Infrastructure as code.
WHAT THE PROBLEM WITH PORTAL DEPLOYMENT IS
It is not repeatable, not reviewable, and not documented.
WHAT INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE PROVIDES
Resources defined in files, deployed repeatedly and identically.
WHAT OPTIONS EXIST
The platform's native template languages Third-party tools working across providers
WHAT TO CHOOSE
Whichever your team can maintain.
WHAT IT ENABLES
Version control of infrastructure Review before changes Identical environments Rebuilding from nothing
WHY THAT LAST POINT MATTERS
It is what makes disaster recovery credible.
WHAT TO PARAMETERISE
Anything differing between environments.
WHAT TO NEVER PUT IN TEMPLATES
Secrets.
WHAT TO USE INSTEAD
References to a key vault.
WHAT TO ADD
Consistent tagging, applied automatically.
WHAT TO TEST
Deployment into an empty environment.
WHAT TO AVOID
Manual changes to deployed resources.
WHY
They are lost on the next deployment, and the files no longer describe reality.
WHAT TO DETECT
Drift between the definition and what exists.