Automating Cloud Deployments with Terraform and IaC

By Jose Gomez, Software Developer at Authority Partners

In our latest blog, we’re delving into the world of “Automating Cloud Deployments with Terraform and IaC.” We’ll explore how using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and Terraform can make managing cloud resources simpler and more efficient. Join us to understand the practical side of declarative configurations, execution plans, and the real-world benefits of using Terraform for seamless cloud deployments.

With the advent of cloud services and full blown ALM solutions such as Azure Devops, JIRA, Teamforge and others, IT managers have it easier than ever to automate their deployments and provide an easy, predictable and reliable way for deploying resources. 

That is nice for sure, but as the tireless, hard-working individuals that we are, we are always looking for ways to work smarter and not harder.

Figure 1(IT workers discover CI/CD for the first time)

Taking Advantage of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for Cloud Deployments

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) lets you manage and provision infrastructure resources through the use of scripts using declarative syntax. This allows us to not only define our infrastructure, but also the scripts defining our infrastructure to source control. 

This allows for testable scripts that can help define our infrastructure resources, automate the configuration of those resources and share the knowledge of our infrastructure environment between members of different teams, as the code that defines our infrastructure is there for all to see. No more chasing for which resources are attached to X virtual network, just peek at the code, check the resources defined in it and make the necessary arrangements you need – all centralized and versioned in source control. 

Using Terraform to Manage and Automate Deployments

Sure, having a way to define our resources in a declarative syntax, add them to source control and enable collaboration between teams managing infrastructure is nice. But what is even nicer is to have a way to manage and deploy these resources in a predictable, repeatable and reliable manner.  

Using IaC tools such as Terraform, we can take advantage of the following features: 

  1. Declarative Configuration: Terraform uses a declarative configuration language to describe the desired state of your infrastructure. Users specify what resources they want and how they should be configured, and terraform takes care of figuring out the sequence of operations to achieve that state.
  2. Providers: Terraform supports multiple cloud providers (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), as well as on-premises infrastructure and various other services. Each provider has its own set of resources that can be managed using Terraform. Providers are plugins that extend Terraform's capabilities to interact with specific APIs.
  3. Resources: Resources are the fundamental building blocks in Terraform configurations. They represent the infrastructure components you want to manage, such as virtual machines, networks, databases and more. Each resource type corresponds to a specific provider. 
  4. State Management: Terraform maintains a state file that keeps track of the current state of your infrastructure. This file is used to plan and apply changes, track dependencies between resources and store information about the resources created by Terraform. 
  5. Execution Plans: Before applying changes, Terraform generates an execution plan. This plan outlines what actions Terraform will take to move from the current state to the desired state. It helps users understand the impact of changes before applying them. 
  6. Modularity: Terraform configurations can be organized into modules, allowing you to reuse and share infrastructure code. Modules can be composed and nested, providing a way to create reusable components for different parts of your infrastructure. 
  7. Versioning and Collaboration: Terraform configurations can be version-controlled using tools like Git. This facilitates collaboration among team members, enables tracking changes over time and supports rollback to previous versions if needed. 

  8. Community and Ecosystem: Terraform has a large and active community, and there is a rich ecosystem of modules and plugins created by both HashiCorp and the community. These modules provide pre-built configurations for common infrastructure patterns, making it easier to get started and share best practices.

Define once, deploy everywhere.  

As I said, IT workers are hard-working individuals. As such, we aim to automate and abstract all that we can so we can have some spare time for cat videos. 

Jokes aside, Terraform and other IAC tools allow us to use our time more wisely by abstracting deployments through the use of providers.  

With Terraform providers, we can define our resources once and let Terraform deploy our infrastructure for us to pre-defined providers. The Terraform registry has a list of public cloud providers compatible with terraform.  

Ready to transform your cloud deployments? Contact us: fill out this form or drop us an email at hello@authoritypartners.com. Let’s elevate your infrastructure together.