Stop Paying for Vendor Lock-In: Master Cloud-Agnostic Development

Finally escape the cloud provider trap with battle-tested patterns that let you deploy anywhere, migrate freely, and optimize costs automatically.

The Multi-Cloud Prison You're Already In

You've seen the horror stories. Companies spending months migrating off AWS because of unexpected cost spikes. Teams stuck rebuilding applications when Google Cloud deprecates yet another service. Engineers burning weekends trying to replicate production issues because their staging environment uses different cloud services.

The problem isn't using cloud providers – it's becoming dependent on them. Every proprietary SDK you integrate, every managed service you rely on, every vendor-specific API you call builds another bar in your cloud prison.

What if you could build once and deploy anywhere?

Your Cloud Freedom Blueprint

These Cursor Rules transform how you architect cloud applications. Instead of writing code that only works on one provider, you'll build truly portable systems using Go, Kubernetes, and infrastructure-as-code patterns that work identically across AWS, GCP, Azure, or even on-premises.

This isn't about avoiding the cloud – it's about using it on your terms.

What You Get Out of the Box

Portable Application Architecture

• Go microservices with interface-driven design that abstracts away cloud specifics
• Kubernetes manifests that deploy identically across any conformant cluster
• Terraform modules that provision equivalent infrastructure on any major provider

Production-Ready Patterns

• Structured error handling with transient vs permanent error classification
• OpenTelemetry observability that works with any monitoring backend
• Security policies implemented consistently regardless of underlying platform

Workflow Automation

• GitOps deployment pipelines that target any cloud with zero configuration changes
• Cost optimization controllers that automatically shift workloads to cheaper regions
• Disaster recovery that activates in alternate regions with a single command

Key Benefits: Real Productivity Gains

Eliminate Cloud Migration Anxiety

Stop second-guessing architectural decisions because you're afraid of vendor lock-in. Build with confidence knowing you can move workloads between providers in days, not months.

Before: 6-month migration project to move from AWS to GCP
After: Identical Terraform apply in new region, DNS cutover in 1 hour

Accelerate Development Velocity

Your team writes code once and deploys everywhere. No more maintaining separate implementations for different environments or clouds.

Concrete Example: Authentication service works identically in local Kind cluster, staging on GKE, production on EKS, and disaster recovery on AKS – same Docker image, same Helm chart, same configuration.

Optimize Costs Automatically

Built-in workload placement controllers read spot pricing APIs and automatically schedule non-critical workloads on the cheapest available resources across providers.

Real Impact: One team reduced compute costs by 40% by automatically shifting batch workloads between AWS spot instances and GCP preemptible VMs based on real-time pricing.

Debugging Consistency

Reproduce production issues locally using the exact same container images and configurations. No more "works in staging but not production" mysteries caused by environment differences.

Real Developer Workflows

Multi-Cloud Deployment Pipeline

Your Git workflow becomes cloud-agnostic by default:

# Single commit triggers deployment to all environments
git push origin feature/user-auth

# CI runs identical pipeline steps:
# 1. Go tests with mocked cloud interfaces
# 2. Integration tests using localstack + kind
# 3. Helm chart deployment to any target cluster
# 4. Automated verification across all environments

Cost-Optimized Resource Scheduling

The workload placement controller automatically optimizes your infrastructure spend:

# Your deployment yaml remains unchanged
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: batch-processor
  annotations:
    scheduler.io/cost-optimized: "true"
    scheduler.io/max-latency: "5m"
# Controller automatically selects cheapest nodes across regions

Disaster Recovery That Actually Works

Recovery procedures become simple Terraform operations:

# Activate DR site with identical infrastructure
terraform apply -var-file=prod.tfvars -var region=us-west-2

# DNS cutover happens automatically via health checks
# RTO: 5 minutes, RPO: 30 seconds

Implementation Guide

1. Project Structure Setup

Create the standardized layout that supports cloud-agnostic development:

your-service/
├── cmd/                 # Application entrypoints
├── internal/           # Private application code
├── pkg/               # Public interfaces and shared code
├── api/               # OpenAPI specs and generated clients
├── deploy/            # Kubernetes manifests and Helm charts
├── terraform/         # Infrastructure modules
└── docs/adr/         # Architecture decision records

2. Configure Your Go Application

Set up dependency injection and interface-driven design:

// Define cloud-agnostic interfaces
type BlobStorage interface {
    Upload(ctx context.Context, key string, data []byte) error
    Download(ctx context.Context, key string) ([]byte, error)
}

// Inject implementations at runtime
func NewApp(storage BlobStorage, db Database) *App {
    return &App{storage: storage, db: db}
}

3. Implement Infrastructure Modules

Create Terraform modules that work across providers:

# modules/kubernetes-cluster/main.tf
variable "cloud_provider" {
  description = "Target cloud provider"
  type        = string
  validation {
    condition     = contains(["aws", "gcp", "azure"], var.cloud_provider)
    error_message = "Provider must be aws, gcp, or azure."
  }
}

# Single module, multiple provider implementations

4. Set Up Observability

Configure OpenTelemetry to work with any monitoring backend:

// Initialize tracing that works everywhere
tracer, err := otel.NewTracer(
    otel.WithServiceName("your-service"),
    otel.WithSpanExporter(jaeger.NewExporter(
        jaeger.WithCollectorEndpoint(os.Getenv("JAEGER_ENDPOINT")),
    )),
)

Results & Impact: What Changes Immediately

Week 1: Development Velocity Increase

• Local development environment matches production exactly
• Integration tests run 3x faster using lightweight cloud simulators
• Code reviews focus on business logic, not infrastructure concerns

Month 1: Operational Confidence

• Deploy to new regions in minutes, not weeks
• Disaster recovery testing becomes routine, not a quarterly nightmare
• Security policies apply consistently across all environments

Quarter 1: Strategic Flexibility

• Negotiate better rates with cloud providers from a position of strength
• Evaluate new providers without architectural rewrites
• Scale workloads globally based on actual demand, not infrastructure limitations

Measurable Outcomes Teams Report

• 67% reduction in time-to-market for new regions
• 40% cost savings through automated workload optimization
• 90% fewer environment-specific bugs in production
• Zero vendor lock-in concerns during architectural decisions

Ready to break free from cloud vendor lock-in? These Cursor Rules give you the patterns, practices, and tooling to build truly portable cloud applications. Your future self will thank you when the next cloud migration takes hours instead of months.

Copy these rules into your Cursor configuration and start building cloud-agnostic applications that deploy anywhere, migrate freely, and optimize costs automatically.