Infrastructure as Code Best Practices with Terraform for DevOps

In today’s fast-paced tech landscape, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has become an essential practice for managing and provisioning infrastructure efficiently and reliably. At Cheesecake Labs, we embrace IaC (using Terraform) to maintain operational excellence. 

In this post, we’ll examine how Terraform allows us to achieve a high level of automation in our DevOps processes and the best practices we follow to keep our infrastructure agile and resilient.

Let’s dive in!

What is Infrastructure as Code (IaC)?

First, let’s define Infrastructure as Code (IaC) – it is an IT practice that manages and provisions infrastructure with code rather than using manual processes.

This means developers and operations teams can automatically manage, monitor, and provision resources by defining infrastructure specifications in configuration files.

Here’s how it works:

• Code creation: Developers write infrastructure specifications using a domain-specific language or a general-purpose programming language.
• Code storage: The specification files are stored in a code repository or version control system.
• Execution: An IaC platform uses these specification files to create, modify, or delete infrastructure components, either automatically or on demand. 

The Importance of Infrastructure as Code in DevOps

Infrastructure as Code represents a paradigm shift in how we manage IT environments. Instead of manually configuring servers, networks, and other infrastructure components, IaC allows us to define these resources in code.

This code-driven approach ensures our infrastructure is consistent, repeatable, and scalable, regardless of the environment.

For a company like Cheesecake Labs, IaC is more than just a convenience — it’s a cornerstone of our ability to deliver high-quality software quickly and reliably.

By automating infrastructure provisioning and management, we free our teams to focus on what really matters: building and deploying innovative solutions that drive business success.

Why Terraform?

Today, we’re looking at using Terraform for IaC. Terraform stands out in the crowded IaC landscape for its flexibility, robustness, and broad support for cloud providers.

Whether we’re managing cloud resources on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, Terraform provides a unified, declarative approach to infrastructure management.

With Terraform, we can define our infrastructure as code, version it, and share it across teams, ensuring consistency and collaboration.

Plus, Terraform’s ability to manage the full lifecycle of our infrastructure — from initial provisioning to updates and decommissioning — aligns perfectly with our goal of continuous improvement.

The role of automation in DevOps

Automation is at the heart of DevOps. Automating repetitive tasks reduces the potential for human error, accelerates delivery cycles, and ensures that our infrastructure scales seamlessly with demand

In an environment where agility is essential, automation allows us to respond quickly to changes in business requirements, deploy new features faster, and maintain a consistent infrastructure across all environments.

Terraform is a cornerstone of our automation strategy. It allows us to define infrastructure as code, automating the provisioning and management of resources across environments.

With Terraform, we can integrate infrastructure management directly into our CI/CD pipelines, ensuring that our infrastructure evolves in lockstep with our applications.

Terraform in action: Automating infrastructure 

Here’s how we use Terraform to automate infrastructure at Cheesecake Labs. 

Infrastructure as Code: The foundation of automation 

Terraform enables us to manage our entire infrastructure as code, which is crucial for automation. By writing configuration files that describe the desired state of our infrastructure, we can automate the provisioning, updating, and scaling of resources.

This code-driven approach ensures consistency across environments and makes it easier to replicate and scale infrastructure as needed.

Seamless integration with CI/CD pipelines

We have integrated Terraform into our CI/CD pipelines to fully automate infrastructure deployment. We manage every infrastructure change through version-controlled Terraform scripts, which are automatically applied as part of the CI/CD pipelines.

This integration means that infrastructure changes are tested and deployed alongside application code, reducing the time from development to production.

Automated environment management 

Managing multiple environments, such as development, staging, and production, can be challenging. With Terraform, we automate the creation and management of these environments using workspaces.

Each environment is isolated yet managed through the same codebase, ensuring consistency while allowing for environment-specific customization. Automation ensures new environments can be spun up quickly and reliably whenever needed.

Reviewing and planning infrastructure changes 

Automation doesn’t stop at deployment — it also encompasses the careful planning of changes to ensure stability and predictability.

We use Terraform’s plan command to generate an execution plan before applying any changes, which allows us to see exactly what modifications will be made to our infrastructure. This proactive approach helps us catch potential issues early and ensures every change is deliberate and well-understood.

Scaling on demand 

One of the greatest benefits of Terraform automation is the ability to scale resources on demand. Automating scaling policies within our Terraform configurations ensures that our infrastructure can automatically adjust to traffic spikes or increased workloads. This dynamic scaling is essential for maintaining performance and cost efficiency in cloud environments.

Infrastructure as Code best practices for Terraform automation

Here are some Infrastructure as Code best practices that we follow when using Terraform for IaC. 

Version control and code reviews 

All Terraform configurations are stored in a version control system like Git, which is a critical practice for automation. This allows us to track changes, collaborate effectively, and implement code reviews to catch potential issues before they reach production. By treating our infrastructure code just like application code, we maintain high standards of quality and reliability.

Modularize and reuse code 

We break down our Terraform configurations into reusable modules to streamline our automation efforts. Our team carefully crafts each module to handle specific aspects of our infrastructure, such as networking, security, or compliance. 

By creating our own modules, we ensure they are tailored to our unique requirements and security standards. This approach simplifies code management, accelerates the automation of new environments and resources, and enhances security.

Custom modules allow us to embed security best practices and controls directly into the infrastructure code, ensuring consistent and secure configurations across all projects.

Secure and manage Terraform state 

Terraform state files are central to automation because they store information about the current state of our infrastructure.

We automate the management of these state files by storing them in secure, remote locations like Amazon S3 with encryption enabled. This ensures our state files are always up-to-date, consistent, and accessible to all team members involved in the automation process.

Automated testing and validation 

Before any changes are applied to production, we automate the testing and validation of our Terraform configurations. This includes running Terraform’s plan command to preview changes and integrating automated tests into our CI/CD pipelines to ensure that infrastructure changes do not introduce errors or security vulnerabilities.

Additionally, all changes undergo a rigorous code review process. Each proposed modification is thoroughly examined by other team members before deployment. This peer review process ensures changes are technically sound and adhere to best practices and organizational standards.

Continuous improvement through monitoring 

Automation is not a one-time effort. It requires continuous improvement. We regularly monitor our automated infrastructure’s performance and cost efficiency using tools that integrate with Terraform. By analyzing this data, we can make informed decisions to optimize our infrastructure and refine our automation strategies.

Empowering DevOps with Infrastructure as Code

Achieving excellence in DevOps requires a commitment to best practices, particularly in the realm of infrastructure management. At Cheesecake Labs, we apply these Terraform best practices to ensure that our infrastructure is automated, consistent, and scalable.

By doing so, we not only enhance the efficiency and reliability of our DevOps pipelines but also position ourselves to respond quickly to changing business needs and drive continuous innovation.

As we continue to evolve our DevOps practices, Terraform has proven itself to be a key tool in our pursuit of operational excellence.

Our commitment to these infrastructures as Code best practices strengthens our infrastructure and drives continuous innovation in our operations.

We’d love to help you start your IaC journey today: implement these practices in your next project and share your results with us.

Or, if you’re looking for an experienced partner to help you manage and automate your infrastructure, get in touch. Together, we can build a more agile and resilient future!