The management of IT infrastructure used to be done manually in the past. First, the servers were physically installed and configured. Then, when the machines were configured for OS and applications, individuals would deploy the applications. Unfortunately, the manual process is often accompanied by several problems, as one might expect.

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In recent years, however, things have drastically changed. As a result of trends like cloud computing, IT operations are now more efficient and effective. By utilizing IaC (Infrastructure as Code), you manage your digital infrastructure with configuration files.

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IaC (Infrastructure as Code) is managing and provisioning infrastructure through code instead of via manual processes. By creating configuration files for your infrastructure, you can modify and distribute configurations more easily. Creating a consistent environment every time is also ensured. IaC lets developers automate the provisioning of infrastructure and provisioning of services without manually doing a lot of the work manage servers, operating systems, storage, and other infrastructure components each time they develop or deploy an application.

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First and foremost, there is the issue of cost. The process would require hiring many professionals, from network engineers to hardware maintenance technicians. Naturally, these people have to get paid, but they also have to be managed. As a result, it increases management overhead and complicates internal communication.

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Next, we must address scalability and availability. In the end, it all comes down to speed. As a result of manual configurations being so slow, applications often fail to handle spikes in access along with the system administrators who tried their hardest to manage the load. Availability is affected by this as well. The application can be unavailable for long periods if the organization does not have backup servers or data centres.

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It is important to note that before IaC, IT personnel had to change configurations to manage their infrastructure manually. Some tasks might have been automated through throwaway scripts, but that was all. The configuration of your infrastructure is written in code files with IaC. The text makes it easy to edit, copy, and distribute. As with any other source code file, you can and should put it under source control.

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Here are a few of the benefits your organization can enjoy by implementing IaC

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1) Speed

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First and foremost, IaC provides speed. With infrastructure as code, you can create a complete infrastructure via a script. Then, developing, staging, and testing can be done for any environment. Through IaC, you will be able to streamline software development throughout the whole process.

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2) Effective accountability

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It is a very simple and fast process because IaC configuration files can be versioned like source code files. You can track the changes made to each configuration. There is no longer any guessing about when and where things happened.

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3) Coherence

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It is easy to make mistakes with a manual process. In general, we do a poor job of communicating. Manual infrastructure management will result in discrepancies, no matter what you do. A single source of truth is provided by the config files themselves in IaC. Thus, you can deploy the same configurations repeatedly, without discrepancies.

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4) Lower Cost

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IaC minimizes the costs of infrastructure management. In conjunction with IaC, cloud computing can significantly reduce your costs. For example, you won’t have to buy hardware, hire people to operate it, and build or rent physical space to store it. We call “opportunity costs”, what we call the subtle way IaC cuts your costs.

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To have smart, highly compensated professionals perform tasks that an automated machine could perform is a terrible waste of money. To be more productive, they should focus on what will increase the value of the enterprise. Automation strategies, including infrastructure as code, can be helpful here. Engineers are free to focus on what matters rather than manual, slow, error-prone tasks with their aid.

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5) Software Development That is More efficient

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Your infrastructure architecture can be deployed in many stages through the use of infrastructure as code. Consequently, this improves the efficiency of the software development lifecycle and boosts team productivity.

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By creating and launching sandboxes, you can allow developers to work safely in an isolated environment. In addition, a perfect copy of the production environment can be provided for QA professionals to run their tests on. As a final step, you can deploy both code and infrastructure in a single step.

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6) Having stable and scalable environment

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IaC delivers stable environments quickly and at scale. The code represents the desired state of the environment to avoid manual configuration and ensure consistency. As a result, IaC teams can build apps and infrastructure that run independently and reliably with a unified set of practices and tools.

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7) Documentation

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In addition to automating the process, IaC also provides documentation of the proper way to implement infrastructure and insurance should an employee leave your company with institutional knowledge. The ability to version-control code allows IaC to document, log, and track every change to your server configuration. It’s also possible to test these configurations as well.

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Conclusion

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Your infrastructure provisioning process can be simplified and accelerated with infrastructure as code, helping you avoid errors, stay compliant, maintain consistent environments, and save your company time and money. Engineers can be more productive if they focus on higher-value tasks. In addition, it will improve your customer service. Maybe it’s time to start doing IaC if you’re not currently doing it!