AWS was the first to offer Infrastructure as Code (IaC) via AWS CloudFormation as a part of AWS DevOps. It enables developers and systems administrators to easily create and manage a collection of related AWS resources. They can provision and update them in an orderly and predictable way. Developers can use AWS CloudFormation’s sample templates or create their own templates. The concept of IaC is as old as the practice of DevOps. There are many experts who argue that DevOps wouldn’t be possible without the use of IaC.
What is Infrastructure as Code and why It is important?
Cloud services like AWS make it possible to spin up a virtual server in under 20 minutes. However, spinning up a complex mix of services AWS offers, getting them all interconnected and working properly is comparatively difficult.
This is where Infrastructure as Code helps. It is the concept of managing your operations environment on the cloud in the same way it is done for applications. The operations infrastructure is managed using the same rules that govern code development, instead of making configuration changes manually or using scripts to make infrastructure adjustments.
With IaC, developers can automate the process of setting up and configuring a virtual machine. It is a fast method for replicating the process multiple times. That's why Infrastructure as Code is also known as programmable infrastructure. For example, you can build the exact same virtual environment multiple times for testing different developer scenarios.
How is Infrastructure as Code related to DevOps
DevOps are the best practices of utilizing various tools to enable an organization to deliver applications and services rapidly; evolving and improving products at a faster pace than organizations using traditional software development approach and infrastructure management processes.
One of the DevOps practice is to perform very frequent but small updates. These updates are more incremental than the traditional releases and enable organizations to innovate faster for their customers. They make each deployment less risky since it is easy to figure after which release the error/bug has appeared. Developers can also use Microservices for building different functions independently.
However, the combination of increased release frequency and Microservices can lead to significantly more deployments which can be challenging. Thus, Infrastructure automation service like infrastructure as code help in fighting these challenges by providing elastic computing resources that can respond to frequent changes.
Actually, Infrastructure as code is what makes AWS DevOps possible! In summary, IaC is a framework that blurs the line between an application and the environment utilizing proven coding techniques and extending them to the infrastructure directly.
AWS DevOps and Infrastructure as code help developers to:
Handle complex projects easily
IaC enables developers to operate and manage the infrastructure and development processes at scale. Because of the automation and consistency enable by IaC, developers can manage complex and changing systems efficiently.
Adhere to compliance
AWS DevOps enable you to move swiftly while retaining control and adhere to compliance. DevOps model can be adopted without surrendering security by using automated compliance policies, fine-grained controls, and configuration management techniques.
Build competitive advantage
Infrastructure as code Increases the frequency and pace of releases so you can innovate and improve your product faster. The faster you can roll out new features and fix bugs, the faster you can answer your customers’ needs and build competitive advantage.
Conclusion
Infrastructure as Code is generally linked with the concept of automation. As a result, many of the best practices of IaC are related to reducing the number of manual processes involved. However, its implications are beyond the bounds of simple infrastructure automation.
Daffodil software has a pool of experienced AWS DevOps engineers that can automate your cloud infrastructure management according to your business volume and needs. For a complimentary consultation session with our experts, click here.