Infrastructure-as-Code

You may have heard of infrastructure-as-code, and if you are not a developer you may ask, why does it matter to you?

Infrastructure-as-code, governance-as-code, and other “as-code” terms all deal with a set of desirable properties and outcomes. These include getting consistent, reliable, repeatable solutions with (relatively) fast feedback and delivery. If you run business solutions at a cloud provider, this will matter to you.

For infrastructure-as-code, this means quickly and reliably setting up and updating cloud-based infrastructure – the IT foundation that business solutions depend on. It’s a benefit to handle this consistently and reliably. If business expands or disaster strikes, have the whole process repeatable and quick.

What as-code means

The term “as-code” may lead you to think it’s primarily about writing computer software to build infrastructure. While this can be part of it, “as-code” is an abbreviation of “where we use good software engineering practices to produce great outcomes for the business.” But infrastructure-where-we-use-good-software-engineering-practices-to-produce-great-outcomes-for-the-business is a mouthful, so “as-code” stuck instead…

What kind of good software engineering practices? This includes:

• Provide human-readable and precise descriptions, without ambiguity
• Keep track of changes, so we know what changed and who changed it
• Maintain version and release history with meaningful labels
• Perform tests against infrastructure descriptions to validate key elements
• Have computer software that can parse and execute the descriptions
• An organizational structure that supports this way of working

Note that only one bullet point mentions computer software. Instead, it’s mainly about practices that allow us to keep track of what we do efficiently and use software tools to make work more efficient, faster and eliminate human errors.

For the most part, it boils down to textual infrastructure descriptions, since this is something both humans and computer software tools (including AI tools) may handle reasonably well.

Another vital part: working with these tools needs to be supported by the way people work and organize. If not, it becomes messy.

This “as-code” approach can be applied to infrastructure, governance & policies, and documentation. Where could it benefit your business?