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Welcome to another episode of Microsoft Knowledge Nuggets here on M365.

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FM, I'm your host, Mirko Peters.

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You've been deploying Azure resources by clicking around in the portal.

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It works fine until it doesn't, then you need to do it again,

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but you can't remember exactly what you picked.

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You need to hand it off to a teammate and they can't follow your steps.

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Version control, there's nothing to commit.

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That's the problem we're going to solve today.

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By the end of this episode, you'll understand what infrastructure as code is,

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why Bicep exists,

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and how it makes Azure deployments simpler and more reliable.

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We'll start with the problem, then the solution, then a practical example you can follow.

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Grab your coffee and let's dive in.

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The portal problem, the click to deploy trap feels fast.

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You log in, fill out a form, hit create and you're done.

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But what happens when you need to do it again with the same settings,

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region and naming convention?

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You have to remember every single thing you picked and that's where things fall apart.

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Manual deployment means inconsistent results, human error, and no audit trail.

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Here's a real world example.

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Someone on your team creates a resource with slightly different settings.

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Now you have two environments that don't match.

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One works, the other doesn't, and good luck figuring out why.

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Then there's the documentation problem.

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Infrastructure as a Word document or worse, a YouTube video recorded six months ago

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when the portal looked completely different.

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Features move, menus change, new options appear.

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I sat down with a product manager from the Azure portal team and he said

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they released new features twice a day.

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Twice a day.

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Your Word document is outdated before you finish writing it.

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Here's the thing, clicking around works for learning.

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It fails for production.

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So what's the alternative?

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You write a file that describes what you want, then you tell Azure to build it.

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What is infrastructure as code?

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Infrastructure as code means managing your cloud setup with code

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instead of clicking through a web portal.

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Here's the core idea.

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You write a file that describes your infrastructure, that file lives in your repository,

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and you can version control it, review it in a pull request,

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and run it again tomorrow to get the same result.

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There's a key term here, declarative.

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That means you describe what you want, not how to build it.

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You don't tell Azure first create a resource group, then add a storage account,

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then configure networking.

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Instead you say, I want a resource group with a storage account and networking

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configured this way, and Azure figures out the order.

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The result is something called idempotency.

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Run it once, run it a hundred times, and you get the same result.

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That's the power.

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Think of it like a blueprint versus building by hand.

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A blueprint is repeatable, shareable, and reviewable.

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Hand it to someone else and they'll build the exact same thing.

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Now several tools do this.

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Arm templates, bicep, terraform, poloomi.

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They all implement the same concept in different ways.

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That's an important distinction.

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Infrastructure as code is the concept.

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Bicep is just one tool that implements it.

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But here's the thing.

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Azure has had an IAC language for years called arm templates.

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And there's a reason Microsoft built a new one.

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The arm template problem.

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Arm templates are the original Azure IAC format.

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They're JSON files, and they have a lot going for them.

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Full coverage of every Azure resource,

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and the same deployment engine as your users internally.

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If you can create it in the portal, you can define it in an arm template.

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So what's the problem?

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JSON is great for machines, but terrible for humans.

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Let me show you what I mean.

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A storage account in an arm template takes about 20 lines of code.

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The same storage account in bicep, about 10 lines.

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The JSON version is roughly twice the size.

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And that's just a simple resource.

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Imagine a full deployment with networking, compute, databases,

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and security rules.

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The arm template becomes a wall of text.

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The common pain points are predictable.

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Missing commas, mismatched brackets for both nesting

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that makes it hard to tell where one resource ends

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and another begins.

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You spend more time wrestling with JSON syntax

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than actually defining your infrastructure.

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And then there's dependencies.

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In ARM, you have to manually declare depends on.

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If resource A needs resource B to exist first,

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you have to write that out explicitly,

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miss one, and your deployment fails.

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Good luck figuring out which one you missed.

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If you've ever tried to write a 200 line JSON file by hand,

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it's not fun, not even a little bit.

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The learning curve is steep.

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New team members struggle to understand arm templates.

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The barrier to entry is high.

