Current infrastructure as a code automation trends in context of cloud agnostic resource provisioning

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the research is to determine the maturity of the available tools for building Software as a Service (SaaS) services that enable automation of deployment to multiple cloud operators using a single infrastructure definition known as Cloud Agnostic. Design/methodology/approach: The paper related to the development of areas of software engineering has been the automation of processes for building, testing, integrating, and delivering applications developed by large development teams. It has come to be known as continuous delivery process. We provided an overview of the tools available to automate infrastructure provisioning in Cloud Agnostic manner. Findings: The research indicated that there are solutions on the market for building automation of cloud infrastructures, however, most of these are not geared towards achieving the Cloud Agnostic definition. One tool called Crossplane was researched, which was designed from the outset to enable Cloud Agnostic definitions for infrastructure provisioning. The research has shown that, as of today, the Kubernetes platform with an extension of Crossplane is the best approach to enable a loose attachment to a single cloud operator. Originality/value: The proposal to use the Kubernetes platform with additional tools significantly reduces the risk of strong attachment to single operator cloud solutions. The proposed design approach can be helpful for IT system architects in decision making. Keywords: strategy of infrastructure provisioning, infrastructure automation, software engineering, tool, Cloud Agnostic resource definitions. Category of the paper: Research paper.