R
Rishikesh Baidya
Author
May 28, 202410 min read
Development
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Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is essential for modern cloud operations, and Terraform has emerged as the industry standard. At Softechinfra, our development team uses Terraform to manage infrastructure for projects like AppliedView and Radiant Finance.
70%
Faster Provisioning
90%
Fewer Errors
100%
Reproducible
3+
Cloud Providers
Why Terraform?
Multi-Cloud
Works with AWS, GCP, Azure, and 1000+ providers
Declarative
Describe desired state, Terraform figures out how
Version Controlled
Infrastructure in git with full history and review
Modular
Reusable components for consistent infrastructure
Key Concepts
| Concept | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Interface to cloud services | AWS, GCP, Azure |
| Resource | Infrastructure component | EC2 instance, S3 bucket |
| State | Current infrastructure snapshot | terraform.tfstate |
| Module | Reusable configuration | VPC module, app module |
Project Structure
"A well-organized Terraform project pays dividends. We use environment-based structure with shared modules—it scales from startup to enterprise without refactoring."
infrastructure/
├── modules/ # Reusable components
│ ├── vpc/
│ └── app/
├── environments/ # Environment-specific configs
│ ├── dev/
│ ├── staging/
│ └── prod/
└── shared/ # Cross-environment resourcesState Management
⚠️ Critical: Never store state locally in production. Use remote state with locking (S3 + DynamoDB for AWS, GCS for GCP) to prevent corruption and enable team collaboration.
Remote State Best Practices
- Enable encryption at rest for security
- Use state locking to prevent concurrent modifications
- Separate state files per environment
- Enable versioning for state recovery
Terraform Workflow
Write
Init
Plan
Apply
Destroy
✅ Real Result: For AppliedView, Terraform reduced infrastructure provisioning from 2 days to 30 minutes with complete reproducibility across environments.
Best Practices Checklist
- Pin provider and Terraform versions for stability
- Tag all resources for cost tracking and organization
- Use data sources instead of hardcoding values
- Always run plan before apply—review changes
- Use workspaces OR directory structure (not both)
- Implement CI/CD for automated plan and apply
CI/CD Integration
💡 Pro Tip: Run
terraform plan on pull requests for review, and terraform apply only after merge to main. Use plan output artifacts for consistent applies.
Key CI/CD considerations:
- Store credentials securely (AWS Secrets Manager, Vault)
- Use OIDC for cloud authentication when possible
- Require plan review before apply
- Implement drift detection on schedules
For related architecture patterns, see our Platform Engineering Guide.
Building Cloud Infrastructure?
Our development team implements Infrastructure as Code practices that scale with your business.
Discuss Your Infrastructure →Learn more about cloud architecture in our Database Scaling Guide and see how our CEO approaches technical decisions.
Tags:
TerraformInfrastructureDevOpsCloudIaC