Understanding Infrastructure As Code
Tags: terraform, aws, infrastructureascode, cloudformation
Published: 2023-07-12 05:26:54

**Infrastructure As Code
Infrastructure**
In software, infrastructure refers to the underlying technological components and resources required to support the operation and deployment of software systems. It encompasses the hardware, software, networks, and services necessary to run, manage, and scale software applications. Think of it as the backstage machinery that makes your favorite app or website work. Without infrastructure, software wouldn't be able to run, store data, or communicate with other systems just like a house that needs a foundation, walls, electricity, and plumbing to function properly.
Examples of infrastructure
1.	Hardware: This includes physical devices like servers, computers, routers, switches, and storage systems. These devices provide the computational power and storage capacity needed to host and run the application.
2.	Operating System: An operating system, such as Windows or Linux, is required to manage the hardware resources and provide a platform for running the application software.
3.	Web Server: A web server, like Apache HTTP Server or Nginx, is used to handle incoming requests from clients and serve web pages or other content to users.
4.	Database: Many applications require a database to store and retrieve data. Examples include MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MongoDB. The database handles data storage, retrieval, and querying.
5.	Security Infrastructure: To protect the application and its data, various security measures are implemented, such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), encryption, and access controls.
6.	Monitoring and Logging: Monitoring tools and logging infrastructure help track the performance and health of the application. They provide insights into resource utilization, errors, and overall system behavior.
7.	Cloud Services: If the application is deployed on a cloud platform like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), additional infrastructure components such as virtual machines, cloud storage, load balancers, and serverless functions may be utilized.

**Infrastructure as Code (IaC)**
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a way of defining and managing infrastructure through code, using machine-readable configuration files or scripts.
With Infrastructure as Code, the infrastructure configuration is expressed in code, just like software application code. This code can be version controlled, tested, and deployed using established software development practices. IaC treats infrastructure as a software-defined entity that can be created, modified, and destroyed programmatically.
IaC tools, such as Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, Azure Resource Manager, and Ansible, facilitate the implementation of infrastructure as code. These tools provide a way to describe the desired infrastructure state and handle the provisioning and configuration process.

 
![Infrastructure as code (Suntechnologies)](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/xst063iedftgq7ms8zfh.png)



  
**Uses of Infrastructure as Code**
●	Infrastructure Provisioning: IaC allows Infrastructure provisioning which involves automating the creation and configuration of infrastructure resources using code, resulting in consistent, scalable, and repeatable infrastructure setups.
●	Version Control: This allows tracking and managing changes made to infrastructure code over time, allowing for collaboration, history tracking, and easy rollback to previous versions if needed.
●	Automated Testing: This involves the automated execution of tests against the infrastructure code to ensure its correctness, validate configurations, and identify any potential issues or misconfigurations before deploying the infrastructure.
●	Infrastructure Monitoring: Involves implementing automated monitoring systems and tools to track the health, performance, and availability of the infrastructure resources defined in the code, providing real-time insights, alerts, and metrics for effective infrastructure management and troubleshooting.
●	Deployment Automation: This allows for the automation in the process of setting up and configuring infrastructure resources. Eliminates the need for manual and error-prone deployment steps, ensuring consistent and reliable deployments of infrastructure components. It simplifies the deployment process, saves time, and allows for easy replication and scaling of infrastructure setups.
●	Configuration Management: This involves managing and maintaining the configuration settings and properties of infrastructure resources through code. It allows consistent and controlled management of configurations across different environments, facilitates easy tracking and auditing of changes, and simplifies the process of updating and maintaining infrastructure configurations.


**Examples of Infrastructure as Code Tools**

![Examples of IaC Tools](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/444bjmzw8k2b7k1uvuxk.png)


For further reading, please visit: [Infrastructure as Code: Best Practices, Benefits & Examples](https://spacelift.io/blog/infrastructure-as-code)




**References**
https://www.suntechnologies.com/service/infrastructure-as-code/
https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/blogs/what-is-infrastructure-as-a-code
https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/automation/what-is-infrastructure-as-code-iac
https://www.terraform.io/