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Why We Built PatternedDesigns

The case for buying infrastructure foundations instead of rebuilding them.

Every engineering organization rebuilds the same infrastructure foundations. VPCs. IAM roles. S3 buckets. Security groups. The patterns are identical across companies, yet everyone writes them from scratch.

This is expensive insurance against a problem someone already solved.

The Problem: Terraform Modules Rot

Internal Terraform modules have a predictable lifecycle:

  1. Initial enthusiasm - Engineer writes clean, well-documented module
  2. Production deployment - Module works, team moves on
  3. Drift begins - AWS provider updates, new security requirements emerge
  4. Maintenance burden - Original author leaves, module ownership becomes unclear
  5. Abandonment - Copy-paste becomes easier than fixing the module

Six months later, you’re deploying infrastructure from vendor examples because your internal modules are out of date.

Why Buying Makes Sense

Terraform modules are infrastructure commodities. The VPC you deploy should be indistinguishable from the VPC your competitor deploys. There’s no competitive advantage in owning VPC boilerplate.

What matters is what you build on top of the foundation.

You Don’t Build Your Own Compiler

When you write Python, you don’t build CPython from source every time. You install it. You trust the maintainers. You focus on your application logic.

Infrastructure should work the same way.

Continuous Maintenance is the Hard Part

Writing a Terraform module takes hours. Maintaining it for 5 years takes months:

  • Provider updates every 6 weeks
  • Security patches for CVEs
  • Compliance requirements change
  • New AWS features require module updates
  • Documentation decays without active maintenance

PatternedDesigns exists because someone should own this burden full-time, and it shouldn’t be your platform engineers.

What We’re Building

Production-grade Terraform modules designed as a cohesive system:

  • Opinionated defaults that follow AWS best practices
  • Security baked in (encryption, least privilege, audit logging)
  • Compliance-ready (CIS benchmarks, SOC2 patterns)
  • Continuously maintained with weekly provider updates

Not a catalog of isolated modules. A foundation you can trust.

The Alternative: Build vs Buy

If you build:

  • Full control over implementation details
  • No external dependency
  • Custom patterns for your org
  • Cost: 1-2 platform engineers maintaining modules full-time

If you buy PatternedDesigns:

  • Standard patterns (99% of orgs don’t need custom)
  • External dependency (mitigated: it’s just Terraform, zero lock-in)
  • Continuous updates without internal maintenance
  • Cost: $2,400/year

For most organizations, buying is the rational choice.

Who Should Buy This

You should buy PatternedDesigns if:

  • You have 3+ platform engineers
  • You’re rebuilding infrastructure foundations from scratch
  • Your internal modules are outdated or unmaintained
  • You value velocity over NIH syndrome

You should not buy this if:

  • You need highly custom infrastructure patterns
  • You have strong compliance requirements that require custom modules
  • You have dedicated engineers maintaining internal modules

We’re not trying to be everything to everyone. We’re trying to be the best foundation for organizations that want to stop rebuilding commodities.

What’s Next

This is version 0.1.0. The foundation is proven (we use it ourselves), but there’s more to build:

  • More modules across categories
  • Policy automation (OPA, Sentinel)
  • Deployment orchestration (beyond Terraform)
  • Hardened AMI distribution

Each product stands alone. Together they form a cohesive platform.

Questions? Email us at sales@patterneddesigns.ca