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And what happens in practice?

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Many teams end up with one person who knows the arm template.

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That person becomes a single point of failure.

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They're the only one who can modify the deployment

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and the only one who can debug it when something breaks.

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That's not sustainable.

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Microsoft heard the feedback.

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So they built bicep to fix exactly these problems.

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What is bicep?

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So what exactly is bicep?

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It's a language designed for deploying Azure resources

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and at its core, it's a transpiler.

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You write bicep and it compiles down to arm JSON.

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Same engine underneath, but a much cleaner way to write.

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And the name bicep is actually arms-beld backwards, bicep arm.

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A little inside joke from Microsoft.

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But once you see it in action,

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it makes sense.

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bicep sits on top of arm instead of replacing it.

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You get the same power with a simpler syntax.

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bicep doesn't replace arm.

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It builds on top of it.

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Everything you can do with arm, you can do with bicep.

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Every resource type, every API version,

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every configuration option is all there.

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The only difference is how you write it.

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The syntax is much cleaner.

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No quotes around property names, no comments between properties,

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no brackets to track.

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It's just simpler.

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Compare the two versions side by side.

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The arm JSON version of a storage account is full of noise,

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quotes, commas, brackets, nesting.

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The bicep version has the same information,

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but it's readable.

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You can look at it and immediately understand

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what it's doing without having to pass through layers

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of JSON syntax.

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One big improvement is automatic dependency inference.

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In arm, you have to manually declare depends on.

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But in bicep, if resource a references resource b,

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the system figures out the dependency automatically.

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You don't need to write it out.

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It just works.

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And that alone saves hours of debugging.

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Modules are another big piece.

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You can break your infrastructure into smaller,

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reusable pieces and share them across projects.

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One team builds a networking module,

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and another team uses it.

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No need to reinvent the wheel every time.

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Parameters and variables let you define your inputs once

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and reuse them everywhere.

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No more searching and replacing hard-coded values.

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And string interpolation means you can write prefix storage

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instead of complex concatenation functions.

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The tooling is another reason bicep is so nice to work with.

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The VS code extension gives you Intel eSense,

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syntax highlighting and real-time error checking.

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Honestly, it's one of the best language extensions in VS code.

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You start typing and it suggests what comes next.

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Make a mistake and it tells you immediately.

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No more waiting for deployment to fail

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before you find out you missed a comma.

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So what does this actually look like in practice?

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Let's look at how bicep differs from arm.

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Bicep versus arm, what's actually different?

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Let's talk about what's actually different

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when you write bicep instead of arm JSON.

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File size is one obvious difference.

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Bicep files are roughly half the size of equivalent arm templates.

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That's not an exaggeration.

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You remove all the quotes, commas, brackets and boilerplate

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and what's left is just the infrastructure definition.

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Half the code, same result.

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Readability follows naturally.

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Few aligns, cleaner structure, and easier to understand at a glance.

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When you open a bicep file, you can scan it

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and understand what's being deployed.

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With arm JSON, you have to pass through layers of nesting

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before you find the actual resource configuration.

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Dependencies are a huge time saver.

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In arm, you manually declare depends on.

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This one and your deployment fails.

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In bicep, if resource A references resource B,

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the system handles it automatically.

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It adds the dependency when it compiles to arm JSON.

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You don't think about it, it just works.

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And that alone saves hours of debugging.

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Modules are another major difference.

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Arm had nested templates, but they were painful to work with.

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Separate files, complex linking, hard to version.

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Bicep has modules which are cleaner, versionable and reusable.

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You define a module once, publish it to a registry

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and reference it from anywhere.

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Same module, same configuration every time.

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The deployment process itself is identical.

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Bicep compiles to arm JSON, then Azure resource manager

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deploys it, same engine, same pipeline.

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You don't need to change your deployment process,

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you just change how you write the templates.

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What if is a feature that arm technically has,

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but bicep makes it much more accessible?

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You can preview changes before deploying

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and see exactly what will be created, modified or deleted.

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No surprises, no accidental deletions.

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You run what if, review the output,

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and if it looks right, you deploy.

