Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) refers to the process of managing and provisioning infrastructure through machine-readable definition files rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools. The infrastructure is defined using a high-level descriptive coding language that allows you to automate the provisioning and management of resources in your environment.

The key benefit of IaC is that it allows you to treat your infrastructure and servers like software - where you can version, test and deploy changes in a consistent and repeatable way. For example, with IaC you can define the specifications of your infrastructure resources like networks, virtual machines, etc. in a YAML or JSON file. You can then use IaC tools like Terraform, Ansible or AWS CloudFormation to automatically provision the infrastructure based on the specs in the definition files. This ensures consistency, reduces human error and enables you to rebuild your infrastructure in a predictable way if needed. Overall, IaC enables scalable, efficient and disposable infrastructure by allowing engineers to programmatically manage their environment.