In this chapter, we turn our focus to infrastructure automation, a topic that is becoming quite hot these days and is also often referred to as Infrastructure as a Code (IaaC). The idea is that provisioning resources can be done programmatically, using templates, commands, and even code. The implication of this is quite profound, particularly for companies that specialize in providing IT services and system integration. Such companies often have a large number of employees working on deploying infrastructure, servicing tickets, requisitioning hardware, and so on. The fundamental business model of such firms could change, and those that are not nimble might be at existential risk. In general, IAC can also be considered as the starting point of the DevOps movement. It acts as a foundation of Infrastructure automation which not only expedites the software development and delivery process but also makes it a lot more cost and quality efficient. Infrastructure as a Code is a big deal for large components of the workforce, so you should be sure to understand what it is all about.

You learn the following topics in this chapter:

• Managed Instance Groups
• Deployment manager