As more enterprises adopt cloud, containers, and microservices, managing infrastructure manually through dashboards is no longer sustainable. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools give DevOps and platform teams a programmable way to define servers, networks, storage, and policies so infrastructure becomes consistent, testable, and repeatable across environments.
The global IaC market is projected to reach over USD 6.14 billion by 2033, growing at more than 22% CAGR from 2025 to 2033, underscoring how central IaC has become to modern cloud operations. This growth is particularly strong in India and APAC, where enterprises are accelerating multi-cloud adoption and platform engineering initiatives.
What Infrastructure as Code tools do
IaC tools let teams capture infrastructure as machine-readable configuration files instead of one-off manual setups. Using declarative, imperative, or hybrid approaches, they describe resources like virtual machines, VPCs, databases, containers, and security policies that can be provisioned and updated automatically.
Because IaC configurations live in version control systems such as Git, infrastructure changes can be reviewed, audited, rolled back, and integrated into CI/CD pipelines just like application code. This makes IaC foundational for continuous delivery, SRE practices, and platform engineering, where reusable blueprints and GitOps workflows are used to provide safe self-service to development teams.
The 10 best IaC tools for DevOps
Below are 10 leading IaC and GitOps platforms DevOps teams are relying on to standardize cloud and hybrid infrastructure in 2025.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform extends the open-source Ansible engine into an enterprise-ready IaC and orchestration solution for physical, virtual, and cloud environments. It uses human-readable YAML playbooks, is agentless over SSH or WinRM, and adds features like workflows, scheduling, role-based access control, and drift management for large-scale automation.
- Best for: Agentless automation across hybrid, multi-cloud, and on-prem infrastructure
- Key strengths: Simple syntax, strong multi-platform support, governance and RBAC, orchestration, and integration with major clouds and container platforms.
Pulumi
Pulumi lets teams express infrastructure using familiar general-purpose languages such as TypeScript, Python, Go, Java, and C#, instead of domain-specific DSLs. This “infrastructure as software” model enables reuse of language features, libraries, and IDE tooling while provisioning resources across more than 120 cloud and service providers.
- Best for: Teams that want to write IaC with real programming languages and leverage existing dev skills.
- Key strengths: Multi-cloud support, previews and drift management, secrets handling, and SaaS or self-hosted backend options with free OSS and tiered paid plans.
Terraform
Terraform is one of the most established declarative IaC tools for defining, provisioning, and managing infrastructure across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments. Using HCL or JSON, teams describe the desired state of compute, networking, storage, and SaaS resources; Terraform then reconciles actual infrastructure to match that state.
- Best for: Multi-cloud provisioning and reusable, modular infrastructure templates.
- Key strengths: Huge provider ecosystem, module system, unified workflow for many platforms, and an open-source CLI with optional Terraform Cloud for managed state and governance.
Crossplane
Crossplane is a Kubernetes-native control-plane framework that lets organizations manage external infrastructure through standard Kubernetes APIs. It defines resources using YAML manifests and custom resource definitions, continuously reconciling real-world cloud resources to the declared state and correcting drift.
- Best for: Kubernetes-first enterprises that want to manage infrastructure as extensions of their clusters.
- Key strengths: Compositions for reusable higher-level blueprints, strong multi-cloud support, and fully open-source Apache 2.0 licensing.
OpenTofu
OpenTofu is a fully open-source, community-governed fork of the last open-source Terraform, maintaining compatibility with existing Terraform configurations and workflows. It retains HCL syntax, provider ecosystems, remote state, encryption, drift detection, and plan–apply flows while offering a vendor-neutral alternative.
- Best for: Teams that want Terraform-style workflows under a permissive, community-driven open-source model.
- Key strengths: No license cost, Terraform compatibility, broad provider support, and portability across environments.
Argo CD
Argo CD is an open-source GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes, designed to keep clusters in sync with configuration stored in Git repositories. It continuously compares live cluster state to Git-defined desired state and can auto-sync or alert when drift occurs, enabling auditable, Git-driven deployments.
- Best for: Kubernetes teams implementing GitOps for multi-cluster application and infrastructure delivery.
- Key strengths: Multi-cluster management, RBAC, SSO, web UI and CLI, and strong integrations with Helm, Kustomize, and major CI systems.
Broadcom VMware SaltStack (Aria Automation Config)
VMware SaltStack, delivered via VMware Aria Automation Config, provides configuration management and state enforcement across large hybrid and VMware-centric estates. It uses Salt-based declarative workflows and agents (minions) to provision, configure, remediate, and maintain consistent system states.
- Best for: Enterprises with heavy VMware usage that need automated configuration and policy enforcement.
- Key strengths: Event-driven automation, lifecycle management of agents, integration with Aria Automation templates, and broad OS support.
Microsoft Azure Resource Manager (ARM)
Azure Resource Manager is Microsoft Azure’s native IaC capability, allowing teams to deploy and manage Azure resources using JSON templates and declarative configuration. ARM templates support parameters, variables, and modularization, and integrate closely with Azure governance tools.
- Best for: Azure-focused teams that require strong governance, policy enforcement, and repeatable deployments.
- Key strengths: Deep integration with Azure Policy, Blueprints, DevOps, and no extra charge beyond resource usage.
AWS CloudFormation
AWS CloudFormation is Amazon’s native IaC service for modeling and provisioning AWS resources with YAML or JSON templates. It handles the creation and configuration of services such as EC2, VPC, IAM, S3, and Lambda, and supports change sets and StackSets for safe multi-account and multi-region rollouts.
- Best for: AWS-centric organizations that want governed, version-controlled infrastructure using first-party tooling.
- Key strengths: Deep AWS integration, drift detection, IAM-based access control, and no additional service fee.
Google Cloud Deployment Manager
Google Cloud Deployment Manager enables declarative management of Google Cloud resources using YAML or Python-based configuration files. Teams can model full environments, parameterize templates, and preview changes before applying them.
- Best for: DevOps and SRE teams primarily building on Google Cloud that want template-driven, repeatable deployments.
- Key strengths: Native GCP integration, reusable templates, preview and update flows, and free use with pay-as-you-go for underlying resources.
Best practices for implementing IaC in DevOps
Successful IaC adoption depends as much on process as on tool choice. Recommended practices include standardizing environments and naming, choosing tools aligned with cloud and governance needs, storing all templates in Git, and building modular, reusable configurations. Integrating IaC into CI/CD pipelines, enforcing policy-as-code with tools like OPA or Sentinel, and continuously monitoring for drift and misconfigurations help maintain secure, compliant, and predictable infrastructure at scale.
Read more such articles from our Newsletter here.
