Everything as Code

The philosophy of "Everything as Code" expands the idea of "Infrastructure as Code" to every aspect of a project. This approach treats elements like software, infrastructure, configuration, documentation, environments, pipelines, diagrams, dashboards, alerts, VM images and so on as code. This method offers significant advantages in DevOps and Site Reliability.

Repeatability: A clear benefit of "Everything as Code" is its ability to simplify replication. Consider the process of creating new VMs on a cloud provider. Normally, this involves manual setup and extensive documentation for replication. By treating the setup as code, we can replicate the environment creation more effectively using tools like Terraform or Ansible.

Efficiency: Code-based modification of systems reduces the likelihood of errors compared to manual adjustments. Changes can be made by altering a few lines of code and deploying these changes, which is simpler than manually logging into each VM and changing settings.

Scalability: Manual methods of management become increasingly difficult as the number of components increases. Treating everything as code allows for integrated scalability. The task of creating and configuring 100 VMs changes from a manual process to a code deployment.

Auditability: Version control is essential for effective change tracking. When code encompasses everything, it allows for a clear, traceable history. This feature assists in identifying sources of issues over time.

Recoverability: Version-controlled code can be rolled back to a previous state when necessary. If a deployed change causes issues, reverting to a previous version is straightforward.

Quality: Applying linters and formatters to everything treated as code can help enforce best practices and identify potential security vulnerabilities. This approach can improve the overall quality of the project.