Basics of... Infrastructure as a Code

"Infrastructure as Code" or "IaC" is basically automation for the Data Center. So instead of doing things "manually" in a Data Center you program Software to handle that. You use software to replace having to physically go into a data center and for example install a server or change its configuration. Or modify your network infrastructure or storage without having to unplug any cable. And combine "Virtual Machines" with real hardware in full flexibility. Ideally you perform any task you need on your data center "virtually" and not on-site anymore.

The advantage are multiple: you avoid human mistake and risks when working on hardware in the data center, you ensure every task can be reproduced without divergence, you increase the speed of changes and can "roll-back" everything if something went wrong. You can also track changes easily. And it massively reduces cost, especially if you can scale it. Also, software available in "Virtual Machines" are not specifically hardware dependent and can be "moved around".

Almost all hardware in data center can be "programmed" these days and can be integrated in such a process. And there are proprietary but especially open source software available to deploy IaC. Typical tools used would be #Ansible, #Puppet, #Jenkins or #Terraform.

IaC also massively increases the interactions, flexibility and speed between company divisions like the software programming teams, the operational teams and the IT team (some of it known as "DevOps").

With Automation like IaC, you can develop your own data center to act like a "Google" or "Amazon" when it comes to deploy/provision software or data. And even automate the interactions between these.

This article is part of the "Basics of..." Serie which you can find here:?https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/basics-overview-patrick-roettger/

#BasicsOf #iwork4dell #IaC