Declarative Infrastructure: The Rise of Policy as Code in 2024

Declarative infrastructure management, fueled by the adoption of Policy as Code (PaC), is transforming how organizations provision and manage their cloud resources. In 2024, we’re seeing an accelerated shift towards this approach, driven by the need for increased agility, security, and compliance.

What is Declarative Infrastructure?

Unlike imperative infrastructure management, which focuses on specifying how to achieve a desired state, declarative infrastructure defines what the desired state is. This allows tools to handle the complexities of achieving that state, simplifying management and reducing errors.

Key Benefits of Declarative Infrastructure:

• Idempotency: Declarative systems ensure that applying the same configuration multiple times results in the same outcome. This prevents configuration drift and ensures consistency.
• Simplified Automation: By focusing on the desired state, automation becomes more straightforward and less error-prone.
• Increased Reliability: The system handles the complexities of resource provisioning and management, reducing the potential for human error.
• Faster Deployment: Automation and idempotency contribute to faster deployment cycles and reduced time-to-market.

Policy as Code: The Cornerstone of Declarative Infrastructure

Policy as Code (PaC) takes the declarative approach a step further by defining infrastructure policies in human-readable and machine-executable code. This allows for the automated enforcement of security, compliance, and cost optimization policies.

How Policy as Code Works:

1. Define Policies: Policies are defined using a domain-specific language (DSL) or general-purpose programming language.
2. Automated Enforcement: These policies are then integrated into the infrastructure provisioning and management pipelines.
3. Continuous Monitoring: The system continuously monitors the infrastructure to ensure compliance with the defined policies.
4. Remediation: If any violations are detected, the system can automatically remediate the issue or alert the appropriate personnel.

Popular Policy as Code Tools:

• Terraform: A popular Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool that supports declarative configuration and integrates with various PaC solutions.

  resource "aws_instance" "example" {
    ami           = "ami-0c55b614af7e9e50c"
    instance_type = "t2.micro"
  
    tags = {
      Name = "ExampleInstance"
    }
  }
  

• OPA (Open Policy Agent): A general-purpose policy engine that can be used to enforce policies across various systems, including Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure.

  package main
  
  # Deny deployment if resource requests are not set
  deny[msg] {
      input.kind == "Deployment"
      not input.spec.template.spec.containers[_].resources.requests
      msg := "Resource requests must be set for all containers in a Deployment"
  }
  

• AWS Config: A service that allows you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources.

• Azure Policy: A service that helps you to enforce organizational standards and assess compliance at-scale.

The Rise of Policy as Code in 2024: Why Now?

Several factors are contributing to the increased adoption of PaC in 2024:

• Increasing Cloud Adoption: As more organizations migrate to the cloud, the need for automated and scalable infrastructure management becomes critical.
• Growing Security and Compliance Requirements: Regulations like GDPR and HIPAA are driving the need for stricter security and compliance policies.
• The DevOps Movement: DevOps practices emphasize automation and collaboration, making PaC a natural fit for modern development workflows.
• Maturity of PaC Tools: PaC tools have become more mature and easier to use, making them more accessible to a wider range of organizations.

Challenges and Considerations

While PaC offers many benefits, it also presents some challenges:

• Complexity: Implementing PaC can be complex, requiring expertise in both infrastructure and coding.
• Tooling Selection: Choosing the right PaC tools can be challenging, as the landscape is constantly evolving.
• Policy Management: Managing a large number of policies can become complex over time.
• Cultural Shift: Adopting PaC requires a cultural shift towards automation and collaboration.

Conclusion

Declarative infrastructure and Policy as Code are revolutionizing how organizations manage their cloud resources. By automating infrastructure provisioning and enforcing policies through code, organizations can achieve increased agility, security, and compliance. While challenges exist, the benefits of PaC are clear, and its adoption is expected to continue to grow in 2024 and beyond.