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The learning curve is one area where bicep stands out.

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Arm JSON assumes you know what you're doing.

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It's designed for machines, not humans.

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Bicep is designed for beginners.

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Intuitive syntax tooling that guides you.

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You can learn it in an afternoon and be productive

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by the end of the week.

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Microsoft has made bicep the recommended authoring experience

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all new features and improvements target bicep first.

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Arm templates still work and they're not going away,

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but you probably shouldn't be writing new ones.

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If you're starting a new project today,

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bicep is the way to go.

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Three lines of bicep to deploy a resource group.

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Just three lines.

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The equivalent arm JSON is about 15 lines.

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Same result, same deployment,

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but one is readable and the other is noise.

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Now, you might be wondering,

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what about terraform?

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Should I learn bicep or terraform?

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Bicep versus terraform,

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which one should you use?

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Welcome back to Microsoft Knowledge Nuggets.

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I'm Möko Peters

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and today we're tackling a question that keeps coming up.

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Bicep or terraform?

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Let's break it down.

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Terraform works across multiple clouds.

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You can use it for Azure, AWS, GCP,

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or even all three at once.

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Bicep on the other hand is built for Azure and nothing else.

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That core difference affects everything else.

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Now, if you're working across multiple clouds,

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terraform is the way to go.

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You learn one language, one tool, one workflow,

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and it works everywhere.

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But if you're primarily Azure,

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bicep has some real advantages.

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Here's the first one.

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No state file to manage.

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Terraform keeps a state file that tracks what it deploys

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and that file is critical.

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If it gets corrupted or out of sync,

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you have a serious problem.

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You have to store it securely, back it up, and manage access.

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Bicep talks directly to Azure Resource Manager,

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checking what's already there and figuring out the differences.

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No state file means no sync issues

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and no risk of corruption.

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Second advantage, day zero support.

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When Microsoft releases a new Azure feature,

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bicep supports it immediately, same day.

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Terraform has to wait for a provider update,

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which is sometimes fast, sometimes takes weeks.

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If you need to use a new feature right away,

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bicep is the only option.

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Third, it's built by the Azure team,

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the tooling, the IntelliSense, the error messages,

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all designed around how Azure actually works.

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When you write bicep, you're using a language

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that understands Azure resources natively.

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It knows what properties are required,

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what values are valid, and what dependencies exist.

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That deep integration is hard to replicate

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with a third-party tool.

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You can also use both.

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Many organizations use bicep for platform and landing zones

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and Terraform for multi-cloud workloads.

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They're not mutually exclusive.

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You can pick the right tool for each job.

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The honest answer is this,

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for learning Azure specifically,

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bicep has fewer moving parts.

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It's a simpler path when you're starting out.

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You don't need to learn about state files,

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providers, or back-and-configuration.

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You install Azure CLI, OpenVS code, and start writing.

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Enough theory.

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Let's talk about what you actually need to get started.

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Getting started.

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What you actually need.

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You need two things to get started.

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Azure CLI and the bicep extension for vs code,

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that's it.

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No separate bicep CLI to install.

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No extra tools to configure.

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Azure CLI comes with bicep built-in.

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Installing Azure CLI is pretty simple.

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Go to Microsoft Docs.

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Find the install page for your operating system.

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If you're on Mac, it's one command,

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brew install as your client.

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On Windows, there's an MSI installer,

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download it, run it, done.

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It also works on Linux through your package manager.

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Once it's installed,

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run AZ version to confirm everything's working.

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You should see both the Azure CLI version

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and the bicep version listed.

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Now OpenVS code,

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go to the extensions panel on the left side

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and search for bicep.

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Install the one from Microsoft.

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Not a third party one,

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the official one.

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You really need this extension.

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It gives you IntelliSense that suggests resource properties

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as you type, highlight syntax,

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so you can spot errors at a glance,

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and checks for mistakes in real time.

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You'll see red squiggly lines

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under anything that's wrong before you even try to deploy.

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Honestly, it's one of the best language extensions in VS code

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and a big part of why bicep is so pleasant to work with.

