Infrastructure as Code Explained: How It Works and Why It Matters in 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

01.What is infrastructure as code?

Infrastructure as code means defining servers, networks, databases and permissions in versioned files that a tool reads and applies, instead of creating them by hand in a cloud console. Microsoft describes Bicep files as idempotent: you can deploy the same file many times and get the same resource types in the same state (Microsoft Learn, January 2026).

02.Is Terraform still open source?

Not under an open source licence. Terraform 1.6.0 and later are licensed under the Business Source License 1.1, which allows production use but not offering it to third parties, on a hosted or embedded basis, as a paid product that significantly overlaps with IBM's paid versions; each version converts to MPL 2.0 four years after it is published (GitHub, accessed October 2026). OpenTofu, a community fork, was accepted to CNCF at the Sandbox level on 23 April 2025 (CNCF, April 2025).

03.What is configuration drift?

Drift is the gap between what your code declares and what runs, often caused by a change made directly in a console. AWS considers a CloudFormation resource drifted when any actual property value differs from the expected value, including when it has been deleted, but it checks only properties set explicitly through the template or its parameters (AWS documentation, accessed October 2026).

04.Does infrastructure as code help with DORA or NIS2?

It helps produce the evidence. DORA Article 9(4)(e) requires most financial entities, those outside the Article 16 simplified framework, to ensure all changes to ICT systems are recorded, tested, assessed, approved, implemented and verified in a controlled manner, and it has applied since 17 January 2025 (EUR-Lex, December 2022). Reviewed code changes give you that record, but only for changes that go through the code.