Managing your tech infrastructure manually is like building with blocks that can fall over at any time. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) offers a better way. It lets you define and manage your servers, networks, and other resources through simple text files. Terraform stands out as a leading IaC solution because it uses a single, easy-to-learn configuration language to define resources across multiple cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
Terraform’s approach to infrastructure management eliminates the inconsistencies that come with manual setups. When engineers define their software infrastructure in code, they create a reliable blueprint that can be versioned, shared with team members, and deployed repeatedly with the same results. This method drastically reduces human error and makes scaling across different environments seamless.
Companies that adopt Terraform benefit from its declarative configuration system that focuses on the desired end state rather than the step-by-step process. The tool figures out the most efficient way to achieve that state automatically. This approach helps teams maintain consistency across different infrastructures and simplifies transitions between platforms – crucial advantages in today’s multi-cloud world.
Key Takeaways
- Terraform enables consistent, repeatable infrastructure deployments across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud through simple configuration files.
- Using IaC with Terraform reduces human error and improves collaboration by treating infrastructure as versioned, shareable code.
- Organizations can achieve more efficient cloud resource management through Terraform’s declarative approach that automatically determines the optimal path to the desired state.
Understanding Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Infrastructure as Code transforms how organizations deploy and manage their IT infrastructure. Instead of manual processes or point-and-click interfaces, IaC enables teams to define infrastructure using code, bringing software development practices to infrastructure management.
Principles of IaC
Infrastructure as Code follows several core principles that make it powerful. First is declarative definition – you specify what the end state should be, not how to get there. The IaC tool figures out the implementation details.
Version control is another critical principle. Infrastructure code can be stored in repositories like Git, enabling teams to track changes, collaborate effectively, and roll back when necessary.
Idempotency ensures that applying the same code multiple times produces identical results. This creates predictability and prevents configuration drift.
Automation stands at the heart of IaC. Once infrastructure is defined as code, its provisioning, updating, and teardown can happen automatically, reducing human error and increasing efficiency.
IaC Tools Landscape
The IaC ecosystem offers various tools with different approaches. Terraform is a popular open-source tool that uses a declarative approach and supports multiple cloud providers. It allows engineers to define infrastructure in human-readable configuration files.
AWS CloudFormation offers similar capabilities but is limited to AWS resources. Ansible takes a procedural approach, focusing on configuration management but also handling infrastructure provisioning.
Other notable tools include:
- Pulumi (uses programming languages like Python or JavaScript)
- Azure Resource Manager (for Microsoft Azure)
- Google Cloud Deployment Manager
Each tool has strengths in specific scenarios, so organizations often select based on their existing cloud providers and technical requirements.
Benefits of IaC
IaC delivers significant advantages to development and operations teams. Consistency is perhaps the most immediate benefit – infrastructure deployed through code looks identical every time, eliminating “works on my machine” problems.
Speed and efficiency improve dramatically as manual processes become automated. Teams can provision complex environments in minutes rather than days or weeks.
IaC enables true scalability by making it easy to replicate infrastructure for different environments or regions. What once required extensive effort becomes as simple as applying the same code with different parameters.
Maintaining consistency across different infrastructures becomes straightforward. Development, testing, and production environments can remain in sync, reducing deployment surprises.
Lastly, IaC provides better governance and security through standardized templates that enforce compliance requirements and security best practices by default.
Why Choose Terraform
Terraform has become a leading Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool due to its powerful features and flexibility. It allows teams to define complex infrastructure with simple code, track changes accurately, and work across multiple cloud providers simultaneously.
Declarative Syntax and Automation
Terraform uses HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), which follows a declarative approach rather than an imperative one. With declarative language, you specify the desired end state of your infrastructure, and Terraform determines how to achieve it.
This approach simplifies complexity. Instead of writing step-by-step instructions, developers define what resources should exist and their configurations. Terraform then handles the implementation details automatically.
HCL’s syntax is human-readable and straightforward to learn. Even team members with limited programming experience can understand it quickly.
Automation is another key advantage. Terraform allows teams to:
- Provision entire environments with a single command
- Apply changes consistently across development, testing, and production
- Reduce manual configuration errors
- Speed up infrastructure deployment significantly
State Management and Idempotence
Terraform’s state management capability sets it apart from many other IaC tools. It maintains a state file that tracks all resources created and their current configurations.
