What is Infrastructure as Code (IaC)? Benefits and Tools
Infrastructure management has largely advanced beyond the pre-configured environments and manual server provisioning era. With the advent of cloud computing
March 6, 2025
Infrastructure management has largely advanced beyond the pre-configured environments and manual server provisioning era. With the advent of cloud computing and DevOps, the significance of automation, uniformity, and scalability in infrastructure management has never been greater.
This is where Infrastructure as Code (IaC) comes into play. IaC allows IT teams to define, provision, and manage infrastructure using code, much like how software developers manage application code. Instead of manually setting up servers, networks, and storage, IaC automates these processes, making deployments faster, more reliable, and scalable.
Infrastructure as Code is a method of writing infrastructure configurations as code, allowing teams to manage IT infrastructure programmatically. In contrast to human configuration of servers, databases, and networks, IaC makes automated, repeatable, and scalable deployments feasible. With IaC, infrastructure is treated just as application code is—duplicated into version control systems (e.g.Git), tested before deployment, and deployed consistently across multiple environments.
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) automates the provisioning, deployment, and management of infrastructure through writing code, thus permitting teams to articulate their infrastructure as configuration files instead of requiring them to manually set up resources. It ensures consistency, repeatability, and scalability, making infrastructure management more efficient and error-free.
It is now possible to perform infrastructure setup manually with infrastructure as code, which enables teams to send deployment resources just at the push of a button instantaneously. Automated provisioning can make deployments faster and diminish human intervention.
For IaC, infrastructure is the code that is written to keep the entire working environment the same during the development, testing, and production phases. This is the only way to deal with configuration drift and be certain of reliability.
By automating resource scaling and optimization, IaC prevents over-provisioning and helps organizations save on cloud costs by deploying only what is necessary.
Infrastructure as code remains one of the most essential security aspects of any organization while automatically checking whether the infrastructure meets the compliance standards. It also saves time and removes human factors that are security threats.
Auto-scaling functions allow the automated infrastructure to be deployed according to current workload requirements, and it can work best in cloud-native applications and hot traffic areas, respectively.
Since IaC configurations are stored in version control (e.g., Git), teams can track changes, review infrastructure updates, and collaborate seamlessly, just like they do with software development.
Rebuilding infrastructure can be done easily with IaC, and the successful deployment process will take place as an interaction with a predefined set of configurations in the case of a DR event.
Developers can rapidly provision test environments, accelerating the software development lifecycle and improving agility in DevOps workflows.
Terraform is one of the most commonly used Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools: it is a very simple, declarative approach that enables multi-cloud infrastructure management. HashiCorp came up with it as an organization tool that let companies make, intend, and run the systems promptly and smartly.
In August 2023, HashiCorp changed Terraform’s license from MPLv2 to BSL, which is an open-source BI tool that is gaining popularity. Despite this, Terraform has a very strong grip on the IaC space by offering scalability, flexibility, and automation as the principal features of cloud infrastructure.
Immutable Infrastructure Management – Treats infrastructure as immutable elements, ensuring consistency and reducing configuration drift.
Stateful Infrastructure Tracking – Uses a state file to track current infrastructure status, enabling incremental changes rather than full redeployments.
Multi-Cloud & Multi-Tool Support – Allows managing infrastructure across multiple providers (AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, and on-premises environments).
Declarative Syntax with HCL – Uses HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) to define desired infrastructure states, making it easy to read and manage.
Modular & Reusable Code – Supports modular infrastructure definitions, enabling code reusability, team collaboration, and efficient scaling.
Kubernetes Operators are custom-built controllers that extend Kubernetes API to automate, deploy, configure, and manage stateful applications of K8s clusters. Using custom resources schemas, called custom resource definitions (CRDs), Operators make it possible for Kubernetes to run the workloads of various kinds without any supervision by human beings, thus the operating cost related to the workloads are reduced.
According to the major cloud service offerings of AWS, MS Azure, GCP and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure with built-in Kubernetes, these providers have developed their own Kubernetes Operators as part of their automation and infrastructure provisioning efforts for applications run on their infrastructure.
Extends Kubernetes API – Enables users to create and manage custom Kubernetes resources for specific applications.
Automated Lifecycle Management – Handles the deployment, scaling, upgrades, and failure recovery of complex stateful applications within Kubernetes.
Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) – Allows defining custom resources tailored to the specific needs of applications.
Facilitates Operator Development – Provides a framework for building new Kubernetes Operators that simplify infrastructure and application management.
Ansible, a versatile and powerful IT automation engine, is primarily designed for the deployment of applications, management of configurations and IT orchestration. Although Ansible works not only as an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool by itself, Ansible can be used in the IaC processes to provision, configure, and manage infrastructure through various Ansible collections. That is, Ansible is a bridge between IT automation and infrastructure provisioning which makes it a versatile tool to accomplish both tasks.
Agentless Architecture – Unlike many automation tools, Ansible does not require agents to be installed on managed nodes, reducing overhead and simplifying management.
Modular Design – Supports reusable modules for various automation tasks, including server provisioning, software deployment, and cloud infrastructure management.
AWS CloudFormation (CF) is a fully managed Infrastructure as Code (IaC) service that provides a way for users to specify and deploy AWS resources using a specialized language. Intended for lotNoik specialize in the containerisation areas, CloudFormation carries out the infrastructure deployment only with the need for just-in-time deployment of the particular technology it works with.
AWS CloudFormation follows the concepts of Infrastructure as Code (IAC) principles where the resources are defined by code. Practically all the benefits that CloudFormation delivers comes from its automation functionality. CloudFormation is the tool that is widely used in order to create templates in AWS ecosystems. With AWS infrastructure management policies, you will be empowered to eliminate the human factor almost entirely.
Deep AWS Integration – CloudFormation provides robust support for various AWS services, ensuring seamless orchestration and automation.
Declarative JSON/YAML Templates – Infrastructure configurations are defined using JSON or YAML, making it easy to version, manage, and reuse templates.
Change Set Planning – Allows users to preview infrastructure changes before applying them, reducing risks and ensuring smooth deployments.
Stack Management – Organizes AWS resources into stacks, enabling easier management, deployment, and rollback of infrastructure changes.
Comprehensive AWS Resource Coverage – Supports a vast range of AWS services, allowing users to provision and manage everything from compute instances to networking and security services.
Chef is a robust infrastructure-as-code platform that can help IT shops automate server configuration and system management tasks to get consistency, enforce policies, and avoid manual efforts. Utilizing its declarative and imperative nature, Chef gives you direct control over the configuration of the infrastructure, thus the IT operations become more agile, scalable, and reliable.
Ruby-Based DSL for Configurations – Uses a domain-specific language (DSL) based on Ruby to define infrastructure configurations.
Automated Configuration Management – Deploys, maintains, and manages server configurations at scale, ensuring consistency across environments.
Test-Driven Infrastructure – Supports automated testing via ChefSpec and InSpec, allowing teams to validate infrastructure configurations before deployment.
Policy as Code – Defines infrastructure policies and configurations as code, ensuring compliance, version control, and auditability.
Puppet is an open-source configuration management tool designed to automate the deployment and management of software and infrastructure. Like Ansible, Chef, and Salt, Puppet ensures consistency, repeatability, and efficiency in managing servers across multiple environments.
By using Puppet DSL, users can define a system’s desired state, and Puppet ensures that configurations remain consistent and enforced over time. Its idempotent nature allows configurations to be applied multiple times without unintended changes, making it highly reliable.
Ruby-Based DSL for Configurations – Uses a domain-specific language (DSL) based on Ruby to define infrastructure settings.
Extensive Module Ecosystem (Puppet Forge) – Offers a vast library of pre-built modules for automating configurations and deployments.
Idempotent Configuration Management – Ensures that applying the same configuration multiple times has no unintended effects, maintaining infrastructure stability.
Despite its considerable advantages, IAC faces difficulties that institutions have to overcome so that a fault-free deployment can be secured. Here are the main challenges related to IaC:
At Stifftech Solutions, we help businesses navigate the complexities of IaC, ensuring secure, scalable, and efficient infrastructure management. Whether it’s choosing the right IaC tool, implementing security best practices, or managing large-scale cloud deployments, our DevOps team provides tailored solutions to streamline infrastructure automation.
Infrastructure management has largely advanced beyond the pre-configured environments and manual server provisioning era. With the advent of cloud computing
Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) are the most significant factors in modern DevOps workflows. They do the automation of
Data science is one of the most rapidly growing and engaging fields in today’s market. The data given by companies
