Policy-as-Code - Choosing the Right Engine for Effective Validation and Enforcement

Learn how to navigate the complex landscape of policy engines and make informed decisions for your infrastructure validation needs in this conference talk. Explore the trade-offs between popular tools like OPA, Kyverno-JSON, and Kubewarden, examining their differences in programming languages, evaluation semantics, and integration capabilities. Discover how policy engines are evolving beyond traditional Kubernetes admission control to validate diverse JSON payloads including Terraform plans, Dockerfiles, and cloud configurations. Understand the challenges each tool presents in terms of expressiveness, performance, and developer experience, particularly around writing, testing, and integrating policies early in the development cycle. Compare language design approaches, evaluation methodologies, and developer tooling across different engines while identifying their respective strengths and limitations. Gain insights into emerging trends such as WebAssembly (WASM) integration and shift-left validation strategies that are shaping the future of policy-as-code. Walk away with practical knowledge to confidently select the most appropriate policy engine for your specific use case, awareness of common pitfalls to avoid in production environments, and a clear understanding of where the policy-as-code ecosystem is headed.