How do you integrate IaC tools with cloud-native CI/CD systems?

Integrating Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools (such as Terraform) with cloud-native CI/CD systems (such as Kubernetes-based Jenkins or GitLab CI) enables automated management of infrastructure changes as part of the deployment process, enhancing consistency, repeatability, and efficiency, suitable for multi-cloud environments and DevOps practices. This practice reduces manual intervention and realizes infrastructure management defined as software.

Core integration involves invoking IaC scripts through CI/CD pipelines and triggering execution using version control systems (such as Git). Features include defining infrastructure state as code files, with CI/CD tools (such as Jenkins plugins) automatically running IaC commands to ensure changes are synchronously applied to cloud resources (e.g., Kubernetes clusters), enabling coordinated deployment of infrastructure and applications.

Implementation steps: Configure CI/CD pipelines to embed IaC steps (e.g., via Terraform CLI or CloudFormation), and execute scripts during the build phase to manage infrastructure; a typical scenario is continuous deployment of microservices, with business values including accelerated release cycles, reduced risks, and improved auditability.