Introduction to IaC (Infrastructure as Code)

The goal of infrastructure as code is to allow developers and operations teams to manage, monitor, and provision resources automatically.

IaC (Infrastructure as Code), is an IT practice that codifies and handles underlying IT infrastructure as software. The goal of Infrastructure as Code is to allow developers and operations teams to manage, monitor, and provision resources automatically.

Deploying the Infrastructure as Code, allows you to divide the infrastructure into compatible components. These components can then be combined in various ways through automation.

Because infrastructure is defined as code, users can easily modify and give out configurations while guaranteeing the infrastructure’s desired state. This means you can create infrastructure configurations that are duplicatable.

In this blog, we will briefly discuss IaC. But, before doing so, let’s see the topics that we will be covering in this blog:

1. Types of IaC
2. IaC approaches
3. Benefits of IaC
4. Working of IaC
5. IaC vs IaaS
6. IaC tools

Types of IaC

When talking about Infrastructure as Code, we can state that they are two types present. Those two types are:

1. Mutable
   Mutable infrastructure must be regularly updated and changed in order to meet the growing needs of the business. As you might expect, this approach can be troublesome.
   Mutable IaC leads to a situation in which only a few IT professionals can address the issues. IT professionals must address each server and switch separately.
2. Immutable
   Immutable Infrastructure as Code presents a vision. In this, each component can be built to exact specifications. When a change is needed, the infrastructure is provisioned to address the requirements, and the old IaC is displaced.
   Developing and deploying applications becomes much quicker and steady, because of the underlying infrastructure’s regularity.

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Let’s look at the differences between both of them in a tabular format:

Benchmark	Mutable	Immutable
Infrastructure	The whole infrastructure is changed and updated regularly	Only a certain component in the infrastructure is changed as per the requirement
Time-consuming	Consumes a lot of time	Consumes less time
Working	IT professionals address each server and switch separately.	IT professionals do not address each server and switch separately.

IaC approaches

When dealing with IaC tools, there are two different approaches to writing a code. Those two approaches are:

1. Declarative
   When talking about this kind of approach, the users only have to define the end requirement. The platform takes care of the steps that must be taken in a particular order, to achieve the desired result.
2. Imperative
   When talking about this kind of approach, the users only have to specify the exact steps to be taken for a change. The platform does not deviate from the specified steps. And, thus reaches the desired result.

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Let’s look at the differences between both of them in a tabular format:

Benchmark	Declarative	Imperative
Define	Only the end requirement	End requirement along with the steps to achieve that
Also known as	Functional approach	Procedural approach
Human intervention	No human intervention is required to implement changes or perform updations	Human intervention is required to implement changes or perform updations

Benefits of IaC

There are various benefits of IaC. Some of those benefits are:

1. Speed
   Infrastructure as code allows you to quickly and easily set up your entire infrastructure by running a script. It can make the entire software development lifecycle more efficient.
2. Cost
   Without a doubt, one of the most significant advantages of IaC is to be able to reduce infrastructure management costs. In this virtual machines can be managed programmatically and thus eliminate the manual component.
3. Risk reduction
   Automation eliminates the risk of human error, such as manual misconfiguration. Removing human intervention can decrease downtime and increase reliability.

Working of IaC

When it comes to the specifics of how IaC tools work, we can divide them into two categories: those that use the imperative approach and those that use the declarative approach.

In the imperative approach, the user specifies the exact steps that need to be followed in order to implement a change. The platform does not deviate from the specified steps. And, thus reaches the desired result.

Whereas, in the declarative approach, the users only define the end requirement. The platform takes care of the steps that must be taken in sequential order, to achieve the result.

IaC vs IaaS

Let’s see the difference between IaC and IaaS in a tabular format for better understanding:

Benchmark	IaC	IaaS
Elaboration	Infrastructure as Code	Infrastructure as a Service
Limited to cloud	No	Yes
Type	A tool	A service

IaC tools

There are a lot of IaC tools that are very easy to use. Some of those tools are:

1. Terraform
   Terraform is a tool that specializes in handling infrastructure across multiple platforms, including AWS, Azure, Oracle Cloud, and others. You can use this tool to define both cloud and on-premises resources in human-readable configuration files.
2. Pulumi
   This tool offers freedom to the user. With the help of this tool, the user can use any programming language supported by the tool. Languages supported by this tool include Python, JavaScript, C#, F#, TypeScript, and Go.
3. CFEngine
   This tool can handle even the most complicated configuration requirements, from security strengthening to compliance.
4. Chef
   This tool makes it simple for developers, operations, and security engineers to collaborate. It intends to offer configuration management and automation capabilities.
5. Puppet
   This tool defines the state of your IT infrastructure and automatically enforces that desired state on your systems.

Conclusion

We went over IaC in great detail in today’s article. I hope that by writing this article, I was able to alleviate some of your worries.

You can take these cloud courses to learn more about AWS, its services, and its architecture. I hope that by writing this article, I was able to assuage some of your concerns.

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