Infrastructur as Code

Infrastructur as Code (IaC) is an IT infrastructure definition with a machine / program-understandable language, e.g. yaml or json. It is the basis for the automatic construction of the complete infrastructure through appropriate programs.

Usescase

The demands on IT operations are changing. Instead of security and BCCM (business continuity), costs and time play a much greater role.

Agile software development requires more computing resources and faster deployments. At the same time, infrastructure must be operated cost-effectively.

Cloud is often proposed as a solution, but lack of transparency and lack of know-how often turns it into a security risk and a cost trap.

Infrastructure as Code

The idea behind IaC is to fully describe a desired infrastructure state. This state description or the infrastructure code is managed in a source code management tool (SCM).

IaC likes to take on other elements of software development:

• Continuous Integration / Deployment Pipelines: syntactically (linting) and semantically (verify / check) .Examination and, if necessary, after release implementation.
• Branching / Tagging: Management / revision of different versions or states of the infrastructure
• Code Reuse: Identical elements managed separately, tested and used multiple times.

These methods provide the ability to quickly respond to resource requests through simple code changes. Resources can be removed just as quickly, ensuring an optimal cost environment. The reuse of existing and tested code or infrastructure elements improves security. Another advantage is the elimination of IT documentation, because SCM logs all changes to the infrastructure (IT audits), etc.

Challenges

However, the use of IaC has many challenges:

• Being able to respond quickly to requirements requires knowing them.
• Work processes must be adapted.
• Existing systems must be adopted.
• The use of new tools makes employee training necessary.
• Automation / IaC requires standards.