2.8 Infrastructure as code

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a software engineering approach that enables the automation of infrastructure provisioning and management using machine-readable configuration files rather than manual processes or interactive interfaces.

This means that the infrastructure is defined using code, instead of manually setting up servers, networks, and other infrastructure components. This code can be version controlled, tested, and deployed just like any other software code. It also allows to automate the process of building and deploying infrastructure resources, enabling faster and more reliable delivery of services, as well as ensuring to provide the same environment every time. It also comes with the benefit of an increased scalability, improved security, and better visibility into infrastructure changes.

It is recommended to utilize infrastructure-as-code to deploy an ML platform. Popular tools for implementing IaC are for example Terraform, CloudFormation, and Ansible. Chapter 6 gives a more detailed description and a tutorial on how to use Infrastructure as code using Terraform.