A further advantage of Terraform is the plugin-based structure, which enables both the manufacturer and third-party providers to extend the functionality of the software at any time. In the case of manufacturer extensions, Terraform even downloads them automatically without you having to initiate the update. In addition, the open source solution convinces with features like a storage function, thanks to which you can call up and conveniently adapt infrastructure setups once they have been set up at any time, as well as the possibility of generating a dependency graph for all steps of the IaC creation and execution.
In terms of costs, Terraform also cuts a good figure due to the open source approach: The use of the IaC software is basically free of charge. However, if you need collaborationfeatures such as a link to the version management of your choice or the possibility to manage resources with Terraform via remote access, you are dependent on the relatively expensive enterprise plans. Small businesses can quickly reach their financial limits at this point. What’s more, regardless of the edition you choose, you have to be prepared for a demanding, time-consuming start. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with how Terraform works and the HCL language you designed, you can use the tool to make tedious routine work and laborious cross-service resource management a thing of the past.