Infrastructure from Code Autonomous Infrastrcture

StackGen vs Firefly

Author:

Alex Cho

| Oct 03, 2025

Firefly catalogs what’s running. StackGen builds and manages what’s next

Firefly helps you track cloud assets. StackGen builds, governs, heals, and optimizes infrastructure end to end.

Firefly tracks cloud assets and surfaces drift. StackGen goes further with an Autonomous Infrastructure Platform that generates compliant IaC, enforces policies, remediates incidents, and continuously optimizes cost and performance through AI agents like StackBuilder, StackGuard, StackHealer, and StackOptimizer.

Stackgen infrastructure doesn’t just get managed, it operates itself. Every workflow starts with a conversation with StackGen AI, a ChatGPT-like interface where teams describe intent in natural language and receive compliant infrastructure, drift reports, or optimization insights as linked artifacts.

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StackGen vs. Firefly

Platform Capabilities

Feature	Stackgen	Firefly
Infrastructure from Code (IfC)	Supports Terraform IaC generation from app code, canvas UI, Terraform state, live cloud, Backstage models, and AI prompts	Limited to live cloud discovery
Visual Infrastructure Design	Visual drag-and-drop canvas (Infracomposer)	No visual design capabilities
Policy Enforcement	Policies embedded during generation (IAM, security, architecture patterns) with StackGuard	AI-native Policy-as-Code; validates and enforces policies via IaC workflows
Asset Discovery	Full cloud asset discovery with dependency-aware module carve-outs	Discovery without dependency mapping or module substitution
Security & Compliance	Auto-remediation of violations with one-click fixes and embedded policy packs	Detection and AI suggestions only; no automated enforcement
Compliance Dashboard	Centralized dashboard across appStacks with support for MARS-E, NIST, CIS	Not available
Drift Management	Visual diffs, cross-environment drift detection, automated remediation (StackAnchor)	Single-environment drift detection with AI suggestions
Module Lifecycle	GenAI-powered module editor, version control, VS Code plugin, registry publishing	Not supported
GenAI Integration	Full GenAI support: infra creation, policy logic, module authoring	Limited to AI suggestions for drift remediation
Cloud Migration	Live migration across AWS, Azure, GCP with full Terraform generation	Not supported
Cloud-to-Code	Scans existing AWS, Azure, GCP infrastructure to generate Terraform for re-architecture	Not supported; limited to live discovery
Dev & DevOps Collaboration	Structured producer-consumer flows, PR-driven deployment via GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins with approvals and guardrails	No modular collaboration model
Ecosystem Integration	Terraform & OpenTofu, Terraform Registry, GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, Backstage, CI/CD, cloud providers	Git, CI/CD, and Backstage plugin for visibility
Pricing Model	Free to use for individual developers. Enterprise Edition for SaaS model	Tiered pricing based on usage and features, with advanced capabilities gated behind higher plans

Autonomous Infrastructure Beyond Visibility

From discovery to self-operating infrastructure

Firefly makes your cloud visible. StackGen makes it semi-autonomous by having agents work behind the scenes while maintaining important human-in-the-loop decisions. Instead of stopping at asset catalogs and drift alerts, StackGen embeds intelligence across the entire lifecycle so infrastructure creates itself, governs itself, heals itself, and optimizes itself.

Self-Provisioning

Provisioning starts with StackGen AI. Developers describe intent in natural language, and StackGen AI works with StackBuilder behind the scene to generate production-ready infrastructure. They can provision and then refine results via app code, visual workflows, or reusable blueprints, with guardrails and compliance baked in from the start. This accelerates onboarding, shortens delivery times, and eliminates the IaC learning curve that slows teams down.

Self-Governing

Compliance isn’t left for audits or post-deploy scans. StackGuard enforces policies at generation, validating against FedRAMP, HIPAA, NIST, and custom frameworks in real time. By embedding governance directly into the code artifacts, StackGen ensures every environment meets enterprise standards the moment it’s created.

Self-Healing

When drift or incidents appear, StackGen doesn’t just notify, it acts. StackHealer triages and remediates incidents in under 5 minutes, while StackAnchor continuously scans for configuration drift and automatically rolls environments back to a known-good state. The result is fewer outages and reduced firefighting for SREs, with remediation details surfaced back in the AI interface as linked artifacts for full traceability.

