Introduction:
Manual provisioning is error-prone and slow. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) changes the game—allowing us to define, deploy, and manage infrastructure using code. It’s the cornerstone of scalable, repeatable IT environments.
How IaC Works:
Instead of manually spinning up servers or databases, we use tools like Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, and Ansible to define infrastructure in version-controlled scripts. It ensures reproducibility and visibility.
Benefits in Practice:
We can create staging, QA, and production environments from a single source of truth. Rollbacks and changes are easy with GitOps workflows. It aligns with CI/CD for full pipeline automation.
Security & Compliance:
Policies-as-Code with tools like Sentinel and Open Policy Agent (OPA) help enforce governance. Secrets are stored securely with Vault or AWS Secrets Manager.
Common Use Cases:
Provisioning VMs, VPCs, Kubernetes clusters, databases, and storage buckets. We can also automate DNS, certificates, and monitoring setup.
Conclusion:
IaC enables agility, transparency, and consistency. It’s how we build cloud-native infrastructure that’s scalable, secure, and self-healing from day one.