This state file serves as Terraform’s source of truth. It enables the tool to determine what changes are needed when configurations are updated, preventing redundant operations.
Idempotence is another critical feature. This means you can run the same Terraform code multiple times without causing additional changes beyond the initial application. If resources already exist as defined, Terraform leaves them unchanged.
State files can be stored remotely and locked during operations. This enables team collaboration while preventing conflicting changes from multiple users.
Support for Multiple Providers
One of Terraform’s greatest strengths is its support for multiple cloud providers. Teams can manage resources across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and many others using the same tool and similar syntax.
This multi-provider approach offers several benefits:
- Reduced vendor lock-in: Organizations can more easily migrate between providers
- Hybrid cloud management: Resources across different platforms can be managed together
- Consistent workflows: Teams use the same processes regardless of the underlying provider
Terraform supports over 100 providers, including cloud platforms, SaaS products, and on-premises systems. This extensive ecosystem makes it suitable for virtually any infrastructure need.
New providers are regularly added, and existing ones frequently updated to support the latest features of each platform.
Terraform as an Open-Source Tool
Terraform maintains a thriving open-source community that contributes to its ongoing development and improvement. Being open-source means its source code is publicly accessible and can be examined for security or customized for specific needs.
The community creates and maintains modules, which are reusable packages of Terraform configurations. These modules help teams avoid reinventing the wheel for common infrastructure patterns.
HashiCorp, the company behind Terraform, offers commercial versions with additional enterprise features while keeping the core functionality free and open.
The active community provides abundant resources for learning and troubleshooting. Users can find documentation, tutorials, and forum discussions to help solve almost any Terraform-related challenge.
Getting Started with Terraform
Setting up Terraform involves a few key steps that help you define, preview, and deploy your infrastructure. The process is straightforward once you understand the basic workflow and commands.
Terraform Init and Plan
Before using Terraform, you need to initialize your working directory with the terraform init command. This command downloads the necessary provider plugins and sets up the backend configuration.
$ terraform init
Initializing the backend...
Initializing provider plugins...After initialization, use terraform plan to preview changes before applying them. This creates an execution plan showing what will happen when you apply your configuration.
$ terraform plan
Terraform will perform the following actions:
# aws_instance.example will be created
+ resource "aws_instance" "example" {
+ ami = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
+ instance_type = "t2.micro"
...
}The plan command is non-destructive and helps you identify potential issues before making actual changes to your infrastructure.
Writing Your First Configuration File
Terraform configurations are written in HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) with a .tf extension. A basic configuration includes provider settings and resource definitions.
Example configuration file (main.tf):
# Configure the provider
provider "aws" {
region = "us-west-2"
}
# Define a resource
resource "aws_instance" "web_server" {
ami = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
tags = {
Name = "WebServer"
}
}Resources are the most important element in your configuration. They describe the infrastructure components you want to create, such as virtual machines, networks, or storage.
You can also organize your code using modules to make it more reusable and maintainable.
Applying Changes with Terraform Apply
After planning, use terraform apply to implement your configuration and create the defined infrastructure. This command prompts for confirmation before making changes.
$ terraform apply
Do you want to perform these actions?
Terraform will perform the actions described above.
Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.Once confirmed, Terraform communicates with your providers (like AWS, Azure, or GCP) to create the resources. The command outputs progress and results in real-time.
Terraform stores the state of your infrastructure in a state file. This helps it track resources and determine what needs to change in future operations.
When you need to modify your infrastructure, simply update your configuration files and run the plan/apply cycle again. Terraform will automatically determine what needs to be created, updated, or deleted.
Terraform Core Concepts
Terraform operates around several fundamental concepts that form the backbone of how you define and manage infrastructure. These concepts provide structure, flexibility, and reusability to your infrastructure code.
Resources and Providers
Resources represent the infrastructure elements you want to create, such as a VM, network, or database. Each resource belongs to a specific provider, which is responsible for understanding API interactions with service platforms.
