Infrastructure as Code Limitations and Solutions

This technical report details the challenges and limitations of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools in the context of application development and infrastructure management. It outlines how IaC, while beneficial for defining and deploying infrastructure configurations, often leads to issues such as visibility gaps, configuration sprawl, and difficulties in managing dependencies. The report emphasizes that IaC tools primarily support infrastructure engineers, which can create bottlenecks in provisioning and hinder the needs of application developers. It also discusses the importance of integrating IaC with continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines to achieve continuous infrastructure automation. However, the direct coupling of IaC and CI/CD is critiqued for its complexity and the skills bottleneck it creates. The report recommends implementing an Infrastructure Control Plane to enhance governance, transparency, and management of IaC, ultimately aiming to improve the velocity and reliability of infrastructure deployments while maintaining accountability and optimizing resource utilization.