Terraform
Listing / Infra as Code

Terraform

Open-source infrastructure-as-code tool for provisioning and managing cloud resources

Open-source infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that lets teams define, provision, and manage cloud and on-prem resources in human-readable configuration files (HCL) with a consistent plan-and-apply workflow across any provider.

Home Page

https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform

Key Features

  1. Declarative configuration language (HCL) for defining infrastructure
  2. Multi-cloud and hybrid support (AWS, Azure, GCP, on-prem, SaaS)
  3. Plan/apply workflow with execution previews before changes are made
  4. State management with locking, versioning, and drift detection
  5. 4,000+ providers via the Terraform Registry
  6. Reusable modules for standardized infrastructure patterns
  7. Policy as code with Sentinel and Open Policy Agent (OPA)
  8. Import existing "ClickOps" resources into code-managed state
  9. HCP Terraform (cloud) and Terraform Enterprise (self-hosted) for team collaboration, remote runs, and governance
  10. VCS-driven workflows with automatic plan on PR and apply on merge
  11. Cost estimation and workspace-level RBAC

Background

  1. Created by HashiCorp; first released in 2014.
  2. HashiCorp acquired by IBM in 2024.
  3. License changed from open-source MPL to BSL 1.1 in August 2023, prompting the OpenTofu community fork under the Linux Foundation.
  4. HCP Terraform offers a free tier for small teams; paid plans add governance, SSO, and audit logging.
  5. De facto standard for infrastructure as code, widely used alongside CI/CD tools, Vault, and Kubernetes.


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