What is Infrastructure as Code? How Does It Work?

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) automates infrastructure management using code. It ensures consistency, reduces errors, and speeds up deployments to make your infrastructure efficient.
By SentinelOne September 17, 2024

Think of infrastructure as the backbone of your software applications. It’s where everything gets built, tested, and launched. It supports the entire software lifecycle. However, managing infrastructure as code poses many challenges, especially when it is done manually.

For example, suppose an IT team manages infrastructure for a software development company. The team must manually configure requirements, setups, and resources for each phase of the development lifecycle. These configurations take a lot of time resulting in long deployment schedules, increased human error rates, missed updates, and misconfiguration. This can lead to contributing to low workflow efficiency and augmented unproductive time and when something goes wrong, results in system crashes or security breaches.

This holds true as cloud environments grow more extensive in scale. The manual process will be slow to handle the tasks of provisioning, scaling, and updating resources.

Let’s explore  IaC and its advantages, limitations, practices, and applications. Let’s begin.

What Is Infrastructure as Code (IaC)?

IAC or Infrastructure as Code is a modern approach to managing and deploying infrastructure. It allows you to automate the setup, deployment, and management of your IT infrastructure using code, much like how software developers write application code.

When you define everything from servers to databases in code, it’s like having a precise blueprint. This way, every time you set up a new environment, it’s as if you’re hitting the replay button—it’s exact and predictable. Imagine you’re setting up a pop-up shop. Instead of building each one from scratch, you just roll out the same setup every time, anywhere, fast and flawlessly. This makes your daily workflow smoother, letting you focus more on refining and less on fixing unexpected glitches.

Similarly, IaC can help you automate infrastructure management — everything from the configuration of servers, networks, storage, and other elements to meet the particular needs of the developer’s applications and services. It helps you create complex development environments and allows for precise and repeatable management of these environments.

Need of Infrastructure as Code

Traditional methods of configuring and managing infrastructure encompass manually configuring servers, tweaking networking settings, installing operating systems and so on.  This approach is time-consuming. It’s prone to inefficiencies that can slow down everything from project timelines to routine maintenance.

Here’s why IaC is essential in modern IT environments:

1. Consistency Across Environments

Have you ever had your development and production environments out of sync? That’s what we call “configuration drift,” and it’s a common headache with manual setups. IaC technology ensures uniformity by defining infrastructure through code to replicate across all environments.

2. Faster Provisioning

Manually setting up infrastructure takes time and resources.  For instance, let’s say a skilled technician is setting up a new server the old-fashioned way. It might take them about 4 to 6 hours to get everything up and running. That includes handling everything from provisioning the server—whether it’s physical or virtual—to installing the operating system and setting up the network configurations.

Now, switch that scenario to using Infrastructure as a Code (IaC). With IaC, assuming your scripts are ready and tested, you could have that same setup done in just under 10 minutes. IaC automates resource provisioning helping you quickly set up, deploy, and scale infrastructure.

3. Workflow Automation

IaC seamlessly integrates with continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to provide automated infrastructure testing, deployment, and scaling.

Suppose a software development team has the task of upgrading the functionality of a certain web application. Whenever a developer commits a new piece of code, the CI/CD pipeline (continuous integration/continuous delivery ) automatically initiates a series of actions: 1) Builds the application, 2) Run tests, and—if the tests pass—deploy the latest version to a testing or production environment.

With IaC, this particular process also accommodates the reconfiguration of the infrastructure automatically. If the new updates to code require additional processing resources the IaC can provision additional servers or adjust configurations on the fly. This adjusts the development environment, without manual intervention, reducing downtime and human errors.

4. Cost Efficiency

Managing infrastructure manually can be costly and time-consuming. For example, the estimated pay for a DevOps engineer in the U.S. is $1,07,377 annually. These costs can quickly add up for organizations relying on manual processes for infrastructure management. Through automation, IaC reduces operational costs and allows teams to focus on more strategic, value-driven activities.

5. Reusability of Configurations

Traditional methods often require repetitive efforts to set up similar environments. IaC promotes reusability by allowing the same code to be applied across different projects.

Declarative vs. Imperative Approaches in IaC

There are two primary approaches to IaC: declarative and imperative approaches.  While declarative tools are ideal for maintaining consistent, compliant environments, imperative approaches are appealing for situations that require complex, detailed setups. Choosing the right IaC approach can streamline your deployment processes, ensure higher stability, and reduce manual errors significantly.

Declarative Approach

In the declarative approach, you specify what the final configuration should look like without detailing the steps to achieve it. The IaC tool then determines and executes the necessary actions to reach the specified configuration.

For example, imagine you’re setting up a big Lego project. In the declarative approach, you don’t worry about each individual brick placement. Instead, you describe what you want the final model to look like. The IaC tool figures out how to put it all together for you.  In this way, one can abstract the complexity of underlying processes for infrastructure management.

