Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

When learning DevOps or Cloud, you will often hear the term Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

But what does it actually mean?

Let’s understand it simply.

What Is Infrastructure?

Infrastructure includes:

Servers

Virtual machines

Databases

Networks

Load balancers

Traditionally, these were created manually.

That caused:

Human errors

Inconsistency

Slow setup

What Is Infrastructure as Code?

Infrastructure as Code means:

👉 Managing infrastructure using code instead of manual configuration.

Instead of clicking buttons in a cloud dashboard, you write configuration files.

These files define:

What resources to create

How they should be configured

How they connect

Why IaC Is Important

With IaC:

Infrastructure becomes repeatable

Deployments become faster

Changes are version-controlled

Teams collaborate better

It brings software engineering principles into infrastructure management.

How DevSecOps Connects Here

In DevSecOps:

Security policies can also be written as code

Infrastructure configurations can be scanned for misconfigurations

Compliance can be automated

This reduces risk early.

Final Thoughts

Before learning specific tools, understand the concept:

Infrastructure should be automated, versioned, and repeatable.

That is the foundation of modern DevOps.