With the emergence of “infrastructure-as-code” and the DevOps movement, “As code” became a buzzword. This was when IT operations/sysadmins began working together to automate IT environment modifications using reusable code. And then version control that same code in a similar way developers have been managing their application code changes for many decades.
Why is Everything as Code?
Most organizations are increasingly dependent on complex systems. One server can’t handle everything. You have to deal with legislation, globalization, and shared hardware. Many parts of the IT stacks are outsourced to “as a service” companies. Microservices are gaining popularity along with the many APIs that connect many systems. There is a need for infrastructure management in order to meet the different needs of different countries and ensure compliance. It is essential to ensure that everything runs smoothly. However, this complexity makes manual IT management difficult. We need a method to manage the growing tech stacks that keep organizations running. We have a methodology that is borrowed from the worlds of developers. It involves programming, tooling, and automation and is known as everything as code.
What is Everything as Code?
Treating all components of a system as code is known as Everything as Code. It means that you can store both the source code and configuration in a repository like a git or svn. In addition, the configuration can be stored from top to bottom (communication switches, bare-metal servers, operating system, build configurations, app properties, deployment configurations as codes) so that they can all be tracked and easily recreated. Everything as Code (EaC) also includes system design which is stored as code. Infrastructure was essential in the old IT world. It required special skills, physical hardware, and cables to be properly installed. The systems were either very valuable or not updated as often as they were created by the people responsible. Cloud computing and cloud-native apps have made it easy and cheap to create virtual infrastructure. The code that configures virtual environments can be stored in code so they can be reused as often as needed. EaC is an excellent tool for developers and IT engineers. EaC allows for a repeatable, scalable approach to tasks such as managing application deployments or provisioning infrastructure that would otherwise be tedious and manual. EaC is equally beneficial to developers and IT engineers by allowing them to work more efficiently. They can also use the same tools and configuration files to scale their operations across multiple environments. You also benefit from reducing human error risk by using the everything as code approach. When your workflows are all defined in code, engineers no longer need to worry about missing something or accidentally clicking the wrong button. EaC makes auditing much easier because you can use EaC configurations to determine what was done to your systems.
How is Everything as Code becoming popular in the market?
Everything as Code (EaC) has seen a lot of growth in recent years due to a convergence of several interrelated factors. One reason is that tool vendors are more open to embracing all code. As a result, they have adopted what you might refer to as an EaC-first approach for tool configuration and deployment, assuming that developers or IT engineers would prefer to manage everything with code files. Kubernetes is one example. Kubernetes can be managed via a Web interface if desired. However, it is designed to be managed through code files. The same could be said for most public cloud services and CI servers. They can have optional graphical frontends but work best when managed via code. EaC has been fueled by the fact that many admin and dev tools have agreed on common configuration formats. Virtually all EaC-compatible tools use YAML and JSON as their configuration language. Practitioners can use the same configuration file format and the same method to manage all their tools because of the standardization of the formats. EaC’s ability to manage and build entire application delivery networks is helping to increase its popularity. EaC was once able to handle a few tools in your CI/CD workflow. EaC is now exponentially more helpful, where you can manage all your tools via code. You can eliminate other tools and processes and centralize all operations using a single approach. EaC isn’t a new concept at its core. EaC has been around for some time in isolated forms. It is now widely used as a solution to certain DevOps workflows.
Benefits of Everything as Code
There are multiple reasons tech teams adopt an everything as code approach in IT operations.
Consistency
Administrators can use uniform configurations in a variety of environments. Engineers can avoid inconsistent configurations by using everything as code, whether they are configuring infrastructure, CI/CD tools, or cloud access control policy policies.
Version control
Administrators can monitor how configurations change over time and ensure they are version-controlled. This is similar to the source code. It is possible to see which changes were made before the problem occurred or to go back to an earlier version if needed.
Scalability
Administrators can apply a configuration to as many processes or resources as they need. This is a benefit for operations that grow in size over time. IT teams can create configurations using code that allows them to add instances of a particular resource or process without reconfiguring each one.
Auditability
Administrators can automatically inspect configuration resources by auditing code files. This is much more efficient than manually validating each resource.
Portability
IT teams that use everything as code will find it easier to define their configurations using vendor-neutral code than managing them with different vendors’ configuration tools. For example, Selenium, an open-source test automation framework, can be used to create software testing scripts. As a result, administrators can quickly move test environments from the on-premises to the cloud without needing to update or learn new tools.
How to apply Everything as Code?
Below are the different ways how you can apply everything as code:
Infrastructure as Code
The infrastructure as code is where operations and developers define the desired state for their infrastructure using code. This means that you define the infrastructure that needs to be provisioned. You can then modify your infrastructure to meet your needs.
Security as Code
Security as code can lead to more secure systems. This is evident in automatic scanning for security flaws and automatic updates where necessary. The software can be used to manage security for IT departments. This also applies to managing different compliance/regulatory needs. For example, you may have to show different content to people in Europe than to those in America. This can be done automatically using an ‘as code’ approach.
Architecture as Code
AaC allows you to define all components necessary to run your business application. It also lets you deploy it to different environments (dev/test, production). It is a code imperative approach that allows version control, review, modifications, and revisions.
Testing as Code
Testing as code is the perfect example of test automation. It is possible to automate business logic operations and UI interactions by using test scripts.
Deployment as Code
The modern deployment pipeline is a perfect example. Modern refers to pipelines that can be viewed as code. They are managed, updated, and maintained as software components. Code is used to create advanced CI/CD pipelines, both basic and advanced.
Things to Remember When You Plan to Implement Everything as Code
It makes it easier for both IT engineers and software developers to work more efficiently.To use everything as code in your company, you must change your mindset.Your team’s efforts are crucial to your successOne of the most attractive features is the ability to follow high-quality procedures and gates.It is difficult to test infrastructure code. Automated tests are required.You cannot define all infrastructures for all environments – dev, stage, and production, in one file.
Conclusion
Everything as Code (EaC), a method of software development and DevOps, uses code to manage IT resources. EaC has many applications in Infrastructure as Code and Config as Code, as well as other IT areas. While Everything as Code may be a promising end-state for many organizations, there is an opportunity cost to convert a portion of a platform to EaC. This will help you decide where to invest your resources. Your platform will have parts that could benefit from an EaC approach. The key is to identify those areas.