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Now create a new file and name it main.

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Bicep, that bicep extension,

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tells VS code to activate the extension.

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Without it, you're just writing plain text.

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With it, you get the full tooling experience.

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Here's a quick example.

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A resource group deployment in three lines of code.

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First, you set the target scope to subscription,

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then you define the resource,

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a resource group with a name and a location.

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That's it, three lines.

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Compare that to the ARM JSON equivalent,

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which is about 15 lines of brackets and quotes.

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To deploy it, you use the Azure CLI.

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Because you're deploying at the subscription scope,

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the command is AZ deployment subcreate.

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You pass in a location for the deployment metadata

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and point it to your bicep file.

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That's the command line way,

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but there's also a guided experience.

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In VS code, right-click the bicep file

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and select deploy bicep file.

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It walks you through the whole process.

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It asks for a deployment name,

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asks you to select your subscription,

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asks you to create or select a resource group,

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and asks if you have a parameter file.

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You say no and it deploys.

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The result appears in you as your portal.

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Same is clicking around in the portal,

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but now you have a file you can reuse.

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You can commit it to your repository,

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share it with your team,

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and run it again tomorrow.

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00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:16,040
And here's the magic part.

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Run the same deployment again and watch what happens.

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The power of identity.

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Here's the thing about running deployments.

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You want to be able to run them over and over

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without breaking anything.

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That's exactly what identity gives you.

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The first time you run the bicep file,

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it creates the resource group,

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but the second time you run it, nothing happens.

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No error, no duplicate, nothing.

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bicep checks what's already in Azure,

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compares it to what you asked for,

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and says there's nothing to change.

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It didn't try to create a new resource group,

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and it didn't error out saying one already exists.

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It just confirmed that the current state matches the desired state.

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Think of it like running GitStaters on a clean repository.

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There's nothing to do.

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Everything is already exactly how it should be.

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This is the power of infrastructure as code.

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You can run your deployment over and over

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and end up with the same result every single time.

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No surprises, no drift.

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You know exactly what's deployed because the file says so.

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The file becomes your single source of truth.

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00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:07,440
You never have to wonder if you remember the setting

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00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:08,440
or deal with the,

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00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:10,240
it works on my machine problem

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00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:13,440
or hunt through the Azure portal to check if someone changed something.

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The file tells you what's there.

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00:13:14,840 --> 00:13:16,040
If you want to change something,

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00:13:16,040 --> 00:13:17,640
you change the file and redeploy.

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00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:18,840
If you want to verify,

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00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:20,240
you run the deployment again

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00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:22,040
and it confirms everything matches.

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00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:24,240
That's how you build confidence in your infrastructure.

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00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:26,040
The file is the source of truth.

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00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:27,840
Not your memory, not a word document,

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00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:29,840
not a YouTube video from six months ago.

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00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:30,840
The file.

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00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:33,840
So where does bicep fit into the bigger picture of Azure?

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00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:34,840
The big picture.

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Where bicep fits.

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00:13:36,440 --> 00:13:39,440
bicep lives inside the Azure Resource Manager ecosystem.

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00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:40,640
It's not a separate tool.

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00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:42,040
Many people think it is,

401
00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:44,840
but it's actually just a better way to write arm templates.

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00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:46,240
Under the hood, it's still arm.

403
00:13:46,240 --> 00:13:48,240
The same deployment engine, the same API,

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00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:48,840
the same everything.

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00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:50,240
The only difference is how you write it.

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00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:52,440
And because bicep compiles to arm,

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00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:54,840
everything that works with arm works with bicep.

408
00:13:54,840 --> 00:13:57,640
Azure Policy enforces compliance on your deployments.

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00:13:57,640 --> 00:13:59,840
RBAC controls who can deploy what?

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00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:02,040
Cost management track spending on your resources,

411
00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:04,040
Azure DevOps and GitHub actions,

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00:14:04,040 --> 00:14:06,040
deploy your bicep files through pipelines.

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00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:09,240
All of it works perfectly because bicep produces standard arm, Jason.

