Terraform

Terraform is used to define infrastructure in configuration files. You describe resources such as virtual machines, networks, databases, IAM roles, and Kubernetes clusters. Terraform then compares that desired state with the real world and produces a plan.

The usual flow is:

• terraform init downloads providers and prepares the working directory.
• terraform plan shows what Terraform intends to create, change, or destroy.
• terraform apply makes the changes.

Terraform’s strength is its provider ecosystem. The same workflow can manage AWS, Azure, Cloudflare, GitHub, Kubernetes, and plenty more. The part that deserves care is Terraform state. State tells Terraform what it already manages, so losing or corrupting it can turn a tidy change into a long afternoon.