ClickOps refers to the practice of making manual changes directly in a cloud provider's user interface by cloud infrastructure engineers, instead of using infrastructure-as-code tools.
ClickOps is often used in scenarios where team members lack experience with automation tools, face high-pressure incidents, or deal with changes during transitions like mergers.
Examples of ClickOps include making infrastructure changes in the AWS Management Console, editing security groups manually in the cloud UI, and provisioning resources without infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform.
In distributed cloud environments, the risks associated with untracked manual changes through ClickOps are significant and can lead to potential challenges.