Abstract In this blog post, we’ll explore the common sources of friction that teams encounter when writing, deploying, supporting, and securing applications. We’ll examine various personas within a team and discuss how the HashiCorp stack, comprising Terraform, Vault, and Consul, can help alleviate these challenges and foster a high-functioning, content team. Introduction Friction is an ever-present challenge in the world of software development and IT operations. In today’s interconnected IT landscape, teams across various domains face a multitude of hurdles when it comes to writing, deploying, supporting, and securing applications and systems.

Recently, I’ve been feeling tired, really tired. The kind of tiredness that isn’t fixed by a good night’s sleep. On a drive home the other day, my mind was buzzing with thoughts of work until it landed on something different – my new hobby, scuba diving. Not long ago, my eldest son and I completed our PADI Open Water scuba certification. In our training, we learned about ‘safety stops’ - a planned 3-minute pause during the ascent from a dive.