Terraform

Terraform (by HashiCorp) is just one of many “infrastructure-as-code” tools that empower developers to create structured and automated workflows.  By removing the ‘human factor’ from infrastructure deployments, teams can be expected to release deployments at a much faster pace while also reducing outages caused by human error.

The same code can be used to create or update the infrastructure in development, QA, and production environments providing consistency in all stages.  The ability to deploy infrastructure on demand also opens up the possibility of integrating with test-suites to identify bugs before they reach production while also keeping all the source code and change history in version control. 

Terraform revolutionizes the DevOps world by transforming how it is managed.  Tools like Ansible, Chef, and Puppet are common tools used in software automation, but Terraform stands out by focusing on the automation of infrastructure, by letting developers define it in code.  It also enables teams to rebuild, change, and track changes with ease while maintaining development standards such as source control and testing.

It is also an open-source tool with a massive, active community.  Many teams are already using it in production, helping the tool evolve at a much faster rate.  In just two years, we’ve seen four major updates, a language change (HCL to HCL2) and a revamp of the Terraform state.

Terraform exposes a “Plan” command that lets developers see the operations it will take to deploy a configuration.  The plan displays which resources will be created, updated, and destroyed, removing any surprises in the deployment life cycle.  It’s also fast, optimizing builds to be as efficient as possible and will correspond to the creation and modification of non-dependent resources.