What is the benefits of IaC tools?In the present time, when DevOps is widely used in companies. Then one thing that comes with it is very interested is IaC.
I probably won’t talk about what IaC is in this article, because no one can better define it than the companies that make IaC tools.
But I want to mention some of the benefits of IaC tools here.
No more clicking through the UI
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Previously, when you wanted to create a certain infrastructure resource, for example: virtual machine, disk, domain name, …
You will enter the admin interface (eg AWS Console, VCenter, …) to manipulate, click and fill in the types of resources you need.
This is pretty pure and brings many limitations:
- With a large number of resources and repetition, for example, you need to create 100 virtual machines on VCenter, you will have to repeat the operation 100 times.
- Besides, manual manipulation with clicks, it is easy to make mistakes when you are not paying attention.
With IaC, you just need to code for all the resources you need and apply it once.
Implement DevOps
In DevOps, Ops people also gradually have to learn to code like Developers.
But the difference here is that they write code for the infrastructure.
And by using Git in combination with IaC, teams can completely control changes related to infrastructure, through version control.
Besides, because using IaC and Git, team members can completely consult and agree on an infrastructure resource.
Declare the infrastructure
With IaC tools, you will define all your infrastructure resources into lines of code in an easy to understand way.
You will write exactly what you want to implement without worrying too much about handling the APIs of the providers.
And at the same time, the IaC itself will become a complete document about the infrastructure.
It greatly reduces the previous risks of missing system/infrastructure documentation. Because during the operation of the infrastructure, it is possible that the Ops team did not record what they did.
Speed, cost and reduced risk
You can imagine, IaC tools combined with Git to manage code changes.
This keeps the infrastructure consistent and free of redundant components. It avoids someone creating unnecessary extra resources.
This helps us keep costs under control.
Besides, with the old way of doing things, the Ops team may have to spend time figuring out what the next step after the Next button is when working through the UI.
While with IaC, the resource is defined and modularized, you just need to follow it is enough, it will save the team’s time searching for information.
Finally and of course, when the whole team is working on the same infrastructure code, everyone knows what it is and what needs to be done.
Avoid team members working manually, errors occur during manipulation through the UI. And also avoid personalization risks when the operation is not approved or notified by the team.
Conclusion
This article only gives some perspective on the benefits of IaC tools.
It hasn’t gone directly into how to use the tools. But I hope, for those just starting to use Iac, they should also have some initial overview of it.
