What Is Infrastructure as Code?
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a practice of managing and provisioning infrastructure through machine-readable definition files, rather than manual processes or interactive configuration tools. With IaC, you no longer need to manually provision infrastructure through your cloud provider’s web console—instead, this entire process can be automated and version-controlled.
1. Prevent and Revert Ad-Hoc Changes
When it comes to infrastructure management, consistency is paramount. By defining your infrastructure as code, you effectively remove the human variable from the equation. While small environments might be manageable through manual provisioning, as your infrastructure grows to include development, testing, staging, and production environments, the likelihood of configuration drift and human error increases significantly. IaC ensures that every deployment follows the exact same specifications.
2. Dramatically Increase Deployment Speed
Since your entire infrastructure is defined as code in version-controlled files, making changes becomes as simple as updating the code and running your deployment pipeline. When integrated with a CI/CD system, deployments become frictionless and can be executed in minutes rather than hours. This speed advantage compounds over time, allowing teams to iterate faster and respond to business needs more effectively.
3. Enable Comprehensive Testing
With IaC, you can run your infrastructure definitions through various testing frameworks before deployment. This includes unit tests, integration tests, and policy compliance checks. Tools like Terraform’s plan feature allow you to preview exactly what changes will be made to your infrastructure before applying them. This proactive approach prevents unnecessary downtime caused by faulty configurations reaching production environments.
4. Maximize Reusability
Once infrastructure modules have been created and tested, they can be reused and deployed countless times across different environments and projects. This creates significant time savings when you need to spin up new environments or launch applications with similar infrastructure requirements. Well-designed modules become building blocks that accelerate future development efforts.
5. Optimize Costs
Infrastructure as Code enables you to implement cost optimization best practices systematically across your entire infrastructure. With all resources tracked in state files and defined in code, you gain complete visibility into your infrastructure spending. When combined with drift detection tools and automated policies, you can ensure that resources are right-sized, unused resources are eliminated, and you’re always getting the best value for your cloud spending.