Many organizations started their cloud journey in the Azure portal, a powerful and user friendly way of getting to know Azure. It works well, but it doesn’t scale well. Environments grow and become more complex, new people come in, and before long, no one knows what was deployed, why it was changed, or how.
This is what Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solves, its the most reliable, scalable and fun way to manage your cloud infrastructure.
Infrastructure… as Code?
When your environment is stored as code, you’re no longer guessing. You’re deploying consistent, traceable, and secure changes. Whether for a dev/test environment, a specific app environment, or a global production workload.
You can recreate entire environments in minutes, apply changes from test to prod with confidence, and roll back if needed. Everything is automatically documented. Every change is intentional. And because it’s automated, you are not wasting time clicking through the portal or cleaning up someone else’s “quick fix” from long ago.
Changing gears (aka ditching the Portal)
Infrastructure as Code brings structure to your cloud. And that structure translates into control over cost, over compliance, and over complexity.
You avoid infrastructure drift and with it surprises. You can catch breaking changes or mishaps before they go live. It will also help you stop unapproved resources from showing up on next month’s invoice. And over time you will gain the confidence to move fast, preventing what you build today to not immediately become technical debt tomorrow.
IaC uses code and automation to ensure resilience and, most importantly, repeatability. With that you are in control of what’s running in production.
Making the transition to IaC
If you’re (still) deploying resources manually or with inconsistent scripts, you’re definitely not alone. Many teams are in the same position. But moving toward Infrastructure as Code is easier than it might seem.
Despite growing awareness, only a third of companies have implemented IaC across most of their environment
Starting with IaC is easier than most organisations think. You can start by exporting your current environment to code by using tools like Azure Resource Graph or by using the build in Export Template feature in the portal. It supports classic ARM templates, Bicep and even Terraform. This will give you a baseline of your environment. When deploying resources next, write clean, modular templates using Azure Bicep or Terraform. From there, you can integrate deployments into CI/CD pipelines using for example GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps.
We recently wrote an article that walks through creating an Azure Landing Zone. It’s a good example of what a secure and automated foundation can look like.
To take it even further and get real value from IaC, also embed governance and cost control into your pipelines. Tools like Azure Policy and the Microsoft FinOps Toolkit ensure every change aligns with your company’s compliance and budget strategy.
Get started with an Azure Assessment
At DevOps Masterminds, we help teams transition from manual infrastructure to fully automated Azure environments. Our Azure Infrastructure Assessment, based on the Microsoft Well-Architected Framework, gives you a clear path forward.
We review your current environment, map out improvement areas, and help you build a future-proof platform. One that supports automation, security, and scale from day one.👉 Schedule your Azure Assessment