My team is looking for ways to avoid reinventing the wheel when it comes to cloud architecture patterns for every project. We're interested in strategies to document, enforce, and automate best practices to prevent repeating the same mistakes. What approaches have you found effective in standardizing infrastructure design?
4 Answers
You might want to check out Azure Verified Modules. They offer a standardized way to set up Azure resources using Terraform or Bicep, which could really help in maintaining consistency across your projects.
We’re following software development practices by creating Terraform submodules. We call them with git tags and use feature flags, which lets teams pin their modules to a specific version. This way, the version remains unchanged and reliable, while teams have the option to upgrade when new features are rolled out.
One great approach is to implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC). By requiring teams to use IaC, you can create standards that everyone must follow. This often involves writing code to configure resources according to these standards, and then using pull request reviews to ensure compliance. Also, consider using Azure Policy to enforce standards regarding naming conventions, regions, and resource configurations. Configuring it in Deny mode can prevent any non-compliant resources from even being deployed. Starting with audit mode might help you identify non-compliant resources before going full deny, which blocks changes unless they make resources compliant.
Honestly, my situation is quite hectic. It's just me on my team, and I barely have time to deal with emergencies and support our developers and VM team. Right now, I don’t have any spare time for developing IaC or setting up Azure Policy Initiatives. Everything feels like it needs to be delivered yesterday, which doesn’t leave room for writing and debugging deployment code. 😩
I totally feel you! It’s tough when you’re swamped. Sometimes I wish for a team just to handle the urgent stuff so I can focus on IaC!