Infrastructure Automation

Infrastructure automation refers to automatically managing and provisioning infrastructure resources like servers, networks, and storage. The goal is to streamline and simplify infrastructure management through code instead of manual processes. Key concepts in infrastructure automation include infrastructure as code, configuration management, and orchestration tools.

Infrastructure automation typically involves writing declarative code to define the desired infrastructure state. For example, with infrastructure as code, a developer can write a configuration file specifying details like how many virtual machines to deploy or what size storage to attach. This code is version controlled and serves as documentation. Tools like Terraform, Ansible, and CloudFormation then interpret this code and automatically provision the infrastructure. Configuration management tools like Ansible, Chef, and Puppet further automate ongoing management by enforcing desired system configurations. Orchestration platforms like Kubernetes coordinate more complex deployments and lifecycle management across infrastructure components. Overall, infrastructure automation increases efficiency, reduces human error, and enables infrastructure to be treated more like application code.