Infrastructure as Code
Managing and provisioning infrastructure through machine-readable configuration files rather than manual processes.
Also: IaC
Definition
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is the practice of managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through human-readable, machine-executable configuration files rather than through manual processes or interactive configuration tools. IaC enables version-controlled, repeatable, and automated infrastructure deployments. Key IaC tools include Terraform (cloud-agnostic), AWS CloudFormation, Azure ARM templates, and Ansible. IaC reduces configuration drift, speeds up deployments, and enables disaster recovery through infrastructure recreation.
Example
“A DevOps team defines 200 AWS resources in Terraform files; running terraform apply provisions the entire infrastructure in minutes, reproducibly.”
Synonyms
- programmable infrastructure
- declarative infrastructure
- automated provisioning
Antonyms / Opposites
- manual configuration
- clickOps
- ad-hoc provisioning
Images
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Related Terms
- devops
- terraform
- cicd
- cloud-computing