It’s ideal for environments where sustaining a certain state, such as compliance-focused settings is crucial. Suppose you want to ensure that your infrastructure aligns closely with predefined policies. Then a declarative approach is useful.

Advantages

  • The declarative approach simplifies management by focusing on the desired outcome rather than the process.
  • It reduces the likelihood of errors since the tool handles the execution.
  • It is easier to maintain and update, as changes are made by altering the desired state.

Examples

The use of Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, or Kubernetes YAML files defines a declarative approach. This is because users are required to specify only the end state of the infrastructure without stating the steps to attain it.

For example, with Terraform, you write configuration files that describe your infrastructure, and over time Terraform figures out what needs to be done in order to achieve the state your configuration files define.

Also, in the context of Kubernetes YAML, the files specify the desired state of the clusters and the applications that are deployed in them. They are the resource definitions that configure pods, services, and other entities.

Similarly, in AWS, CloudFormation lets you use YAML or JSON to define what AWS resources you want to run and how they should be configured. You provide a template that outlines your AWS environment, and CloudFormation takes care of provisioning and managing those resources as specified.

Imperative Approach

The imperative approach involves specifying how to achieve the desired infrastructure state by detailing the exact commands or steps to be executed.

It’s especially effective in complex deployments where specific, sequential steps are required for correct setup.

This approach grants you more control over each step of the process and is useful for scenarios where customization and fine-grained control are necessary.

Advantages:

  • The imperative approach provides granular control over the execution process.
  • It is useful for complex scenarios where specific, ordered steps are necessary.
  • It can be more intuitive for users familiar with scripting and command-line interfaces.

Examples:

Tools like Ansible and shell scripts for configuration management are often associated with the imperative approach to Infrastructure as Code. In Ansible, you write playbooks that detail the steps the system should take, such as installing a package, writing files, or configuring services. These playbooks outline the commands or tasks in a specific order, which gives you granular control over the deployment process.

Similarly, when you are creating a shell script for configuring the system, you are writing the sequence of all the commands that have to be carried out, specifying the order in which they are to be executed. For example, one can create a script that updates the operating system, installs certain applications, and changes files in the system – as a number of separate commands in a specified sequence.

Elements/Components of IaC

IaC encompasses several tools such as version control, configuration files, and orchestration tools. Developers and IT teams use these tools to automate and refine the deployment process. Understanding these components keeps your setups consistent and ramps up developer efficiency.

Let’s explore these elements:

1. Version Control

The version control assembles the histories of configurations and alterations made to the conversations. This tool enables developers to collaborate better by helping them understand what changes were made over time. Version control also helps them roll back configurations in case incorrect configurations are made, or if accidental deletions occur.

2. Configuration Files

IaC is based on a set of files containing configuration where the final infrastructure is described. Such files are usually in formats containing configurations like JSON, YAML, or HCL in which templates are created containing scripts used in setting up and managing resources, including servers, databases, and networks. Configuration files act as a single source of truth for developers and IT teams and ensure consistency across environments. Using these files, developers can easily replicate their infrastructure setups without having to manually make configurations every time they want to set up their infrastructure.

3. Orchestration Tools

Orchestration tools such as Terraform and AWS CloudFormation automate various aspects of the deployment process:  resource provisioning, configuration, compliance, disaster recovery, and so on. Developers can set up infrastructure using IaC specifications in the form of scripts. This allows developers to define more reliable infrastructure setups and save time.

4. Provisioning Tools

Provisioning tools like Chef, Puppet, and SaltStack actually create and configure infrastructure resources. These provisioning tools ensure that the physical or virtual infrastructure is configured according to the resource allocation mentioned in the provisioning configuration files. By automating this, developers can maintain uniform configurations across multiple environments.

5. Automated Testing and Validation

Automated testing is also an aspect of IaC, where infrastructure is verified to be functioning as desired. Validation includes Testinfra and Serverspec facilitate tests that can be used to check that the configurations of the infrastructure code before and after deployment are the correct ones. These tools help detect potential issues early before they impact the project in the production environment.

6. Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) Pipelines

The value of incorporating IaC with CI/CD pipelines can be seen in continuous testing, deployment, and updates of the infrastructure. This integration helps ensure that changes are tested and rolled out to production to reduce the number of times the system goes offline. This tool accelerates feedback loops and enables developers to replicate the setup of similar infrastructure environments in a reliable manner.

How Does Infrastructure as Code Work?

