Infrastructure as Code

We delete our own infrastructure every year, and that's exactly the intention.

At USN, we're big fans of Infrastructure as Code (IaC). Not just for clients, but for our own environment too. That's why, every year, we do something that would give the average administrator nightmares: we completely demolish our entire lab environment, including all systems and configurations. Deliberately. All at once.

Why? By periodically wiping and cleanly rebuilding your test environment, you prove that your system does what it's supposed to do and you're prepared for any potential dangers or risks.

Our lab environment is a 1:1 copy of a client environment – and therefore perfect for simulating deployment or disaster recovery scenarios. Thanks to Terraform, Terramate and Ansible, we have everything captured as code. Building an environment? What used to take days is now a matter of a few scripts and a cup of coffee.

✅ Fully automated
Reproducible
And above all: manageable

Do you want to get started with IaC yourself? Here are a few battle-tested tips:

✔️ Start small (yes, really)
Keep data and logic separate – this way you can reuse your logic in various scenarios.
Stop alles in version control, so you can keep track of the history and make controlled changes.

Building IT is beautiful. Daring to break it down is even more beautiful 🙂