Self-Optimizing

Infrastructure isn’t static, and neither is StackGen. With StackOptimizer, cost, performance, and reliability are analyzed continuously. The system flags wasteful configs, recommends right-sizing, and delivers proactive optimization before issues reach production, keeping environments lean and reliable at scale.

From Observability to Autonomous Outcomes

Why StackGen delivers impact where Firefly stops

Firefly improves visibility but leaves execution in the hands of platform teams. StackGen eliminates the gap between detection and action, automating infrastructure across the full lifecycle. The difference shows up in four critical outcomes:

Developer Productivity

With StackGen, developers provision infrastructure through app-driven intent or visual workflows, no Terraform expertise required. This cuts infrastructure lift by over 90%, freeing teams to focus on features instead of templates.

Firefly, by contrast, provides visibility into cloud assets but no creation path. Developers remain dependent on platform engineers to write and manage IaC.

Platform Team Efficiency

StackGen reduces repetitive IaC authoring and review cycles with reusable blueprints and policy-embedded generation. Platform engineers spend less time maintaining IaC and more time scaling services.

Firefly flags drift and sync issues but requires teams to update and validate their Terraform manually. The manual burden stays high.

Security Posture

StackGuard ensures every artifact generated by StackGen complies with enterprise frameworks (NIST, HIPAA, FedRAMP, custom rules). Compliance is guaranteed before deployment, not after.

Firefly surfaces compliance gaps and offers AI-powered suggestions, but it cannot enforce fixes automatically.

Reliability & MTTR

StackGen’s StackHealer and StackAnchor agents resolve issues in real time, reducing MTTR to under 5 minutes and preventing drift before it spreads.

Firefly detects drift at the environment level but relies on engineers to manually remediate, increasing time-to-resolution and risk of outages.

Ecosystem Fit Without Extra Handoff

StackGen integrates where teams already work

StackGen was designed to plug into the tools enterprises rely on, extending beyond visibility to deliver generation, governance, and optimization across the stack.

Cloud Providers

Full-stack support for AWS, Azure, and GCP, covering discovery, generation, migration, and continuous optimization.

CI/CD Tools

Seamless integration with GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, and Bitbucket to enable PR-driven deployments, automated approvals, and embedded policy guardrails.

Developer Platforms

A Backstage plugin purpose-built for governed AppStack provisioning, giving developers a self-service workflow with built-in compliance.

Security Tools

Native integrations with Wiz, Palo Alto, and Tenable ensure security posture and compliance policies are enforced at the point of infrastructure generation.

App-Driven Infrastructure

Unique Infrastructure from Code (IfC) support, transforming Java, Python, and C# annotations into compliant Terraform without manual authoring.

From Visibility to Autonomy: Outcomes That Matter

StackGen isn’t just about infrastructure visibility; it delivers measurable results across creation, governance, and operations

reduction in manual provisioning effort

through Infrastructure from Code and visual workflows.

Faster onboarding for developers

with reusable AppStacks, pre-validated blueprints, and no IaC expertise required.

Stronger compliance posture

with policies embedded at generation time, aligned to standards like MARS-E, HIPAA, and NIST.

Reduced operational incidents

with StackHealer and StackAnchor remediating drift and policy violations before they escalate.

Continuous cost and performance optimization

Infrastructure as a force multiplier

one platform that builds, governs, heals, and optimizes itself.

Fits Seamlessly Into Your Existing Stack

StackGen connects with the tools and platforms your teams already rely on, so adoption is fast and low-friction

Cloud Providers: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud (multi-cloud provisioning, migration, and drift management).
IaC Frameworks: Terraform, OpenTofu, Helm (import/export, state handling, module reuse).
CI/CD Systems: GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, Bitbucket (PR-driven deployments with approvals and guardrails).
Developer Platforms: Native Backstage plugin for governed self-service and appStack provisioning.
Security Tools: Integrates with Wiz, Palo Alto, and Tenable for posture enforcement and continuous compliance.
Identity & Access: SAML, OIDC, LDAP, GitHub/GitLab OAuth for enterprise-grade governance.

With this breadth of integrations, StackGen enhances your ecosystem without vendor lock-in or forcing new workflows.

Stop Just Observing. Start Building Autonomous Infrastructure

Firefly helps you track what exists. StackGen goes further by building, governing, healing, and optimizing infrastructure from end to end.

See how the Autonomous Infrastructure Platform turns application intent into secure, compliant, and self-operating cloud environments.

Book a demo to experience StackGen in action