IaC involves writing code to define the desired state of infrastructure components such as servers, databases, networks, and other resources. Here’s a breakdown of how IaC works:

  • Definition: Infrastructure is defined using code, typically in a descriptive model: a structured format that clearly outlines which resources are needed—like servers, networks, and storage— and how they should be configured. This code specifies the desired state of the infrastructure, including the resources needed and their configurations.
  • Automation: Automation tools execute the code to provision and configure the infrastructure. This avoids having to carry out the work manually and also has the advantage of cutting down on errors while increasing the deployment rate.
  • Version control: The infrastructure code is stored in a version control system such as Git to check for changes made and roll back to the previous version in case and for collaboration.
  • Deployment: The infrastructure is implemented systematically in different environments so that there is consistency in the setup.

Benefits of IaC

IaC transforms how organizations manage and scale their infrastructure, moving from manual processes to automated, code-based workflows. With IaC, teams can define, provision, and eliminate common challenges like configuration drift. It ensures that teams respond quickly to market demands while maintaining control over their infrastructure. Here are a few more advantages that businesses benefit from IaC:

1. Improved Deployment Speed

IaC makes it easy to provision and deploy infrastructure, so it takes less time to have new environments live. This helps drive up the development and testing cycles, helping to deliver applications and updates much quicker.

2. Enhanced Environment Reproducibility

Infrastructure-as-code ensures that environments are easily reproducible to the maximum level of resemblance between them and other environments such as development, staging, and production. This makes it easier to upgrade and downgrade between environments and reduces the problems of migrating an application between environments.

3. Infrastructure Documentation

With IaC, the infrastructure is documented in the code itself. This automatically provides up-to-date documentation of the infrastructure setup. New team members can understand the environment easily.

4. Facilitates DevOps Practices

IaC is an important step in DevOps that helps set up CI/CD pipelines. This integration helps decrease the time when the infrastructure changes are tested and deployed, enabling infrastructure management to rapidly scale or change configurations with minimal delay and effort.  infrastructure management more agile.

5. Reduced Risk of Human Error

Automating infrastructure with IaC also has the advantage of minimizing the chance of human errors that often occur during deployments. This results in greater stability and less likelihood of a failure or an outage occurring unexpectedly.

6. Disaster Recovery Planning

The use of IaC allows organizations to develop disaster recovery plans that are effective and easy to implement. Through the application of infrastructure configurations in a version control system, organizations minimize the time to create environments.

7. Scalability of Operations

IaC makes it easier to scale operations as the organization grows. The same code can be used to expand infrastructure, ensuring that scaling is done consistently and efficiently without the need for manual intervention.

Challenges and Limitations with IaC

The Infrastructure as Code model automates and streamlines infrastructure management but also comes with challenges. For organizations unfamiliar with coding-based infrastructure management, this can prove challenging for the following reasons:

#1. Complexity in Initial Setup

It demands intensive knowledge of structures total and of the tools used in IaC. The first setup can be complicated and resource-intensive, particularly for organizations new to IaC. To make the onboarding process smoother, organizations can start by implementing IaC in smaller, non-critical environments.

This will help you gain familiarity without overwhelming the teams. Additionally, standardized templates and modules should be developed to simplify the initial setup for consistency across infrastructure.

#2. Management of Large Codebases

As infrastructure grows, the IaC codebase can become large and difficult to manage. Maintaining and updating these large codebases requires rigorous version control practices and can lead to difficulties in tracking changes.

SentinelOne recommends breaking configurations into smaller, reusable modules, which simplifies maintenance. Implementing strong version control practices like Git ensures tracking and rollback of changes while integrating with CI/CD pipelines. This will automate testing and deployments to keep the infrastructure scalable and consistent.

#3. Debugging and Error Handling

An IaC bug can be hard to solve, especially when complex arrangements are involved or when bugs appear at the time of automated deployment. Tracking down the root cause of a problem is considered quite complex and may demand knowledge of the code and infrastructure.

#4. Tooling and Compatibility Issues

This is because there are many IaC tools in existence, and part of the challenge involves ensuring that they work together. It can arise when organizations have a combination of on-premise and cloud IaC.

#5. Security Concerns

As seen from the infrastructure as code definition, this kind of automation brings security concerns with it. It has been identified that IaC scripts are equally prone to security flaws, but there exists an additional probability that configuration errors may eventually lead to the exposure of ‘keys’ or passwords.

Best Practices for Infrastructure as Code

Whether it’s keeping your code in check with version control, automating deployments to reduce errors, or ensuring your setups are secure and compliant, IaC has a toolbox full of strategies. Without learning about these practices, you may end up making inconsistent configurations such as over-provisioning or under-provisioning, and version discrepancies, among others. Follow these best practices to stay in control of your development environment.

#1. Version Control and Collaboration

Ideally, you should store all the infrastructural codes in a version-control system, such as Git, for tracking changes. It allows multiple team members to collaborate on the same codebase and even helps with rollbacks in case of errors.

