Description

Introduction
This course offers a practical comparison of Azure Bicep and Terraform, enabling cloud engineers to understand their strengths, limitations, and best-fit scenarios. Through hands-on labs, participants will design, deploy, and manage cloud infrastructure using both tools while learning key architectural, operational, and governance considerations. The training emphasizes real-world decision-making, module development, CI/CD integration, and multi-environment automation.

Prerequisites
Basic understanding of Azure resource concepts
Familiarity with any Infrastructure as Code tool (ARM, Bicep, Terraform, or CloudFormation)
Basic knowledge of Git and command-line operations

Table of Contents
1 Introduction to Azure IaC Tools
1.1 Evolution of IaC in Azure: ARM, Bicep, and Terraform
1.2 Comparing Bicep and Terraform: Architecture, Approach & Use Cases
1.3 Tooling, Editors & Development Environments
2 Azure Bicep Deep Dive
2.1 Bicep Language Structure, Syntax & Authoring Best Practices
2.2 Bicep Modules, Reusability & Parameterization
2.3 State Management & Deployment Behaviors
2.4 Bicep with Azure Policies, RBAC & Blueprints
3 Terraform on Azure Deep Dive
3.1 Terraform Architecture, Providers & State Backends
3.2 Writing Terraform Modules: DRY, Versioning & Reusability
3.3 Workspaces, State Locking & Environments
3.4 Terraform with Key Vault, Managed Identities & Governance Tools
4 Hands-On Comparative Deployments
4.1 Deploying the Same Azure Architecture Using Bicep
4.2 Deploying the Same Architecture Using Terraform
4.3 Error Handling, Debugging & Stateful Differences
4.4 Performance, Complexity & Maintainability Comparison
5 Automation & CI/CD for Both Tools
5.1 Azure DevOps Pipelines for Bicep and Terraform
5.2 GitHub Actions for Multi-Stage Deployments
5.3 Testing IaC with Terratest, Bicep Test & Validation Steps
5.4 Artifact Versioning, Promotion & Environment Controls
6 Governance, Security & Compliance
6.1 Applying Azure Policy with Bicep and Terraform
6.2 Role-Based Access & Organizational Governance
6.3 Auditing, Monitoring & Drift Management
7 Real-World Decision Framework
7.1 Choosing Bicep vs Terraform Based on Organizational Needs
7.2 Multi-Cloud vs Azure-Only Strategy
7.3 Managing Hybrid Deployments Using Both Tools
8 Capstone Project
8.1 Build an End-to-End Bicep-based Environment
8.2 Build the Same Using Terraform
8.3 Compare Outputs, Pipelines, and Operational Complexity
8.4 Final Review, Optimization & Best Practices

This training equips cloud engineers with the skills to evaluate, design, and deploy infrastructure using both Bicep and Terraform. By the end, participants will confidently select the right tool for their needs and implement scalable, secure, and automated Azure environments.