Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is essential for one major reason: it replaces tribal knowledge with documented technical expertise. Here’s what this means: when a unique group within an organization solves problems and shares knowledge, it’s beneficial. But what happens if that group leaves the company or changes roles? All that critical knowledge disappears, leading to work duplication and wasted time. IaC provides an immutable, documented, and shared truth, ensuring that the work done remains useful even after the original team is gone. By replacing tribal knowledge, infrastructure becomes a fully-fledged technical component of the environment, offering substantial long-term benefits.

Auto-Documentation

IaC eliminates the need for separate documentation by becoming a single source of truth. It describes the configuration, components, and relationships of the infrastructure. Any changes made to these elements are immediately reflected in the code. This auto-documentation process maintains clear version control, facilitates the review of previous configurations, and helps understand the changes made. A clear code structure and meaningful names break down complex infrastructures into more understandable parts, improving readability and management.

CI/CD Integration

IaC enhances the Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline by ensuring consistent integrations and faster deployments. Automating deployments allows code to be deployed across infrastructures of any size with fewer manual interventions and reduced errors.

Version Control

Code is portable, reusable, and can be managed with version control. Changes made to IaC are validated in the version control system, where they can be tested, collaborated on, and approved by peers. Once validated, these changes can be deployed automatically to thousands of systems just as easily as to one. The version control system also provides an audit history, allowing for clear tracking of actions. Using a CI/CD pipeline optimizes this process for continuous delivery, fostering collaboration, reducing deployment risks, and maintaining an ongoing record of changes.

Auditability and Compliance

Beyond scalability, IaC offers significant advantages for auditability and compliance. The ability to track infrastructure changes saves time during audits and ensures compliance with security standards. With IaC, you can easily demonstrate compliance to auditors. When compliance becomes code, it can be automatically applied and enforced. In cases of conflicts between system configurations and the desired state, these issues can be corrected by default. Furthermore, IaC simplifies testing, debugging, and disaster recovery, providing a repeatable approach for managing emerging issues.

Scalability and Agility

Traditional IT management methods are not suited to the modern demands for scalability and agility. Graphical tools make it difficult to share configurations, conduct peer reviews, or revert to previous configurations. Scripts, on the other hand, are often too fragile and dispersed to be effective in a dynamic environment. IaC addresses these challenges by offering portable, reusable, shareable, and testable code. Manual changes should be avoided, as they increase the risk of errors.

Day 0, Day 1, and Day 2 Operations

IaC enhances the software development lifecycle through its consistency and repeatability.

• Day 0: Before deployment, IaC ensures version control and configuration consistency.
• Day 1: During deployment, IaC allows automation of steps for repeatable outcomes.
• Day 2: A single codebase manages server environments, ensuring constant updates and changes.

IaC ensures continuous and reliable management throughout your infrastructure’s lifecycle.