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00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:11,040
You don't lose anything by switching.

415
00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:12,440
In fact, you gain clarity.

416
00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:15,440
Microsoft has built a whole ecosystem around bicep.

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00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:20,040
Azure Verified Modules or AVM is a curated library of bicep and terraform modules

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00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:21,240
that follow best practices.

419
00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:23,040
You don't have to write everything from scratch.

420
00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:25,440
You can use pre-built modules for common patterns

421
00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:28,640
like virtual networks, storage accounts and app services.

422
00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:30,440
They're tested, maintained and aligned

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00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:32,040
with the well-architected framework.

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00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:35,240
The Cloud Adoption Framework includes bicep reference implementations

425
00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:37,240
for standardized enterprise architectures.

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00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:38,440
If you're building a landing zone,

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00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:40,240
there's a bicep template for that.

428
00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:42,440
Deployment stacks give you life cycle management

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00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:43,840
for groups of resources.

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00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:45,240
You can deploy a stack,

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00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:47,440
and if you remove a resource from your bicep file,

432
00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:49,040
the stack can clean it up for you.

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00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:51,240
Or protect it from accidental deletion.

434
00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:52,240
You decide.

435
00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:54,240
The ecosystem keeps growing with more modules,

436
00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:57,640
better tooling and deeper integration with AI and GitHub Copilot.

437
00:14:57,640 --> 00:14:59,640
You can describe what you want in plain English

438
00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:02,440
and Copilot generates the bicep code for you.

439
00:15:02,440 --> 00:15:04,640
Microsoft continues to invest in bicep

440
00:15:04,640 --> 00:15:06,840
as the primary authoring experience for Azure.

441
00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:09,040
So new features target bicep first.

442
00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:10,440
Arm templates still work,

443
00:15:10,440 --> 00:15:12,240
but the innovation is happening in bicep.

444
00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:13,040
So here's the takeaway.

445
00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:14,640
If you're working in a rure,

446
00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:17,640
bicep is the natural next step beyond clicking in the portal.

447
00:15:17,640 --> 00:15:20,040
You don't have to learn terraform or master arm Jason.

448
00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:21,240
You install two things,

449
00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:22,440
write a few lines of code

450
00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:24,040
and you're deploying infrastructure

451
00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:26,440
that's repeatable, version controlled and reliable.

452
00:15:26,440 --> 00:15:29,040
Let me leave you with something practical you can do today.

453
00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:31,240
So now you know what infrastructure as code is,

454
00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:34,440
why bicep exists and how it makes Azure deployments simpler.

455
00:15:34,440 --> 00:15:35,440
Here's the main point.

456
00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:37,440
Bicep isn't a different deployment system.

457
00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:40,840
It's a better way to write the same arm templates you'd write anyway

458
00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:44,040
using the same engine and as your resource manager under the hood,

459
00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:46,440
just in a language humans can actually read and write.

460
00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:47,840
Here's a challenge for you,

461
00:15:47,840 --> 00:15:49,240
create a main dot bicep file,

462
00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:51,640
deploy a resource group and run the deployment twice.

463
00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:53,040
Watch it work both times.

464
00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:55,440
The first time it creates the resource and the second time

465
00:15:55,440 --> 00:15:57,040
it confirms nothing changed.

466
00:15:57,040 --> 00:15:59,040
That's the moment it clicks when you realize

467
00:15:59,040 --> 00:16:01,240
you're never going back to clicking around in the portal.

468
00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:03,040
This is the foundation.

469
00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:04,640
From here you can add storage accounts,

470
00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:08,240
virtual networks and app services using the same pattern.

471
00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:10,240
Write a file, deploy it, run it again.

472
00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:12,040
That file becomes your source of truth

473
00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:13,840
and everything else follows from it.

474
00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:15,040
If you found this helpful,

475
00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:17,840
share it with someone who's still clicking around in the portal.

476
00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:18,840
They'll thank you.

477
00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:20,840
Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform

478
00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:25,840
and in the next episode will take bicep further by deploying real resources with real properties.