To create a resource, you define it in a .tf configuration file using a declarative syntax:
resource "aws_instance" "web_server" {
ami = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
tags = {
Name = "WebServer"
}
}Providers serve as plugins that Terraform uses to interact with cloud platforms, SaaS providers, or other APIs. Common providers include:
- AWS, Azure, Google Cloud for major cloud services
- Kubernetes for container orchestration
- GitHub, Datadog, Cloudflare for various services
You must declare the providers you want to use in your Terraform configuration to establish connections to the appropriate services.
Modules for Reusability
Modules in Terraform are containers for multiple resources that are used together. They make your Terraform code reusable and help organize complex infrastructure setups.
A module can be as simple as a collection of .tf files in a directory, or it can be referenced from a registry. Good modules follow these principles:
- Encapsulation: Hide internal implementation details
- Composition: Can be combined with other modules
- Abstraction: Present a simplified interface to complex infrastructure
Using modules is straightforward:
module "vpc" {
source = "terraform-aws-modules/vpc/aws"
version = "3.14.0"
name = "my-vpc"
cidr = "10.0.0.0/16"
}Modules dramatically reduce code duplication and make managing large infrastructures more maintainable. They also promote best practices by allowing teams to share tested configurations.
Variables and Outputs
Variables make your Terraform configurations flexible and reusable by allowing parameterization. They let you customize modules and configurations without changing the code itself.
You can define variables in several ways:
variable "region" {
description = "AWS region to deploy resources"
type = string
default = "us-west-2"
}Variables can be assigned values through default values in the declaration, command line flags (-var or -var-file), environment variables (TF_VAR_name), or Terraform Cloud workspace variables.
Outputs allow you to extract information from your Terraform configuration, making it available for other uses. They’re especially useful for sharing information between modules.
output "instance_ip_addr" {
value = aws_instance.web_server.private_ip
description = "The private IP address of the web server"
}This information becomes available after Terraform applies the configuration and can be accessed programmatically through the Terraform state.
Managing Cloud Infrastructure with Terraform
Terraform excels at managing cloud infrastructure across multiple providers through a unified workflow. It allows teams to provision, modify, and destroy resources with simple configuration files that serve as the single source of truth for your infrastructure.
Provisioning on AWS, Azure, and GCP
Terraform provides native support for all major cloud providers. On AWS, you can quickly provision EC2 instances, S3 buckets, and RDS databases with just a few lines of code. A typical AWS configuration might define a VPC, subnets, and security groups in one file.
resource "aws_instance" "web_server" {
ami = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
tags = {
Name = "Web Server"
}
}For Azure, Terraform manages resources like Virtual Machines, App Services, and Azure SQL. The syntax remains consistent across providers, reducing the learning curve.
With GCP, you can create Compute Engine instances, Cloud Storage buckets, and Kubernetes clusters using human-readable configuration language that’s easy to understand.
Infrastructure Components: VMs, Networks, Load Balancers
Terraform handles all essential infrastructure components in a declarative way. Virtual machines can be provisioned with specific configurations, including instance types/sizes, operating systems, storage volumes, and security settings.
Network infrastructure is equally manageable, allowing you to define VPCs, subnets, and routing tables as code. This ensures network segmentation and security are properly maintained.
Load balancers distribute traffic across your applications for improved reliability. Terraform makes it easy to configure health checks, SSL certificates, traffic distribution rules, and auto-scaling groups.
By defining these components as code, teams gain improved efficiency and productivity while ensuring consistent deployment of complex infrastructure.
Terraform for Multi-Cloud Support
Terraform truly shines with its multi-cloud capabilities. It allows organizations to avoid vendor lock-in by using the same workflow across different providers.
A single Terraform project can provision resources on AWS, Azure, and GCP simultaneously. This is valuable for disaster recovery scenarios or for leveraging specific services from different providers.
Project Structure:
├── main.tf
├── aws.tf
├── azure.tf
├── gcp.tf
└── variables.tfTerraform handles the complexity of provider authentication and API differences. It maintains state files to track which resources exist where, preventing configuration drift.
Organizations can automate the provisioning of similar infrastructure across clouds, ensuring consistency. This approach also enables teams to migrate between providers with minimal friction, as the infrastructure definition remains portable.
Version Control and Collaboration with Terraform
Terraform code benefits from version control systems and collaborative workflows just like application code. By treating infrastructure as code, teams can track changes, collaborate efficiently, and maintain a reliable deployment process.
