Yaser Adel Mehraban - Infrastructure as Code with Azure Bicep: Streamline Azure resource deployment by bypassing ARM complexities

Streamline Azure resource deployment by bypassing ARM complexities

Yaser Adel Mehraban

BIRMINGHAMMUMBAI

Copyright 2022 Packt Publishing

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To my wife, Rosa, for her sacrifices and for exemplifying the power of determination. To my mom, Sedigheh; there are no words that can express how I feel, and I thank you for what you made me. And to my two little angels, Ronika and Elika; please listen to what your mom says.

Yas

It's hard to overstate the benefits of defining your solution's Infrastructure as Code (IaC). Continuous delivery, continuous testing, quality control gates, automated security testing, and automated performance testing all benefit from having an automated approach to working with infrastructure.

Until recently, the gold standard of IaC on Azure has been ARM templates. It's fair to say that nobody particularly likes working with its arcane JSON syntax. As a result, it's been difficult for Azure customers to unlock all of the benefits of IaC. But with the introduction of Bicep, defining IaC for Azure hasn't just become easier it's become fun.

In this book, Yas has taken his wealth of experience and combined a tutorial of the Bicep language with reference material covering its keywords and syntax. There is a lot of practical advice, too, with tips for using the Bicep tooling for Visual Studio Code and the Bicep linter. And to really get the best out of Bicep and IaC, look at the chapters about deployment pipelines and some recommended practices for writing good code.

I often say that Bicep has changed the game of Azure deployments. After you read this book, you'll have a solid foundation for planning your own automated deployment process for Azure.

John Downs

Senior Customer Experience Engineer at Microsoft

It comes as no surprise that Yas has decided to put pen to paper and produce this book on IaC with Azure Bicep. As you read this, what will become evident is his passion for technology, innovation, and for helping people and organizations be their best. I have had the pleasure of working with Yas as his manager and seen his passion firsthand. He has an amazing way of breaking down the complex, evoking thought, discussion, encouraging ideas, and promoting self-belief. This stems from his upbringing and desire to achieve and bring out the best in himself and turn dreams into reality, with no better example of now achieving his goal of one day working for Microsoft.

I know you will enjoy the book as much as I have. You will be inspired by the level of detail and benefit from Yas's shared expertise.

Edmondo Rosini

Director, Azure Technical Training at Microsoft

Yaser Adel Mehraban is a self-taught and motivated software engineer and solution architect who lives in the most livable city in the world, Melbourne, Australia. He is currently working as an Azure technical trainer for Microsoft. Some might know him as the almond croissant addict cleverly disguised as a successful web developer.

He has over a decade of experience working in a variety of different teams and has helped them adapt DevOps and IaC to be able to increase team productivity when it comes to cloud resource deployment. Furthermore, he has a true passion for sharing knowledge, which has motivated him to give many international conference talks, write hundreds of technical blog posts, and publish courses on platforms such as Pluralsight.

When he is not working, he mostly spends his time with his family or on his woodworking projects, which vary depending on how much space is left in the house.

I would like to thank Niranjan (project manager) who approached me at the start and has supported me throughout the entire writing process. In addition, I would like to thank Neil (project manager and editor) and Sayali (editor) for their dedication and support to help me write this book smoothly from start to finish. Also, thanks to the technical reviewers, Vaibhav and Alessandro, for their help in spotting my mistakes and validating the technical aspects, which adds so much to the book's practicality. And finally, thanks to my dear friends, John and Edmondo, who have expressed their support through their precious words about me and the book.

Vaibhav Gujral is a thought leader and a seasoned cloud architect with over 15 years of extensive experience working with several global clients spanning multiple industries. In his current role, he is responsible for envisioning and creating enterprise cloud strategy and continually building and improving the cloud platform foundations that development teams build upon. Born and brought up in India, he has been based out of Omaha, NE, since 2016. Vaibhav holds a bachelor of engineering degree and is a Microsoft Azure MVP. He is also a Microsoft Certified Trainer and holds numerous Azure role-based certifications. He is a regular speaker at several user groups and conferences, and he also runs the Omaha Azure user group.

I'd like to thank my wife, Geeta, and our two children, Saanvi and Rihaan, for their daily support and patience. I'd like to thank my parents, siblings, relatives, friends, and mentors for their guidance and continued support. Finally, I'd also like to thank Packt Publishing for the opportunity to review this book.