provider