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What is IaC?

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a key practice within cloud-native platform engineering, enabling teams to manage and provision infrastructure through machine-readable definition files, rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools. IaC automates the setup of infrastructure, ensuring that environments are reproducible, scalable, and manageable. This documentation provides an overview of IaC concepts, tools, and best practices, with a particular focus on its role in platform engineering.

Concepts and Principles​

The process of managing and provisioning computing infrastructure (networks, virtual machines, load balancers, and connection topology) through scriptable definitions, rather than manual processes is known as Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

Key Principles​

  • Idempotency: The ability to apply the same configuration multiple times without changing the result beyond the initial application, ensuring consistency and reliability.
  • Immutability: Infrastructure components are replaced rather than changed. New versions of infrastructure are built and deployed from a common image with changes.
  • Declarative Configuration: Specify what the desired state of the infrastructure should be, not how to achieve it, allowing the tooling to abstract the provisioning logic.
  • Modularity: Infrastructure is broken down into reusable components or modules that can be shared across teams and projects.
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Tools such as Terraform, Pulumi, and AWS CloudFormation are popular choices for implementing IaC.

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OpenTofu is a new IaC tool that is gaining popularity due Terraform's changes in their licensing model.

Role in Platform Engineering​

In the context of platform engineering, IaC is pivotal for creating consistent, repeatable, and scalable environments that can support the development, deployment, and operation of applications. Platform engineers use IaC to:

  • Provision Development and Production Environments: Automatically set up and manage environments that are identical, reducing the "it works on my machine" syndrome.
  • Manage Configuration Changes: Apply changes to infrastructure through code, ensuring that all modifications are version controlled and auditable.
  • Automate Platform Operations: Reduce manual tasks and errors, allowing platform teams to focus on adding value rather than maintaining infrastructure.

Best Practices​

  • Version Control: Store IaC configurations in a version control system to track changes, collaborate on development, and roll back when necessary.
  • Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): Integrate IaC into CI/CD pipelines to automate the testing, validation, and deployment of infrastructure changes.
  • Immutable Infrastructure: Use immutable infrastructure principles to replace rather than update existing infrastructure, minimizing drift and ensuring consistency.
  • Documentation and Commenting: Maintain comprehensive documentation and comments within IaC configurations to ensure clarity and maintainability.
  • Security and Compliance: Embed security practices into the IaC lifecycle, including automated compliance checks and vulnerability scanning.

Conclusion​

Infrastructure as Code is an essential practice in modern platform engineering, facilitating the automated, consistent, and secure management of infrastructure resources. By adopting IaC, platform engineering teams can improve efficiency, reduce manual errors, and ensure that infrastructure deployments are repeatable and scalable. Embracing IaC tools and following best practices allows organizations to fully leverage the benefits of cloud-native technologies and methodologies, paving the way for more agile and responsive IT operations.