What is Infrastructure as Code (IaC)?
Infrastructure as Code is the practice of managing and provisioning infrastructure through machine-readable configuration files rather than manual processes.
Infrastructure as Code is the practice of managing and provisioning infrastructure through machine-readable configuration files rather than manual processes. It enables version control, review, testing, and automation of infrastructure changes.
Popular IaC tools: Terraform (multi-cloud, declarative), Pulumi (multi-language, imperative), AWS CloudFormation (AWS-only), Ansible (configuration management), and CDK (AWS, programming languages).
IaC provides: repeatability (same infrastructure in dev/staging/prod), version control (git history of infrastructure changes), review process (PRs for infrastructure changes), disaster recovery (recreate infrastructure from code), and compliance (infrastructure changes are auditable).
Without IaC, infrastructure becomes "snowflake" — unique, manually configured systems that nobody fully understands. Snowflake infrastructure is fragile, unreproducible, and creates key-person dependency on the engineer who set it up.
Why It Matters
IaC prevents the snowflake problem — unique, manually configured infrastructure that nobody fully understands. Without IaC, infrastructure knowledge lives in one person's head, creating critical bus-factor risk.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Infrastructure as Code?
Managing infrastructure through code files instead of manual configuration. Enables version control, review, automation, and reproducibility of infrastructure.
What IaC tool should I use?
Terraform for multi-cloud, Pulumi if you prefer programming languages over HCL, CloudFormation for AWS-only shops. Start with one tool and be consistent.
Related Terms
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