DevOps Dictionary

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is the practice of defining and managing infrastructure—such as networks, virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters, and cloud services—using version-controlled configuration files instead of manual setup in a web console. It solves the problem of inconsistent, hard-to-recreate environments by making infrastructure changes repeatable, reviewable, and automated like application code. At a high level, an IaC tool reads a desired state (declarative: you describe what you want) or an execution plan (imperative: you describe the steps) and then provisions, updates, or removes resources to match, typically as part of CI/CD automation.

With Infrastructure as Code (IaC), teams get consistent environments, clear audit trails, and safer rollbacks; without it, click-by-click changes drift over time, increasing outages, security gaps, and recovery time. This gap exists because manual changes are rarely tracked reliably, while IaC captures intent and history in source control.