Integrating Terraform with GitHub
Terraform works seamlessly with GitHub and other Git-based platforms. Teams store their configuration files in repositories, enabling version history tracking and change review.
Pull requests allow team members to propose, review, and discuss infrastructure changes before implementation. This prevents untested modifications from reaching production environments.
GitHub Actions can be configured to automatically validate Terraform code through terraform validate and terraform plan commands when changes are pushed. This ensures code quality and provides a preview of what will change.
Branch protection rules can require approvals before merging, enforcing team standards and security practices. This creates a structured workflow where changes are properly vetted.
Commit messages provide an audit trail of infrastructure evolution, documenting why specific changes were made over time.
Remote State and Team Workflow
Remote state storage is essential for team collaboration in Terraform. It allows multiple team members to work on the same infrastructure without conflicts.
Terraform state files can be stored in shared backends such as S3 buckets, Azure Storage, Google Cloud Storage, or HashiCorp Consul.
State locking prevents concurrent modifications that could corrupt infrastructure. When one team member applies changes, others are prevented from doing so until the operation completes.
Version controlling with Terraform creates a standardized approach where environments (development, staging, production) can be managed consistently. This supports DevOps practices by aligning infrastructure management with software development workflows.
Remote state enables team members to reference outputs from other Terraform configurations, creating modular and reusable infrastructure components.
Terraform Cloud for Enhanced Collaboration
Terraform Cloud provides specialized features designed for team collaboration beyond what basic version control offers. It centralizes state management, execution, and permissions in one platform.
Workspace-based organization allows teams to segment infrastructure by environment, project, or team. This creates clear boundaries and simplifies access control.
Role-based access control (RBAC) enables precise permission management, restricting who can plan or apply changes to specific infrastructure components. This supports security and compliance requirements.
Terraform Cloud offers policy as code through Sentinel, allowing teams to enforce governance rules automatically. These policies can prevent non-compliant infrastructure from being deployed.
The run history provides a detailed audit trail of all infrastructure changes, including who made them and when. This improves accountability and troubleshooting.
Notification integrations with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and email keep team members informed about infrastructure changes and approval requests.
Advanced Terraform Usage
Terraform offers powerful capabilities beyond basic infrastructure provisioning that enable organizations to build sophisticated, scalable, and maintainable infrastructure systems. These advanced features help teams standardize practices, automate complex configurations, and leverage enterprise-grade management tools.
Creating Custom Modules
Custom modules serve as the building blocks for reusable infrastructure components. They encapsulate specific resources into logical units that can be called multiple times with different parameters. A well-designed module includes input variables, output values, and resource definitions.
module "web_server" {
source = "./modules/web_server"
instance_type = "t3.medium"
server_count = 3
region = "us-west-2"
}Modules support version control, allowing teams to reference specific releases. Organizations typically maintain module registries where standardized components are published and shared.
Best practices for module creation include using clear, consistent naming conventions, implementing proper documentation, creating sensible defaults for variables, and exposing only necessary outputs.
Teams should design modules with single responsibility principles in mind. This ensures they remain maintainable and reusable across multiple projects and environments.
Dynamic Configuration with Functions and Expressions
Terraform’s built-in functions and expressions enable dynamic infrastructure configuration. These tools help automate repetitive tasks and create flexible templates that adapt to different environments.
Common functions include count and for_each to create multiple similar resources, locals to define reusable values within a configuration, and conditional expressions to implement if/else logic.
You can also use splat expressions to transform lists of objects.
resource "aws_instance" "server" {
count = var.environment == "production" ? 5 : 2
instance_type = var.environment == "production" ? "m5.large" : "t3.small"
tags = {
Name = "${var.project_name}-server-${count.index}"
}
}String manipulation functions help construct names, paths, and identifiers dynamically. Collection functions allow operations on lists and maps, providing powerful data transformation capabilities for complex deployments.
Terraform Cloud Enterprise Features
Terraform Cloud provides enhanced functionality for teams managing infrastructure at scale. It introduces workspace-based management, giving organizations a centralized platform for Terraform operations.
Key enterprise features include remote state management for securely storing and locking state files, a private module registry for hosting and versioning internal modules, and policy as code for enforcing governance with Sentinel policies.
