Benefits of Infrastructure as Code for Developers
Tags: iac, cloud, tutorial
Published: 2022-12-29 15:35:35

As you plan for the new year, we want to remind you of an important software engineering practice that can help streamline your workflow and make your infrastructure management and deployment processes more efficient: infrastructure as code (IaC).

Keep reading to learn about IaC and how it can benefit your work.

<h3>IaC: A Software Engineering Practice for Managing Infrastructure</h3>
Infrastructure as code (IaC) is a software engineering practice that treats infrastructure components like servers, networks, and load balancers as regular code. This approach allows developers to use version control systems, testing frameworks, and other <a href="https://helloacm.com/tools/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">software development tools</a> to manage and deploy infrastructure, just as they would with code.

<h4>Origins in Cloud Computing</h4>
The concept of IaC has its roots in the early days of <a href="https://codingforspeed.com/the-benefits-coders-can-expect-in-the-future/" title="The Benefits Coders Can Expect In The Future">cloud computing</a> when developers began to leverage the flexibility and scalability of cloud services to build and deploy applications. As cloud services' use grew, so did the complexity of managing the underlying infrastructure. Developers needed a way to automate the provisioning and configuring infrastructure, and IaC provided a solution.

<h4>Tools and Technologies for IaC</h4>
Over the years, IaC has evolved to include a wide range of tools and technologies. Popular IaC tools include Terraform, ansible, and Puppet, which allow developers to define infrastructure as code and deploy it to various cloud platforms, such as <a href="https://helloacm.com/develop-a-load-balancer-using-aws-lambda/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Amazon Web Services</a> (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

<h4>Benefits of IaC: Consistency, Collaboration, Security, and Speed</h4>
<ul>
<li>Consistency and repeatability: With IaC, developers can define the desired state of their infrastructure, and the IaC tool will ensure that the infrastructure is in the desired state. This means that developers can confidently deploy infrastructure changes, knowing that the changes will be applied consistently across environments.</li>
<li>Collaboration: With IaC, infrastructure changes are stored in version control systems, just like code changes. This allows developers to work on infrastructure changes in parallel and collaborate on changes through pull requests and code reviews.</li>
<li><a href="https://codingforspeed.com/how-do-you-protect-the-source-code/" title="How do you protect the source code?">Security</a> and compliance: By defining infrastructure as code, developers can use testing frameworks to validate changes before deployment. This can help to catch potential issues and vulnerabilities before they are introduced into production environments.</li>
<li>Speed and convenience: IaC is particularly useful in cloud development environments. In these environments, developers often need to rapidly provision and configure the infrastructure to support their work. IaC allows developers to automate this process and deploy infrastructure on demand, saving time and reducing the risk of errors.</li>


<h4>IaC is an Essential Practice for Streamlining Infrastructure Management and Deployment</h4>
IaC is an important software engineering practice that revolutionizes how developers manage and deploy infrastructure. By treating infrastructure as code, developers can take advantage of the tools and practices of software development to build and deploy infrastructure in a more consistent and repeatable manner.</ul>

Reposted to [Blog](https://codingforspeed.com/benefits-of-infrastructure-as-code-for-developers/)