#2. Automation and Testing

Use tools like Terratest and Kitchen-Terraform to automate tests, ensuring configurations work as expected before deployment. Integrate IaC with CI/CD pipelines to streamline testing, validation, and deployment to speed up the process while reducing errors.

#3. Modularity and Reusability

Organize your IaC code into modular, reusable components for ease of maintenance and consistency across environments. Implementing immutable infrastructure practices, where servers are replaced rather than modified, helps maintain a stable and consistent infrastructure.

#4. Security and Compliance

Regularly scan your infrastructure code for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations to catch issues early. Manage sensitive information securely with tools like HashiCorp Vault to keep the info out of version control.

#5. Monitor and Log Changes

Tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and ELK Stack can help monitor infrastructure health and provide insights into any issues that arise. It allows for quick resolution and maintains the integrity of your infrastructure.

#6. Efficiency and Optimization

Optimize your infrastructure by right-sizing deployments and removing unused resources, which helps control costs. Use ephemeral environments for testing to reduce the need for long-term resources.

#7. Documentation and Governance

Treat infrastructure documentation as code, keeping it updated and stored alongside your infrastructure code. This ensures that documentation is always up-to-date and easy to manage. Also, automate governance with policies and checks to maintain compliance and reduce manual errors.

Use Cases of IaC

Understanding the use cases of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) can help with understanding how you can tailor virtual machines to your specific needs, manage intricate network designs, and ensure quick disaster recovery.

Here are the common use cases where it is beneficial:

  1. Provisioning virtual machines (VMs): Cloud IaC provisions VMs in the cloud where you can determine the number of VMs required, the operating systems, and other required software.
  2. Deploying networks: IaC is employed in the deployment and management of extensive networking structures. Network topologies can also be defined, subnets can be created, and security groups can be set by code.
  3. Managing DNS records: It allows users to automate the creation, modification and removal of DNS records. This avoids inconsistency of settings across different environments, resulting in no configuration error.
  4. CI/CD integration: It also interacts with CI/CD cycles to automate the provisioning and configuration of infrastructure and applications.
  5. Disaster recovery: IaC allows an organization to quickly recover from failures as one can deploy a working infrastructure from code.

IaC simplifies cloud infrastructure management but also heightens the need for proactive security. Generally, IaC scanning will protect your cloud environments by detecting vulnerabilities in your code.

Wrapping Up: Protect Your Cloud with SentinelOne’s IaC Scanning

SentinelOne’s IaC scanning is integrated into the Singularity™ Cloud Security platform for real-time visibility and protection throughout the entire cloud lifecycle. The solution enables you to protect your cloud infrastructure in your IaC templates before they can be exploited. Here’s how SentinelOne can enhance your cloud security:

  • Proactive vulnerability detection: SentinelOne’s IaC Scanning helps find vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in IaC templates such as Terraform and CloudFormation among others.
  • Real-time secret scanning: The platform features real-time scanning for more than 750+ types of secrets across various repositories, such as BitBucket, GitLab and GitHub, to ensure secrets are not exposed at any time.
  • Comprehensive cloud-native protection: As part of the Comprehensive Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP), SentinelOne’s IaC scanning works alongside other tools such as Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Cloud Detection & Response (CDR).
  • Offensive security engine: SentinelOne’s Offensive Security Engine is designed to keep clients updated on the latest threats including zero-day vulnerabilities.
  • Shift-left security integration: The platform seamlessly works within CI/CD pipelines to take a shift-left security stance. This approach holds teams in a position to be able to view and remove prospective flaws during the earliest stages of development.
  • Customization and flexibility: There are over 1000 default security rules and options to create custom ones to meet individual needs.
  • Advanced automation and visualization: The additional features include a graph-based data representation, Snyk integration, and the capability of performing one-click security remediation for the identified problems in your cloud environment.

Book a demo today and see how SentinelOne can protect your environment from modern threats.

FAQs

1. What are the advantages of IaC in DevOps?

Infrastructure as code enhances DevOps by automating infrastructure management, ensuring consistency across environments, enabling faster deployments, and reducing manual errors. It integrates with CI/CD pipelines, fostering collaboration and accelerating software delivery.

2. What is IaC scanning?

IaC Scanning involves analyzing infrastructure code for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations before deployment for secure and compliant cloud environments. It identifies potential risks early in the development process to prevent security breaches.

3. Which IaC tools are currently available in the market?

Popular IaC tools include Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, Ansible, and Pulumi. These tools help automate and manage infrastructure by defining it as code, allowing for consistency and scalability across environments.

4. What features should be considered in IaC tools?

Key features include support for multiple cloud platforms, robust version control, automated testing, and ease of integration with CI/CD pipelines. Additionally, it should have strong security and compliance capabilities.

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