The platform also offers team-based access controls to manage permissions across workspaces.
Organizations can integrate Terraform Cloud with CI/CD pipelines for automated deployments. The platform also provides cost estimation features that predict infrastructure spending before changes are applied.
Advanced API integration allows teams to programmatically create workspaces and manage Terraform runs. This enables custom workflow automation and integration with existing toolchains, making Terraform a flexible component in enterprise DevOps processes.
Best Practices for Terraform
Following proven Terraform practices will help your team build reliable infrastructure while avoiding common pitfalls. These practices focus on code efficiency, security, and documentation to create maintainable and scalable infrastructure.
Writing Efficient Code
Terraform code should be organized into modules for better reusability and maintenance. Modules allow you to encapsulate resources and logic into self-contained units that can be shared across projects.
Use consistent naming conventions for resources and variables. Names should be descriptive and follow a pattern like <project>-<environment>-<resource>.
Store your Terraform state files remotely using backends like S3 or Terraform Cloud. This enables team collaboration and prevents state file conflicts.
Implement automatic formatting with terraform fmt to maintain consistent code style. This should be part of your CI/CD pipeline to ensure all code follows HCL formatting standards.
Use variables and outputs effectively to make your configurations flexible and reusable. Define variable types and include descriptions for better usability:
variable "environment" {
type = string
description = "Deployment environment (dev, stage, prod)"
default = "dev"
}Security Considerations
Protect sensitive data by using Terraform’s built-in secrets management. Never store credentials, API keys, or passwords directly in your configuration files.
Implement least privilege access for your Terraform deployments. Service accounts should only have permissions required for creating specified resources.
Secure your state files as they may contain sensitive information. Encrypt state files at rest and restrict access to authorized personnel only.
Use recommended security practices like input validation to prevent unexpected values. For example:
variable "allowed_ports" {
type = list(number)
description = "List of allowed ports"
validation {
condition = length(var.allowed_ports) > 0
error_message = "At least one port must be specified."
}
}Implement policy-as-code tools like Sentinel or Checkov to enforce security standards across your infrastructure. These tools can prevent deployments that violate security policies.
Maintaining Documentation
Create comprehensive README files for each module describing its purpose, inputs, outputs, and examples. Good documentation helps new team members understand your infrastructure quickly.
Use descriptive comments within configuration files to explain complex logic or design decisions. Comments should explain why something is done, not just what is being done.
Generate and maintain architectural diagrams showing how resources are connected. Tools like Terraform Graph or third-party visualization tools can help create these diagrams automatically.
Keep documentation up-to-date with each change to the infrastructure. Outdated documentation can lead to confusion and mistakes during operations or troubleshooting.
Include usage examples that show common implementation patterns. These provide valuable reference for team members:
# Example usage of the networking module
module "vpc" {
source = "./modules/vpc"
environment = "production"
cidr_block = "10.0.0.0/16"
}Terraform vs. Other IaC Solutions
Infrastructure as Code tools come in various forms, each with distinct advantages for different cloud platforms and use cases. Terraform’s multi-cloud capabilities and declarative approach set it apart from many platform-specific alternatives.
Comparison with AWS CloudFormation
AWS CloudFormation serves as Amazon’s native IaC solution, offering tight integration with AWS services. Unlike Terraform, CloudFormation is limited to AWS environments, which can be restrictive for multi-cloud strategies.
Terraform provides greater flexibility across cloud providers while CloudFormation offers deeper AWS-specific features. CloudFormation uses JSON or YAML syntax, whereas Terraform employs its HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language), which many engineers find more readable and maintainable.
State management differs significantly between the two. CloudFormation manages state automatically within AWS, while Terraform maintains explicit state files that require careful handling but provide more control over infrastructure changes.
Performance can vary as well. CloudFormation sometimes experiences slower deployment times for complex stacks compared to Terraform’s often more efficient execution.
Terraform and ARM Templates
ARM (Azure Resource Manager) Templates represent Microsoft’s approach to IaC for Azure resources. Bicep, a newer domain-specific language, aims to simplify ARM template authoring.
Terraform’s HCL is generally considered more approachable than ARM’s JSON-based format. Many developers find Terraform’s syntax clearer and more concise for defining Azure infrastructure.
