Introducing Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

When referring to creating web apps through the Azure portal, we mentioned that the better solution at scale is to look into IaC, but we didn't explain this further. So, what does IaC actually mean?

Creating web apps through the Azure portal isn't so bad. You get a wizard that guides you through it, and it will catch some errors as you go along; if you try to create a web app with characters not valid for DNS, it will say so.

If you've ever worked with on-premises software installations or, for that matter, created software to be installed by others, you might have run into less-friendly procedures. There might be installation guides that need to be followed to the letter, and since you didn't study the list of prerequisites, you find on page three of the wizard that you need to cancel out to install a SQL server, before you can return to the installation.

Common to both of these approaches is the fact that they...