Configuration Management
Configuration Management is a systems engineering process for establishing and maintaining consistency of a product's performance, functional, and physical attributes with its requirements, design, and operational information throughout its life. It involves tracking and controlling changes to software, hardware, documentation, and other system components to ensure integrity and reliability. This discipline is crucial in IT, software development, and DevOps for managing infrastructure, applications, and environments systematically.
Developers should learn Configuration Management to automate and standardize infrastructure provisioning, application deployment, and environment consistency, which reduces manual errors and improves scalability. It is essential in DevOps practices for implementing Infrastructure as Code (IaC), enabling reproducible builds, and facilitating collaboration across teams. Use cases include managing server configurations, deploying applications across multiple environments, and ensuring compliance with security policies in cloud or on-premise setups.