Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code tool for deploying infrastructure using human-readable configuration files that can be versioned and shared.
The key reasons for choosing Terraform include its multi-cloud support, declarative configuration, and robust community ecosystem.
Terraform works by using providers as plugins to interact with cloud platforms or services, ensuring that the desired state of infrastructure is met.
Providers like 'azurerm' for Azure, 'aws' for AWS, and 'google' for GCP facilitate resource management in their respective cloud environments.
The Terraform workflow involves writing configuration files, initializing the project, planning changes, and applying those changes through API requests to cloud providers.
Actions like 'terraform init' for setup, 'terraform plan' for generating execution plans, and 'terraform apply' for making changes are integral to Terraform's functionality.
Terraform ensures idempotency, meaning repeated executions yield the same result unless there are changes in the configuration, which are then applied conservatively.
The tool simplifies managing multi-cloud and hybrid infrastructure by abstracting cloud API complexities and maintaining infrastructure consistency.
Overall, Terraform's structured approach to infrastructure provisioning, updating, and tracking ensures reliable and scalable management across different cloud environments.