8 Unusual Things You COULD Do with Infrastructure as Code

A Quick History of Infrastructure as Code

Before IaC, deploying infrastructure was like assembling IKEA furniture without instructions. Sysadmins manually configured everything, leading to errors, inconsistencies, and existential dread. 😵‍💫

Then, in the 2010s, tools like AWS CloudFormation (2011) and Terraform (2014) changed everything. Suddenly, you could define your entire infrastructure in code, store it in Git, and deploy it automatically. No more clicking around AWS like a lost intern.

1. Deploy a Minecraft Server 🎮

Why manually set up a Minecraft server when Terraform can do it for you? With IaC, you can spin up a dedicated EC2 instance, configure networking, and deploy Minecraft—all in a few lines of code.

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resource "aws_instance" "minecraft_server" {
  ami           = "ami-12345678"
  instance_type = "t3.medium"
  user_data     = "#!/bin/bash\nsudo yum install -y java\nsudo wget -O /home/ec2-user/minecraft_server.jar https://minecraft.net/latest.jar"
}

2. Schedule Happy Hour Reminders in Slack 🍻

Using Ansible, you can automate sending Slack reminders every Friday at 4 PM.

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- name: Happy Hour Reminder
  hosts: localhost
  tasks:
    - name: Send Slack Message
      community.general.slack:
        token: "{{ slack_token }}"
        msg: "It's Friday! Time for a beer 🍺"

3. Automate Cat Picture Delivery 🐱

You can use AWS Lambda and Terraform to set up a pipeline that fetches a random cat picture from an API and posts it to your Twitter every day. Because why not?

4. Turn Your Lights On/Off with Terraform 💡

Home automation? With Pulumi, you can control your smart home devices via AWS IoT. A single config change can turn your lights on and off.

5. Create a Server That Self-Destructs 💥

Want to deploy a self-destructing AWS EC2 instance? Just use an auto-terminating Terraform script that deletes itself after 10 minutes. Great for security testing!

6. Track Your Plant’s Watering Schedule 🌱

Using IoT + IaC, you can automate plant watering reminders or even integrate with a smart irrigation system.

7. Spin Up a Fake Company Website for Fun 🏢

Ever wanted to prank your coworkers? Use CloudFormation to deploy a static S3-hosted website for a fake company with official-looking branding.

8. Automate Your Resume Deployment 📄

Some developers host their resumes on AWS S3 and use IaC to update it dynamically when they make Git commits. Smart move for job seekers!