menu Main menu move to sidebar hide Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Special pages Search Search Appearance Donate Create account Log in Personal tools Donate Create account Log in Contents move to sidebar hide (Top) 1 History 2 Overview 3 Advantages 4 Types of approaches 5 Methods 6 Tools Toggle Tools subsection 6.1 Continuous configuration automation 6.1.1 Community content 7 Relationships Toggle Relationships subsection 7.1 Relationship to DevOps 7.2 Relationship to security 8 See also 9 References Toggle the table of contents Infrastructure as code 13 languages العربية Čeština Español فارسی Français עברית Italiano 日本語 한국어 Norsk bokmål Português Русский Українська Edit links Article Talk English Read Edit View history Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions Read Edit View history General What links here Related changes Upload file Permanent link Page information Cite this page Get shortened URL Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikidata item Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Data center management method "IaC" redirects here. For similarly named topics, see IAC (disambiguation) . This article may be too technical for most readers to understand . Please help improve it to make it understandable to non-experts , without removing the technical details. ( November 2021 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this message ) Part of a series on Software development Core activities Data modeling Processes Requirements Design Construction Engineering Testing Debugging Deployment Maintenance Paradigms, models Agile Cleanroom Incremental Prototyping Spiral V model Waterfall Methodologies , frameworks ASD DAD DevOps DSDM FDD IID Kanban Lean SD LeSS MDE MSF PSP RAD RUP SAFe Scrum SEMAT TDD TSP UP XP Supporting disciplines Configuration management Deployment management Documentation Project management Quality assurance User experience Practices ATDD BDD CCO CD CI DDD PP SBE Stand-up TDD XP Tools Build automation Compiler Debugger GUI builder IDE Infrastructure as code Profiler Release automation UML modeling Standards, bodies of knowledge CMMI IEEE standards IREB ISO 9001 ISO/IEC standards ITIL OMG PMBOK SWEBOK Glossaries Artificial intelligence Computer science Electrical and electronics engineering Outlines Software development Computer programming Programming languages C C++ C# Java JavaScript Perl Python Rust v t e Infrastructure as Code ( IaC ) is the process of managing and provisioning computer data center resources through machine-readable definition files, rather than via physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools. [ 1 ] The IT infrastructure managed by this process includes physical equipment, such as bare-metal servers , and virtual machines and associated configuration resources. The definitions may exist in a version control system rather than manual processes. Definition files may use either scripts or declarative definitions, but IaC more often employs declarative approaches. History [ edit ] The concept of managing infrastructure through code emerged from early configuration management practices. In the 1990s, tools such as CFEngine , created by Mark Burgess in 1993, introduced the idea of describing system configuration in a declarative language rather than executing manual commands, laying the intellectual groundwork for IaC. [ 2 ] Overview [ edit ] IaC grew as a response to the challenges posed by utility computing and second-generation web frameworks . In 2006, the launch of Amazon Web Services ’ Elastic Compute Cloud and the 1.0 version of Ruby on Rails just months before [ 3 ] created widespread scaling difficulties in enterprises that were formerly experienced only at large, multi-national companies. [ 4 ] With new tools emerging to handle this growing field, the idea of IaC was born. The thought of modeling infrastructure with code, and then having the ability to design, implement, and deploy application infrastructure with known software best practices appealed to both software developers and IT infrastructure administrators. The ability to treat infrastructure as code and use the same tools as any other software project would allow developers to rapidly deploy applications. [ 5 ] Advantages [ edit ] The value of IaC can be broken down into three measurable categories: cost, speed, and risk. [ citation needed ] Cost reduction aims at helping not only the enterprise financially, but also in terms of people and effort, meaning that by removing the manual component, organizations are able to refocus their efforts on other enterprise tasks. [ citation needed ] Infrastructure automation enables speed through faster execution when configuring your infrastructure and provides visibility to help other teams across the enterprise work quickly and more efficiently. Automation removes the risk associated with human error, like manual misconfiguration; removing this can decrease downtime and increase reliability. These outcomes and attributes help the enterprise move toward implementing a culture of DevOps : the combined work of development and operations . [ 6 ] Types of approaches [ edit ] There are generally two approaches to IaC: declarative ( functional ) vs. imperative ( procedural ). The difference between the declarative and the imperative approach is essentially what versus how . The declarative approach focuses on what the eventual target configuration should be; the imperative focuses on how the infrastructure is to be changed to meet this. [ 7 ] The declarative approach defines the desired state and the system executes what needs to happen to achieve that desired state. Imperative defines specific commands that need to be executed in the appropriate order to end with the desired conclusion. [ 8 ] Methods [ edit ] Infrastructure as Code (IaC) allows organizations to manage servers and their configurations using code. There are two ways to apply these configurations to servers: the ' push ' and ' pull ' methods. In the 'push' method, the system controlling the configuration directly sends instructions to the server. In the 'pull' method, the server retrieves its own instructions from the controlling system. [ 9 ] Tools [ edit ] There are many tools that fulfill infrastructure automation capabilities and use IaC. Broadly speaking, any framework or tool that performs changes or configures infrastructure declaratively or imperatively based on a programmatic approach can be considered IaC. [ 10 ] Traditionally, server (lifecycle) automation and configuration management tools were used to accomplish IaC. Now enterprises are also using continuous configuration automation tools or stand-alone IaC frameworks, such as Microsoft’s PowerShell DSC [ 11 ] or AWS CloudFormation . [ 12 ] Continuous configuration automation [ edit ] All continuous configuration automation (CCA) tools can be thought of as extensions of traditional IaC frameworks. They leverage IaC to change, configure, and automate infrastructure, and they also provide visibility, efficiency, and flexibility in how infrastructure is managed. [ 4 ] These additional attributes provide enterprise-level security and compliance. Community content [ edit ] See also: List of systems management systems and Comparison of open-source configuration management software Community content is a key determinant of an open-source CCA tool's quality. According to Gartner , the value of CCA tools is "as dependent on user-community-contributed content and support as it is on the commercial maturity and performance of the automation tooling". [ 4 ] Established vendors such as Puppet and Chef have created their own communities. Chef has Chef Community Repository and Puppet has PuppetForge . [ 13 ] Other vendors rely on adjacent communities and leverage other IaC frameworks such as PowerShell DSC. [ 11 ] New vendors are emerging that are not content-driven, but model-driven with the intelligence in the product to deliver content. These visual , object-oriented systems work well for developers, but they are especially useful to production-oriented DevOps and operations constituents that value models versus scripting for content. As the field continues to develop and change, the community-based content will become ever more important to how IaC tools are used, unless they are model-driven and object-oriented. Notable CCA tools Tool Released by Method Approach Written in Comments CFEngine Northern.tech (1993) Pull Declarative C — Puppet Puppet (2005) Push, pull Declarative, imperative C++ , Clojure since 4.0, Ruby — Chef Chef (2009) Pull Declarative, imperative Ruby — SaltStack SaltStack (2011) Push, pull Declarative, imperative Python — Ansible , Ansible Tower Red Hat (2012) Push, pull Declarative, imperative Python — Terraform HashiCorp (2014) Push Declarative, imperative Go — Otter Inedo (2015) Push Declarative, imperative — Windows -oriented Pulumi Pulumi (2018) Push Declarative, imperative Go — OpenTofu Linux Foundation and contributors (2023) Push Declarative, imperative Go Terraform fork Other tools include AWS CloudFormation , cdist , StackStorm , Juju , and Step CI. Relationships [ edit ] Relationship to DevOps [ edit ] IaC can be a key attribute of enabling best practices in DevOps . Developers become more involved in defining configuration and Ops teams get involved earlier in the development process. [ 14 ] Tools that utilize IaC bring visibility to the state and configuration of servers and ultimately provide the visibility to users within the enterprise, which brings teams together to maximize their efforts. [ 15 ] Automation in general aims to take the confusion and error-prone aspect of manual processes and make it more efficient, and productive. Allowing for better software and applications to be created with flexibility, less downtime, and an overall cost-effective way for the company. IaC is intended to reduce the complexity that kills efficiency out of manual configuration. Automation and collaboration are considered central points in DevOps; infrastructure automation tools are often included as components of a DevOps toolchain . [ 16 ] Relationship to security [ edit ] The 2020 Cloud Threat Report released by Unit 42 (the threat intelligence unit of cybersecurity provider Palo Alto Networks ) identified around 200,000 potential vulnerabilities in infrastructure-as-code templates. [ 17 ] See also [ edit ] Docker (software) IT infrastructure Infrastructure as a service Orchestration (computing) Continuous configuration automation Landing zone (software) GitOps Configuration management References [ edit ] ^ Wittig, Andreas; Wittig, Michael (2016). Amazon Web Services in Action . Manning Press. p. 93. ISBN   978-1-61729-288-0 . ^ Burgess, Mark (2004). Analytical Network and System Administration . Wiley. ISBN   0-470-86100-2 . ^ Bower, Joseph L.; Christensen, Clayton M. "Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave". Harvard Business Review . ^ a b c Fletcher, Colin; Cosgrove, Terrence (26 August 2015). Innovation Insight for Continuous Configuration Automation Tools . Gartner (Report). [ dead link ] ^ Riley, Chris (12 November 2015). "Version Your Infrastructure" . DevOps.com . ^ Phillips, Andrew (14 May 2015). "Moving from Infrastructure Automation to True DevOps" . DevOps.com . ^ "Declarative v. Imperative Models for Configuration Management: Which Is Really Better?" . Scriptrock.com . Archived from the original on 31 March 2015 . Retrieved 14 December 2015 . ^ Loschwitz, Martin (14 November 2014). "Choosing between the leading open source configuration managers" . Admin Network & Security . Lawrence, KS USA: Linux New Media USA LLC. ^ Venezia, Paul (21 November 2013). "Puppet vs. Chef vs. Ansible vs. Salt" . Network World . Network World. Archived from the original on 18 July 2018 . Retrieved 14 December 2015 . ^ Gartner Market Trends: DevOps – Not a Market, but Tool-Centric Philosophy That supports a Continuous Delivery Value Chain (Report). Gartner. 18 February 2015. ^ a b Chaganti, Ravikanth (5 January 2016). "DevOps, Infrastructure as Code, and PowerShell DSC: The Introduction" . PowerShell Magazine . PowerShell Magazine . Retrieved 11 January 2016 . ^ "Introducing AWS CloudFormation" . ^ Sturgeon, Phil (28 October 2012). "Puppet or Chef?" . Archived from the original on 1 February 2016 . Retrieved 29 January 2016 . ^ Ramos, Martin (4 November 2015). "Continuous Integration: Infrastructure as Code in DevOps" . easydynamics.com . Archived from the original on 6 February 2016 . Retrieved 29 January 2016 . ^ Infrastructure As Code: Fueling the Fire for Faster Application Delivery (Report). Forrester. March 2015. ^ Wurster, Laurie F.; Colville, Ronni J.; Height, Cameron; Tripathi, Somendra; Rastogi, Aditi. Emerging Technology Analysis: DevOps a Culture Shift, Not a Technology (Report). Gartner. ^ "Cloud Threat Report Shows Need for Consistent DevSecOps" . InformationWeek . 13 February 2020 . Retrieved 24 February 2020 . 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