IaC
Infrastructure as Code
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
IaC is shorthand for Infrastructure as Code — the idea that your servers and cloud setup should be written in files, not clicked together in a UI. If you can't check it into git, it doesn't exist. IaC lets you spin up an identical copy of your entire infrastructure from scratch with one command.
Real Talk
IaC is the abbreviation for Infrastructure as Code. It encompasses the tools and practices for defining cloud and on-premise infrastructure declaratively or imperatively in code files. This enables repeatable provisioning, disaster recovery, and drift detection.
When You'll Hear This
"Write the AWS setup as IaC so we can recreate it in a new region." / "Our IaC lives in the /infra directory — Terraform for cloud, Ansible for config."
Related Terms
Ansible
Ansible is a tool that lets you automate the setup of servers by writing scripts called playbooks.
GitOps
GitOps is the idea that git is the single source of truth for EVERYTHING — your code, your infrastructure config, your deployment state.
Infrastructure as Code
ClickOps means building your cloud infrastructure by clicking buttons in AWS console.
Terraform
Terraform is a tool that lets you describe your entire cloud infrastructure in code files, then type one command to make it real.