Infrastructure as Code and the cloud agnosticity myth

One theme tends to surface quite often in discussions with technology leaders in the beginning of their cloud journey:

“We’d like to use Infrastructure as Code, because it helps us become cloud agnostic.”

Unfortunately, this is usually not the case. I’m not saying you shouldn’t include IaC as part of your cloud strategy - it makes a lot of sense 99.9% of the time - but doesn't necessarily make your infrastructure truly cloud agnostic.

Unpacking the Cloud Agnosticity Misconception

While IaC tools like Terraform can help abstract the underlying infrastructure, achieving true cloud agnosticity often requires much more effort. It's rarely practical or even desirable to abstract away the cloud provider-specific nuances entirely. To effectively utilise the unique benefits of each cloud provider, you'll likely need to incorporate their specific technologies and services into your architecture.

Cloud providers offer a range of vendor-specific technologies and services, such as AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, or Google BigQuery. These offerings often provide distinct advantages that can significantly enhance your applications and services. Attempting to abstract them away for the sake of agnosticity could lead to missed opportunities for innovation and optimization.

So, if Infrastructure as Code doesn't guarantee cloud agnosticity, what are its real benefits?

1. Testing and Validation:

One of the primary advantages of IaC is the ability to test infrastructure changes just as rigorously as you do with your applications. This ensures that any modifications to your infrastructure are reliable and won't introduce unexpected issues.

2. Auditability:

IaC provides a clear audit trail of your infrastructure changes. This transparency is invaluable for compliance, security, and troubleshooting purposes. You can easily track who made changes, when, and why.

3. Environment Consistency:

IaC eliminates the "works on my machine" problem by ensuring that your development, testing, and production environments are consistent. This reduces the risk of bugs and compatibility issues when moving code between environments.

4. Simplified Collaboration:

Collaborating on infrastructure becomes more manageable with IaC. It allows multiple team members to work on the same codebase, facilitating version control, code reviews, and collaboration across teams.

Conclusion

Infrastructure as Code is a vital component of any modern cloud strategy, offering numerous benefits beyond the myth of cloud agnosticity. While IaC can help abstract some cloud-specific details, it's essential to recognise that achieving true cloud agnosticity may not be practical or beneficial for your organisation.

Instead, embrace the power of Infrastructure as Code for its ability to improve testing, enhance auditability, maintain environment consistency, and simplify collaboration. By focusing on these aspects, you'll harness the full potential of IaC while making informed decisions about when and where to leverage cloud provider-specific technologies to drive innovation and efficiency in your cloud journey.