Infrastructure is code. What are you talking about?

Infrastructure as a service （Infrastructure as a Service,IaaS）、 Infrastructure is code （Infrastructure as Code,IaC）、 And the most recent infrastructure, data （Infrastructure as Data,IaD）—— Of course , There are many forms of infrastructure 、 Form and scale . However , Although these terms sound similar , It seems very simple , But the complex concepts they represent are completely different .

In infrastructure as a service （IaaS） Or after cloud computing enters this stage , The software engineering community must determine how to use “ Infrastructure as a service ”（IaaS） 了 .

This blog post discusses some of the most popular methods , It also provides a concise and accurate definition for technical and non-technical stakeholders .

  Main points of this paper

• Infrastructure as a service （IaaS） It refers to the ability to acquire and release resources on demand .

• Infrastructure is code （IaC） Or infrastructure, i.e. data （IaD） It refers to the method of obtaining and releasing resources on demand .

  Infrastructure as a service （IaaS）

Infrastructure as a service （IaaS） It refers to the ability to acquire and release resources on demand .

This blog post is based on the minimal model of infrastructure as a service ： The term “ Infrastructure as a service ” It refers to the ability of resource users to obtain and release a group of resources from resource providers on demand .

The term “ resources ” Means any component used by the consumer and provided by the provider accordingly , for example , virtual machine 、 Container or load balancer .

  Infrastructure is code （IaC）

Infrastructure is code （IaC） Refers to the acquisition and release of resources Method .

This blog post is based on an infrastructure as a service （IaaS） The infrastructure of the model is the code （IaC） Minimum model of ： The term “ Infrastructure is code ” It refers to the configuration method of acquiring and releasing a group of resources on demand .

  Infrastructure is code 、 Data ......

without doubt , Infrastructure is code （IaC） It is the most famous 、 The most commonly discussed configuration method . However , In this post , We will discuss five different ways to acquire and release resources .

The resource consumer determines the required set of resources , That is, the desired state . This configuration method determines how the desired state is expressed , And how or when to calculate or execute a sequence of commands that convert the current state to the desired state .

for example , Resource users can decide to add three computing resources , You also need a load balancer resource to run their application .

But how can resource users do this ？ If resource users encounter any adverse impact caused by the environment （ If computing resources are not available ）, So what will happen ？

Imperative resource allocation method

The imperative resource allocation method means that the resource user does not formally encode the required state , And the command sequence is determined by the resource consumer .

The most remarkable thing is , Imperative methods are not repeatable , therefore , You can't automatically execute , Because the resource consumer must determine the command sequence leading to the desired state for each given current state .

1. Infrastructure as bills

chart 1.1 Infrastructure is the bill

Infrastructure is the bill （Infrastructure as Tickets） It refers to the method of submitting supporting bills in the bill system supported by enterprises . The resource user submits the description of the required resource as a supporting ticket . Support agents to obtain or release resources on behalf of users , And share connection information and credentials with users .

chart 1.2 Infrastructure is the bill

2. Infrastructure click

Infrastructure click （Infrastructure as Clicks） It refers to the method of obtaining and releasing resources using the user interface of the resource provider .

chart 2.2 Infrastructure click

3. Infrastructure is a script

chart 3.1 Infrastructure is a script

Infrastructure is a script （Infrastructure as Scripts） It refers to the method of obtaining and releasing resources using the command line interface of the resource provider .

chart 3.2 Infrastructure is a script

Declarative resource allocation method

The declarative resource allocation method refers to ： The state required for the formal encoding of the resource consumer , And the command sequence is determined by the component .

The most remarkable thing is , Declarative methods are repeatable , So it can be automated , Because the component can determine any command sequence that may lead to the required state of the current state .

4. Infrastructure is code

chart 4.1 Infrastructure is code

Infrastructure is code （Infrastructure as Code） It refers to the method of using additional components to obtain and release resources . The resource consumer encodes the required state in a component specific format , The component then determines and executes the required sequence of commands . Besides ,“as Code” Indicates that there is a control flow statement .

up to now , The available implementations of this component have tool level quality , When the resource consumer triggers , The tool will execute once —— It can be performed manually or automatically in the context of continuous deployment or continuous delivery pipeline .

Well known examples include Hashicorp Terraform and Pulumi Of Pulumi.

chart 4.2 Infrastructure is code

5. Infrastructure is data

chart 5.1 Infrastructure is data

Infrastructure is data （Infrastructure as Data） It refers to the method of using additional components to obtain and release resources . The resource consumer encodes the required state in a component specific format , The component then determines and executes the required sequence of commands . Besides ,“as Data” Indicates that there is no control flow statement .

up to now , The available implementations of this component have the quality of continuous execution platform level .

Well known examples include the cloud native Computing Foundation （Cloud Native Computing Foundation,CNCF） Of Kubernetes Platform as well as AWS Of Fargate.

chart 5.2 Infrastructure is data

  Infrastructure is code VS Infrastructure is data

Infrastructure is code （IaC） The defining characteristic of is that there is a control flow in the coding of the desired state , And infrastructure is data （IaD） The defining property of is that there is no control flow in the encoding of the desired state .

Infrastructure, that is, code, is often associated with detection and mitigation of state drift manually triggered by the resource provider . Similarly , Infrastructure, i.e. data, is usually associated with the continuous detection and mitigation of state drift by components .

However , Reconciliation triggered manually or performed continuously is not a defined characteristic ：

• Infrastructure, that is, code, is associated with manual triggering for a reason , This comes from the basic setting, that is, the promotion of the code is through the manual trigger tool （ Such as Terraform or Pulumi） To unfold

• Infrastructure, i.e. data, is associated with continuous execution , It comes from a platform that can continuously execute infrastructure, that is, code （Kubernetes） The popularity of .

Conclusion

Whether we think of infrastructure as bills 、 Click on 、 Script 、 Code or data , We are all considering the configuration method of infrastructure , That is, how we interact with infrastructure as a service .

  welfare ： Pay attention to the official account reply key ： restructure , Free access to 《 restructure ： Improve the design of existing code 》

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