What is Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and how does it relate to automated deployment?

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a method of defining and managing infrastructure resources through code to achieve automated configuration. It improves repeatability, reduces human errors, and is used in cloud computing environments to deploy servers, networks, and container clusters.

The core of IaC includes versionable scripts (such as Terraform or CloudFormation) that use declarative syntax to define resource states. In practical applications, it drives automated deployment pipelines, integrates with CI/CD tools to support dynamic scaling of cloud resources or Kubernetes environments, and promotes DevOps practices and Infrastructure as a Service models.

IaC enables automatic configuration of infrastructure, and its application value lies in improving deployment speed, ensuring environmental consistency, optimizing costs, and supporting agile business needs for continuous delivery.