# How We Solved Infrastructure as Code

Tuomas

December 3, 2024

[Read on Dev.to](https://dev.to/diploi/how-we-solved-infrastructure-as-code-2ldn)

Infrastructure as Code (or IaC for short) has been gaining traction recently—and for good reason. It brings with it a ton of benefits, but can often be challenging to get started with. Many cloud services still lack support for it, forcing users to navigate a maze of control panels to make changes to their infra.

At [Diploi](/content/site-root.html), we looked at existing solutions such as Terraform, Pulumi, AWS CloudFormation, and Azure ARM Templates but found that none fully aligned with our motto of providing a "magical development experience". While these tools are highly versatile and capable of handling almost any infrastructure configuration, they are often difficult to master and excessively verbose. Setting up a single service often requires creating multiple templates and configuration files.

As that was not the developer experience we were looking for, we decided to build our own easy-to-use IaC solution.

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## What is Infrastructure as Code?

For developers, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) essentially means replacing cloud provider management dashboards with config files. These files contain everything necessary to replicate a specific environment, ensuring that the environment your code runs on is always set up correctly and consistently.

Typically, your IaC definitions would specify the following:

- **Deployment Target**: Where your code will be deployed, such as AWS or Azure.
- **Required Services**: The services needed to support your application.
- **Virtual Machine Setup**: Configuring any necessary VMs and installing dependencies.
- **Network Configuration**: Setting up & securing the network. Provisioning domain names. Configuring DNS.
- **Application Execution**: Deploying and running the application code.

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## Our Implementation

We thought a lot about the best way to implement IaC into [Diploi](/content/site-root.html). Our solution had to be intuitive, developer-centric, and highly customizable.

We settled on a **component-based model** that allows users to easily configure their stack without making the config overly verbose. The more detailed config for a component, such as HELM charts and other setup files, are housed in dedicated GitHub repositories maintained by the component owners.

However, users can also specify local path for a component, enabling custom components to be seamlessly inlined within the projects repository.

This approach gives our users the best of both worlds: a simple, easy-to-use config combined with limitless customization options, including custom Docker files, HELM charts, and more.

```
diploiVersion: v1.0
components:
  - name: Next.js
    identifier: next
    package: https://github.com/diploi/component-nextjs#v0.0.1
  - name: Local
    identifier: local
    package: ./local-package
addons:
  - name: PostgreSQL
    identifier: postgres
    package: https://github.com/diploi/addon-postgres#v17.0
```

A simple Diploi config capable of replicating a complex environment.

These simple config files, combined with our intuitive [Stack Builder](https://dev.to/diploi/diploi-stack-builder-32n4), create a developer experience within [Diploi](/content/site-root.html) that is magical ✨ and unparalleled.

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## Benefits of Our Implementation

Our implementation in [Diploi](/content/site-root.html) comes with a long list of benefits, many of which are true for any IaC system. Here are some of the more interesting ones in a easily digestible list:

1. Versioning with Git 🌳  
   - Maintain separate infra in different branches  
   - Diffs & blames for infra changes  
2. Self-Documenting Config Files 📝  
   - View all infra components in a single file  
   - Clickable links to find information on each component  
3. Inlining Components 🏠  
   - Include component config files directly in the local repository  
   - Permanent version pinning and customizations

We’re still working on our system, so stay tuned for a more detailed explanation [in the future](https://dev.to/diploi/diploi-roadmap-for-2024-1nde). 😉

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By the way, we’re currently looking for developers to join our internal testing program. If you’re interested in trying out our version of IaC before its official release, leave a comment, and I’ll get in touch!

## Get Started

Sign up using your GitHub account and receive 50 € in free credits (valid for 14 days) to explore and experiment with. Development is about to get **magical**.