Top Infrastructure as Code Tools (IaC) Tools in 2025

Overview

The evolution of the IT infrastructure for an organization’s management and deployment processes is changing significantly. Much of the reasoning for this shift lies within the rise of infrastructure, such as Code and IaC. IaC is a method where the infrastructure is set up by code instead of manual steps. IaC allows you to build your servers, networks, and storage with just a single script. This leads to faster deployment and less risk created by manual configurations.

Why do we need IaC?

Traditional methods of infrastructure development are tedious and time-consuming.

More and more businesses rely on Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to automate and scale IT operations. IaC lets organizations define, manage, and provision infrastructure quickly and uniformly through code.

Key Characteristics of IaC

1. Automation: Because IaC encompasses the entire spectrum of infrastructure management, it significantly lessens the need for manual efforts and reduces human mistakes.
2. Version Control: Like Git, IaC allows infrastructure configurations to be versioned, enabling teams to keep track of modifications, return to earlier saved states, and collaborate more effectively.
3. Consistency: With IaC in place, the deployment of infrastructure will be standardized, eliminating chances of configuration drift and non-compliance to preset standards.
4. Declarative vs. Imperative Approaches: Both approaches can be used in implementing IaC. The declarative approach specifies the desired infrastructure state, while the imperative approach breaks down the process into steps to realize it.

Top IaC Tools

1. Terraform: Terraform is a powerful and one of the most popular IaC tools that enables infrastructure management across multiple cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.) using a simple, declarative language.

Benefits:

• It uses HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), which is a declarative language (easier to read and manage).
• The tool promotes code reusability through modules, allowing users to create reusable templates for common infrastructure patterns.
• Terraform maintains a state file that tracks the current state of resources, detects changes, and manages dependencies, ensuring consistent and reliable deployments.
• It integrates with CI/CD tools for automated infrastructure provisioning in continuous deployment.

2. AWS CloudFormation: Like Terraform, AWS CloudFormation manages infrastructure and automates deployments using code. The key difference is CloudFormation’s exclusivity to AWS for IaC (offering deep integration with native services).

Benefits:

• Uses JSON or YAML templates to define infrastructure in declarative syntax (easy to read and understand).
• Extensive Documentation: Provides examples and common use cases.
• It manages the state automatically, enabling easy tracking and rollback of changes.

3. Pulumi: It allows the developers to use programming languages to define infrastructure, embed IaC code directly within your application to perform unit testing, and reduce the learning curve using a familiar language. It supports integration with CI/CD workflows.

Benefits:

• Can manage infrastructure across multiple clouds and Kubernetes.
• Avoids potential issues by providing real-time previews of changes before deployment.
• It provides compile-time type checking to prevent deployment errors.
• It Supports popular languages (JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Go), enabling developers to leverage existing skills.

4. Terragrunt: Terragrunt is a thin wrapper that provides extra tools for keeping Terraform configurations DRY, working with multiple Terraform modules, and managing remote state. Terragrunt was born to solve one key problem – Scale.

Benefits:

• Dependency Management: Allows defining dependencies between modules for proper resource creation sequencing.
• DRY Principles: Encourages reusability through configuration inheritance and includes blocks.
• Acts as a wrapper around Terraform to simplify multi-environment management and reduce code duplication.

5. OpenTofu: OpenTofu is an open-source Terraform fork focused on community-driven governance, offering similar functionality with new features like state file encryption for secure secrets, and is compatible with Terraform configurations for easy transition.

Benefits:

• Maintains an open-source model.
• Syntax is similar to Terraform’s, making it easy for existing users to adopt.
• Actively developed by the community, promoting diverse input and development.

6. Ansible: It is a powerful IT automation engine for deployment, configuration management, and orchestration. While not an IaC tool, Ansible can use collections to provision IaC resources, bridging IT automation and IaC practices to manage software and infrastructure with the same toolset.

Benefits:

• Operates over SSH or WinRM without requiring agents on target machines.
• Configuration Management Focused: Combines provisioning with configuration management tasks effectively.
• Offers various modules for various systems and applications.

Conclusion

Information Technology Operations greatly relies on Infrastructure as Code (IaC) as it aids speed, competency, and accuracy within infrastructure management. The wide range of options available for IaC solutions differ in their unique features for tailored environments and expectations. The best tool depends on your requirements, and as such, you are advised to do a comprehensive evaluation and even read unbiased reviews about the product to make the right choice for your business objectives.

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding IaC and we will get back to you quickly.

About CloudThat

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