Infrastructure as Code describes the management and provisioning of computer data centres through machine-readable definition files. Instead of using physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools.
The term "Infrastructure as Code" was first used by Andrew Clay Shafer and Patrick Debois in 2009. The two developers were working at Google at the time on a project to automate the provisioning of physical servers. Since then, many companies have adopted the concept. Today, it is a best practice for infrastructure management.
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- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) compared to traditional infrastructure provisioning
- When should you use IaC for infrastructure provisioning?
- What are the benefits of IaC?
- What are the challenges of using IaC?
- How do you get started with IaC?
- Tools you can use for Infrastructure as Code (IaC tools)
- IaC is part of the bigger picture: CALMS and DevSecOps
- Summary
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) compared to traditional infrastructure provisioning
The provisioning and management of data centres has previously been time-consuming and error-prone. It often relies on the manual configuration of servers and network devices. This can lead to configuration drift, where the actual state of the infrastructure deviates from the intended form. Infrastructure as Code helps to avoid these problems by providing a repeatable and consistent method for provisioning and managing infrastructure. It is also easier to review and track changes and roll them back if necessary.
When should you use IaC for infrastructure provisioning?
IaC is particularly well-suited for automated cloud environments where infrastructure is frequently provisioned and managed. However, you can also use it in on-premises data centres. Before deploying IaC, however, there are several other important factors to consider. If you operate on-premises data centres, setting up and maintaining IaC may require more effort.
Infrastructure as Code can be beneficial if you
- use dynamic or complex environments,
- constantly change your infrastructure and
- find it difficult to track and manage changes.
What are the benefits of IaC?
Reduced time and cost effort
IaC can help reduce the time and cost associated with deploying and managing infrastructure.
Improved consistency and repeatability
IaC can improve the consistency and repeatability of infrastructure deployment and management processes.
Increased agility
IaC can increase an organisation's agility by facilitating the deployment and management of infrastructure in response to changing requirements.
Improved auditability and traceability
IaC can help improve the auditability and traceability of changes to the infrastructure.
Reduced risk
By providing a consistent and repeatable method for deploying and managing infrastructure, IaC can help reduce the risk of errors and configuration drift.
What are the challenges of using IaC?
When using IaC, there are several challenges to consider, for example:
- Complexity: IaC can increase the complexity of an organisation's infrastructure, making it harder to understand and troubleshoot issues.
- Security: IaC increases the security risks associated with an organisation's infrastructure.
- Tools and processes: IaC requires the use of new or unfamiliar tools and processes.
How do you get started with IaC?
If you are interested in using IaC, there are a few things you need to do to get started:
- Choose an IaC tool. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Choose a tool that fits your organisation's needs. You can learn more about tools further down.
- Define your infrastructure using a declarative or imperative approach.
- Provision your infrastructure with the IaC tool of your choice.
- Manage your infrastructure with the IaC tool of your choice.
To get started with DevOps (or to improve your DevOps maturity), you can read our article: DevOps: How to get started - How to make a successful start
Tools you can use for Infrastructure as Code (IaC tools)
- Configuration management tools: Use Puppet, Chef and Ansible to manage the configuration of servers and other infrastructure components.
- Infrastructure provisioning tools: Use Terraform and CloudFormation to provision and manage infrastructure resources.
- Continuous integration and deployment tools: Use Jenkins and TravisCI to automate the building, testing, and deployment of infrastructure.
- Container orchestration tools: Use Kubernetes and Docker Swarm to manage and orchestrate containers.
IaC is part of the bigger picture: CALMS and DevSecOps
Infrastructure as Code is a small part of automation within the DevOps cycle. In addition to provisioning infrastructure as code, the focus of DevOps is on increasing efficiency and effectiveness by automating key processes in the software development lifecycle (SDLC), while CALMS focuses on the automation of operations. This enables faster feedback, shorter lead times, and more frequent deployments.
Therefore, a basic level of DevOps maturity is required to use IaC.
Learn more about CALMS in our guide: CALMS Framework
Summary
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a term that describes the management and provisioning of computer data centres using machine-readable definition files, rather than through physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools. Many companies have adopted the framework to this day. Today, it is a best practice for infrastructure management.
IaC helps reduce the time and cost of provisioning and managing infrastructure. It also improves the consistency and repeatability of infrastructure provisioning and management processes and increases the agility of a business.
