Set up environment for deployment and configuration

Automation is an important part of any cloud solution, and it's even more so in regulated industries. You want to ensure that your deployment, operations, and management procedures are secure and repeatable. Manual activities can be error prone and lead to the introduction of vulnerabilities. So, as you work with the reference architectures for the IBM Cloud for Financial Services, you will want to take advantage of the tools that IBM Cloud provides to make automation possible.

If using Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) reference architecture, is highly recommended that you use the VPC landing zone deployable architectures which provide a preconfigured set of infrastructure as code (IaC) assets to help you get started with your deployments.

The remainder of this topic describes how to set up the following tools for working with your IBM Cloud resources.

IBM Cloud Command Line Interface (CLI)
Application programming interfaces (APIs)
Terraform for IBM Cloud

Use private routes to IBM Cloud service endpoints to enhance control and security over your data when you use the services that make up the reference architectures. Private routes are not accessible or reachable over the internet. By using them, you can protect your data from threats from the public network and logically extend your private network. For more information, see Secure access to services by using service endpoints and Securing your connection when you use the IBM Cloud CLI.

IBM Cloud Command Line Interface

The CLI offers a powerful set of commands to work with your resources. Most of the services that are part of the reference architectures have specific plug-ins that you can use to extend the base CLI experience.

The following table provides links for the CLI extensions for each service in the reference architectures that has one.

Table 2. CLI information for services in reference architectures
Category	VPC reference architecture	Satellite reference architecture	Optional for both
Core	VPC infrastructure services ^[1]	Satellite
Containers	Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud Container Registry	Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud ^[2] Container Registry
Networking	VPC infrastructure services Direct Link Transit Gateway
Storage	Block Storage for VPC Object Storage	Object Storage
Security	Hyper Protect Crypto Services	Hyper Protect Crypto Services	App ID ^[3]
Logging and monitoring	Activity Tracker Event Routing ^[4] Security and Compliance Center ^[5] Flow Logs for VPC ^[6]	Activity Tracker Event Routing Security and Compliance Center
Integration			Event Streams

Application programming interfaces

IBM Cloud offers a rich set of APIs for working with your resources. The following table provides links for the APIs that can be used for each service in the reference architectures.

Table 3. API information for services in reference architectures
Category	VPC reference architecture	Satellite reference architecture	Optional for both
Core	VPC infrastructure services ^[7]	Satellite
Containers	Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud Container Registry	Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud ^[8] Container Registry
Networking	VPC infrastructure services Direct Link Transit Gateway
Storage	Block Storage for VPC Object Storage	Object Storage
Security	Hyper Protect Crypto Services	Hyper Protect Crypto Services	App ID
Logging and monitoring	Activity Tracker Event Routing Security and Compliance Center Flow Logs for VPC	Activity Tracker Event Routing Security and Compliance Center
Integration			Event Streams

Terraform for IBM Cloud

Terraform on IBM Cloud enables predictable and consistent provisioning of IBM Cloud resources so that you can rapidly build IaC to deploy complex cloud environments. The following table contains links about the Terraform capabilities for each service in the reference architectures.

Table 3. Terraform information for services in reference architectures
Category	VPC reference architecture	Satellite reference architecture	Optional for both
Core	VPC infrastructure services ^[9]	Satellite
Containers	Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud Container Registry	Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud ^[10] Container Registry
Networking	VPC infrastructure services Direct Link Transit Gateway
Storage	Block Storage for VPC Object Storage	Object Storage
Security	Hyper Protect Crypto Services	Hyper Protect Crypto Services	App ID
Logging and monitoring	Activity Tracker Event Routing ^[11] Security and Compliance Center Flow Logs for VPC	Activity Tracker Event Routing Security and Compliance Center
Integration			Event Streams

Next steps

Deploy infrastructure as code for reference architectures

Includes VPC, Dedicated hosts for VPC, Auto Scale for VPC, Application Load Balancer for VPC, VPN for VPC, DNS Services, and VPE for VPC. ↩︎
Satellite-enabled service which runs in your Satellite location. ↩︎
No specific CLI information is available for App ID. ↩︎
No specific CLI information is available for Activity Tracker Event Routing. ↩︎
No specific CLI information is available for Security and Compliance Center. ↩︎
No specific CLI information is available for Flow Logs. ↩︎
Includes VPC, Dedicated hosts for VPC, Auto Scale for VPC, Application Load Balancer for VPC, VPN for VPC, DNS Services, and VPE for VPC. ↩︎
Satellite-enabled service which runs in your Satellite location. ↩︎
Includes VPC, Dedicated hosts for VPC, Auto Scale for VPC, Application Load Balancer for VPC, VPN for VPC, DNS Services, and VPE for VPC. ↩︎
Satellite-enabled service which runs in your Satellite location. ↩︎
No specific Terraform information is available for Activity Tracker Event Routing. ↩︎