Bicep language for deploying Azure resources

Bicep is a language for describing and deploying Azure resources. It’s a domain-specific language (DSL) for Azure Resource Manager (ARM) that aims to simplify the process of authoring and deploying Azure resources.

In the backend team, we started using Azure Resource Manager (ARM) and then we evolved to Bicep files. Currently, we support both languages for deploying Azure resources.

Our decision to adopt Bicep as our language of choice was driven by its inherent simplicity and its adoption across our IT department. This enables us to maintain a consistent language throughout our organization, fostering clear communication and seamless integration across our various teams. Bicep’s user-friendly nature and the uniformity it brings to our operations underscores our commitment to efficiency and collaboration.

Benefits of Bicep

1. Simplified syntax: Bicep files have a simpler, cleaner syntax compared to ARM templates, which are written in JSON. This makes Bicep files easier to read and write.
2. Modularity and reusability: Bicep supports creating modules, which are reusable pieces of code. This allows you to manage your infrastructure as code more efficiently.
3. Strongly-typed language: Bicep provides features such as type safety and intellisense, which can help prevent errors and make the development process more efficient.
4. First-class tooling: Microsoft provides a Bicep Visual Studio Code extension that offers features like autocompletion, linting, and snippets, all of which can make the development process smoother and more efficient.
5. Direct deployment: Bicep files can be directly deployed to Azure without needing to first compile them into ARM templates, simplifying the deployment process.
6. Integration with existing Azure services: Bicep is fully integrated with Azure and works seamlessly with existing Azure services.
7. Transparency and interoperability: Bicep compiles down to standard ARM Template JSON files, ensuring compatibility and transparency. You can easily decompile any existing ARM Template into its equivalent Bicep code.
8. Open-source: Bicep is an open-source project, which means that it’s continually being improved by a community of developers. It also means that you can contribute to its development if you choose to do so.