· Infrastructure as Code
Infrastructure as Code

Infrastructure as Code

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools enable declarative infrastructure management, version control, and automation of cloud and on-premise resources. Terraform dominates the IaC landscape, appearing in >20% of DevOps positions and >15% of Platform Engineering roles, providing cloud-agnostic infrastructure provisioning. CloudFormation serves AWS-specific deployments with >5% prevalence in cloud-focused roles, while Ansible leads configuration management with >10% presence in DevOps contexts. The landscape shows clear segmentation: declarative provisioning tools (Terraform, CloudFormation, Pulumi) versus configuration management systems (Ansible, Chef, Puppet). Entry-level accessibility is strongest for Terraform (>15% in entry-level DevOps roles) and Ansible (>10%), reflecting industry adoption of modern IaC practices. Legacy tools like Chef and Puppet maintain niche presence in established enterprises. IaC expertise is increasingly essential for DevOps, platform engineering, and cloud infrastructure roles, enabling repeatable deployments, disaster recovery, and infrastructure versioning. The shift toward GitOps workflows and cloud-native architectures further amplifies IaC importance across backend engineering specializations.

Infrastructure Provisioning

Tools for defining and provisioning infrastructure through declarative configuration files. Terraform leads as the cloud-agnostic standard across DevOps and platform engineering, while CloudFormation serves AWS-specific needs. Pulumi offers programming language-based IaC. Strong to moderate entry-level opportunities, particularly for Terraform.

Terraform

High Demand
Rank: #1
Entry-Level: Moderate
Leading IaC tool in DevOps (>20%), Platform Engineering (>15%), Cloud Services Architecture (>5%), MLOps (>5%), and Build & Release Management. Moderate entry-level demand with >15% in DevOps roles. Cloud-agnostic IaC. Used for multi-cloud infrastructure provisioning, infrastructure version control, automated environment creation, disaster recovery, cloud resource management across AWS/Azure/GCP, and declarative infrastructure definitions with state management.

CloudFormation

Moderate Demand
Rank: #2
Entry-Level: Low
AWS native IaC service in DevOps (>5%), Cloud Services Architecture (>5%), Platform Engineering (>5%), and AWS-focused infrastructure roles. Lower entry-level presence. AWS-specific tool. Used for provisioning AWS resources, AWS-native infrastructure automation, stack-based resource management, integrating with AWS services natively, and organizations standardized entirely on AWS without multi-cloud needs.

Pulumi

Low Demand
Rank: #3
Entry-Level: Low
Modern IaC using general-purpose programming languages with limited but growing presence in Platform Engineering and DevOps (<5% prevalence). Minimal entry-level demand. Code-first approach. Used for infrastructure as actual code (Python, TypeScript, Go), type-safe infrastructure definitions, developers preferring programming languages over DSLs, complex infrastructure logic, and organizations valuing software engineering practices in IaC.

Configuration Management & Automation

Tools for automating software provisioning, configuration management, and application deployment. Ansible leads with agentless architecture and broad adoption across DevOps roles. Chef and Puppet represent older configuration management approaches with declining but persistent enterprise presence. Moderate to low entry-level opportunities.

Ansible

High Demand
Rank: #1
Entry-Level: Moderate
Leading configuration management tool in DevOps (>10%), Platform Engineering (>5%), and automation-focused roles. Moderate entry-level demand with >10% in DevOps positions. Agentless automation. Used for server configuration management, application deployment automation, orchestrating complex workflows, provisioning across hybrid environments, configuration drift prevention, and automating repetitive IT tasks with YAML playbooks.

Chef

Low Demand
Rank: #2
Entry-Level: Low
Configuration management platform in DevOps (>5%) and legacy enterprise environments. Declining demand with limited entry-level opportunities. Ruby-based automation. Used for infrastructure automation in established enterprises, policy-driven configuration management, compliance automation, maintaining legacy Chef installations, and organizations with existing Chef investments.

Puppet

Low Demand
Rank: #3
Entry-Level: Low
Configuration management tool in DevOps (>5%) and enterprise infrastructure contexts. Declining demand with rare entry-level positions. Declarative configuration language. Used for large-scale server management, enforcing desired state configuration, managing heterogeneous infrastructure, compliance and reporting, and maintaining existing Puppet-based infrastructure in established organizations.