The Azure CLI can deploy ARM templates directly. However, Terraform aligns infrastructure management with software development best practices. It supports modular design and reusable components more elegantly.
Terraform’s provider model allows it to work seamlessly across Azure and other cloud platforms. This proves valuable for organizations with hybrid or multi-cloud environments that ARM Templates cannot address alone.
Other Configuration Management Tools
Traditional configuration management tools like Chef and Puppet focus primarily on software installation and system configuration rather than infrastructure provisioning.
Terraform complements these tools rather than replacing them. Organizations often use Terraform to provision infrastructure and Chef/Puppet to configure the resulting systems. This separation of concerns creates a more specialized and efficient workflow.
For container orchestration, tools like Helm handle Kubernetes application deployment. Meanwhile, Terraform excels at provisioning the underlying infrastructure that hosts Kubernetes clusters.
Terraform’s declarative approach differs from the often procedural nature of these configuration tools. It focuses on describing desired end states rather than the steps to achieve them, making infrastructure changes more predictable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Terraform has become a leading tool for implementing Infrastructure as Code practices. These common questions address key aspects of Terraform’s capabilities and advantages in real-world deployments.
What benefits does Terraform provide over other IaC tools?
Terraform offers human-readable, declarative configuration files that make infrastructure management more accessible. This approach reduces the learning curve compared to some alternatives that rely on programming languages.
Terraform is platform-agnostic, supporting multiple cloud providers and services through its provider ecosystem. This flexibility prevents vendor lock-in and allows organizations to manage hybrid or multi-cloud environments with a single tool.
Its state management system tracks all deployed resources, enabling precise updates without affecting the entire infrastructure. This targeted approach minimizes disruption during changes and improves operational safety.
How does Terraform enhance collaboration and version control in IaC practices?
Terraform configurations are stored as code files that can be managed in version control systems like Git. This creates a documented history of infrastructure changes and enables team collaboration using familiar development workflows.
Teams can implement code reviews for infrastructure changes, improving quality and knowledge sharing. Pull requests allow stakeholders to discuss and approve modifications before they affect production environments.
The HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language) format is designed to be readable and maintainable, making it easier for diverse team members to understand and contribute to infrastructure definitions.
What are the key features of Terraform that support scalable infrastructure management?
Terraform modules enable reusable, composable infrastructure components that can be shared across projects. This promotes consistency and reduces duplication as environments grow.
Its planning phase shows proposed changes before execution, allowing teams to verify modifications before applying them. This visibility is crucial when managing complex, interconnected infrastructure at scale.
Terraform’s dependency management automatically handles resource creation order and relationships. This capability becomes increasingly valuable as infrastructure complexity grows with scale.
How does Terraform’s approach to IaC improve deployment reliability and speed?
Terraform creates a consistent, repeatable process for deploying infrastructure, eliminating manual steps that can introduce errors. This trackable and repeatable approach ensures that development, testing, and production environments remain aligned.
Automated deployments reduce the time needed to provision new resources from hours or days to minutes. Organizations can respond more quickly to changing requirements and scale operations efficiently.
The deterministic nature of Terraform deployments means that given the same configuration, you’ll get identical infrastructure every time. This predictability reduces troubleshooting time and improves system reliability.
What are the cost implications of using Terraform for IaC?
Terraform itself is open-source and free to use, though enterprise support options are available. This low entry barrier makes it accessible for organizations of all sizes.
By automating provisioning and deprovisioning of resources, Terraform helps prevent cloud waste. Resources can be precisely allocated when needed and removed when not in use, optimizing cloud spending.
Infrastructure standardization through Terraform can lead to better resource utilization and reduced operational costs. Teams spend less time on manual configuration and more time on value-adding activities.
How does Terraform’s modular design facilitate infrastructure lifecycle management?
Terraform’s workflow encompasses the entire infrastructure lifecycle. It manages your infrastructure’s lifecycle holistically.
The module system promotes separation of concerns. This allows specialists to create and maintain domain-specific infrastructure components. These modules can then be composed into complete environments by platform teams.
Terraform’s state-based approach enables incremental updates and modifications throughout the infrastructure lifecycle. Teams can evolve their infrastructure gradually while maintaining operational stability.
