What is Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and Why It’s Transforming DevOps

I first heard the term “Infrastructure as Code” (IaC) when I was getting into cloud computing, specifically while preparing for my AWS Cloud Practitioner certification. The term appeared amidst the numerous cloud terminologies I encountered during my studies, but this seemed particularly ambiguous, preventing me from diving deeper at the time.It took several months before I fully explored Infrastructure as Code, and it was one of the most interesting concepts.

Infrastructure as Code is a method of provisioning cloud resources using code. It enables you to define your desired cloud infrastructure using a declarative language. As a cloud engineer, you can define your environment using AWS CloudFormation, which supports YAML and JSON, or Terraform, an open-source tool, which support HCL.

Before learning Infrastructure as Code, I was already familiar with various AWS services, including compute, storage, and databases. Like many, I frequently created resources directly from the AWS Management Console. Over time, my infrastructure grew and I started to encounter challenges that made me rethink my approach.

• What if I needed to replicate the same infrastructure in a different AWS region?
• Would I have to “painfully” repeat the entire process through the console?
• How long would that take, and could I guarantee consistency across all environments?

Infrastructure as Code addressed these concerns. Below is a simple YAML snippet that creates an EC2 server using AWS CloudFormation.

Yaml code that deploys an EC2 Server

Why Infrastructure as Code?

• Reusability: Infrastructure as Code templates can be reused to provision multiple environments, facilitating replication and disaster recovery.
• Automation: Manual provisioning can be tedious, repetitive, and prone to errors.
• Consistency: Using a standard template for resource provisioning ensures consistency across different environments.
• Faster Deployments: Infrastructure as Code enables rapid deployments compared to manual provisioning.
• Experimentation: You can quickly spin up test environments and delete all resources at once by deleting the stack.

Conclusion

Infrastructure as Code has revolutionized how DevOps teams manage and provision infrastructure. By treating infrastructure as code, organizations can automate many manual processes, improve consistency, and accelerate software delivery.