According to Wikipedia, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is the process of managing and provisioning computer data centers through machine-readable definition files, rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools. The purpose of infrastructure as code is to enable IT teams to automatically manage, monitor, configure, and provision resources rather than doing it manually.
In simple terms, Infrastructure as code is the process of replacing manual effort required by the IT teams with lines of code.
Benefits of Infrastructure as Code
Infrastructure as code reduces the need for click ops and allows IT teams to focus more on other issues like security. Other benefits of IaC are;
- Consistency - infrastructure as code decreases the chances of any incompatibility issues with your infrastructure and helps your applications run more smoothly.
- Speed - Automated provisioning and management are faster and more efficient than manual processes because IaC removes the manual process, a large sum of instances can be created and destroyed rapidly.
- Collaboration - IaC code can be version-controlled which allows every change to your server configuration to be documented, logged, and tracked. This helps teams can reuse and manage these configurations when necessary.
Types of IaC Tools
There are two major types of IaC tools Infrastructure provisioning tools and configuration management tools. Each of these tools performs similar tasks but has strengths in certain areas hence the division.
Infrastructure Provisioning
Infrastructure provisioning simply means creating the underlining instances where the programs run. Eg Deploying an Ec2 instance in AWS. Examples of these are;
Terraform - Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code software tool created by HashiCorp. Users define and provide data center infrastructure using a declarative configuration language known as HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), or optionally JSON.
Pulumi - Pulumi is an open-source infrastructure as code SDK(Software Development Kit) that enables you to create, deploy, and manage infrastructure on any cloud, using your favorite languages. It is relatively new to the DevOps Echo system.
Configuration Management
Configuration Management simply means installing, updating, and managing programs that run on an already provisioned infrastructure. Examples of these are;
Ansible - Ansible is an open-source software provisioning, configuration management, and application-deployment tool enabling infrastructure as code. Ansible models your infrastructure by describing how your components and system relate to one another, as opposed to managing systems independently.
Puppet - Puppet is a popular configuration management tool that helps engineers continuously deliver software. Using Puppet, you can define the desired end state of your infrastructure and exactly what you want it to do. Then Puppet automatically enforces the desired state and fixes any incorrect changes. Puppet integrates with the leading cloud providers like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and VMware, allowing you to automate across multiple clouds
In conclusion, Iac makes infrastructure management a lot easier and should be considered as a solution for both small and large-scale deployments. If you haven't tried one make sure you do so today.
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