"Infrastructure-as-Code reaches beyond defining cloud resources. It touches every layer of automation: operating system setup, VM and container images, Kubernetes manifests, Helm charts, and the workflows that drive them. Each layer maps to responsibilities that split differently between platform engineering and application development teams. Getting this wrong risks rebuilding the same dev/ops silos under a new name.

This session explores those layers through a mix of comparisons, demonstrations, and a working metaphor in Minecraft. We’ll start with Packer to build a VM image and configure an operating system, and contrast that with Docker and container images. We’ll then connect those artifacts into Terraform, showing how IaC stitches OS-level configuration and infrastructure provisioning together. From there, we’ll compare this model with Kubernetes deployment strategies, including YAML manifests and Helm charts, highlighting where platform engineers and app dev teams should own responsibilities and how to keep those seams clear.

The session includes two live demos that make these practices real:
1. An End-to-End GitOps workflow for a VM-based workload implemented with GitHub Actions
2. GitHub Actions to build VM images with Packer.
3. GitHub Actions implementation of a Terraform workflow executed through modern pull request practices, where we preview releases with terraform plan and ship changes with terraform apply.

With the foundation in place, we’ll move to module composition in IaC. Minecraft structures become the metaphor for cloud systems, making concepts like reusability, encapsulation, and cohesion tangible. We’ll demonstrate how small, well-encapsulated modules can compose into larger patterns, and why these architectural principles matter for building sustainable IaC systems.

We close with a live Minecraft server demo where we run terraform apply and terraform destroy to create and tear down a castle in real time—visual proof of how Infrastructure-as-Code orchestrates environments, from the OS to the application layer, and a reminder of why layered automation and clear role splits are essential to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

This talk is designed for both developers and platform engineers.

Attendees will walk away with a clear mental model of:

1. The layers of automation involved in Infrastructure-as-Code.
2. How responsibilities map across teams and why boundaries matter.
3. Concrete examples of immutable infrastructure, GitOps workflows, and module composition.
4. A fun but practical way to internalize architectural principles through Minecraft."