The pandemic put cloud computing on an evolutionary fast track, making it ubiquitous for businesses across all segments. According to Statista, enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services in 2023 was a massive $270 billion, an increase of $45 billion over the previous year. Software development, in particular, relies on the cloud for networking, storage, sandboxing, database solutions.
While the benefits of cloud infrastructure are undeniable, its management in fast-paced software engineering and DevOps environments can be challenging. The need for efficient cloud infrastructure management is even more pronounced as these organizations adopt Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) practices.
In 2014, HashiCorp launched Terraform, which has since emerged as the DevOps industry’s go-to tool for managing infrastructure throughout the CI/CD lifecycle. Eventually, HashiCorp rolled out Terraform Cloud (TFC), a hosted version of the tool, which comes with several useful features and a premium price.
However, recent trends indicate a growing interest in alternative tools that can better match the evolving needs of dynamic software engineering teams.
In this article, we will explain the process of managing cloud infrastructure in these environments.
The Role of CI/CD in Dynamic Software Engineering
Before learning more about the role of cloud infrastructure management in software engineering environments, we must understand their dynamic nature in the first place.
With formalized software development workflows and tools, CI/CD pipelines provide a defined path for creating, testing, and delivering software. Development teams can rely on them to deliver high-quality software more efficiently.
Continuous Integration (CI) enables developers to merge their code changes into a central repository. Here, automated builds and tests are run. With Continuous Delivery (CD), code changes are automatically prepared for release. Continuous Deployment facilitates the deployment of changes that pass automated tests.
These components make CI/CD a complete package, reducing the time between writing code and deploying it to production. This makes it ideal for dynamic environments where market demands can change rapidly. Besides faster development, quality is never a concern as automated testing catches bugs early. Smaller, incremental changes limit the risk of potential issues.
Despite the benefits of CI/CD practices, implementing them in the cloud infrastructure necessitates significant adjustments.
Scalable and flexible cloud resources are required to match the pace of frequent deployments with ongoing infrastructure changes and interconnected microservices. As software products grow in complexity, infrastructure sprawls, because straightforward architecture models become insufficient. Teams that once needed cloud environments for development, testing, modeling and production soon need several variants of all of the above.
As a result of these complexities, organizations need to ensure that their cloud environments can accommodate dynamic workloads without falling short in terms of performance or reliability.
Terraform Cloud (TFC) for Managing Cloud Infrastructure
Now that the significance of managing cloud infrastructure in a dynamic software engineering environment is evident, we must look for a solution for orchestrating it all in an orderly manner.
The process is complex, with elements such as provisioning resources, configuring them, monitoring and optimizing performance, and ensuring security and compliance. High availability and disaster recovery are also essential.
Designed to simplify the management of cloud infrastructure, Terraform enables users to define, provision, and manage resources through configuration files. Terraform uses a declarative approach to enable teams to automate the creation and modification of infrastructure across multiple cloud providers.
Advantages of TFC
TFC offers several benefits, making it a viable option for managing cloud infrastructure. Since there is no need to self-host or maintain TFC, it eliminates the overhead associated with managing Terraform installations. DevOps teams can use TFC to manage Terraform state files remotely, and these files can be encrypted at rest on HashiCorp’s servers, as opposed to living unsecured on a local device, which is how it works with self-hosted Terraform.
Enhanced communication and collaboration through shared access to infrastructure configurations is another advantage of using it in software development environments.
TFC also supports a variety of integrations that enhance workflow efficiency, including version control systems, which are extremely helpful to DevOps teams. Further, TFC simplifies the management of complex cloud environments, a challenge most organizations struggle with.
Disadvantages of TFC
Regardless of its advantages, TFC has a fair share of limitations that make it fall short of expectations. For this reason, many software engineering teams are looking for TFC alternatives that overcome the limitations of Terraform Cloud.
The complexity and learning curve of Terraform is something most users struggle with. New users require substantial time investment to master it. Another downside is the cumbersome state file management of Terraform. Managing state files becomes even more problematic when multiple users are involved in a project, which is common in dynamic software engineering environments.
Another reason that makes TFC less helpful is its concurrency limits. Even the most expensive tiers of TFC include restrictions on concurrent runs. This can hinder the productivity of teams and slow them down. While TFC excels at deployment, it falls short of advanced features such as integrated monitoring and alerting.
Cost is another disadvantage, with recent changes in TFC’s billing model making it pinch the wallet of some organizations. The updated cost structure has transitioned to a resource-based pricing model, with four tiers (Free, Standard, Plus, and Enterprise). The Free and Standard plans have several feature limitations as they exclude essential ones like audit logging, drift detection, and ephemeral workspaces.
Finally, the recent transition of Terraform from an open-source model to a licensed tool has prompted teams to look elsewhere. In 2023, HashiCorp, creator of Terraform, announced the decision to switch to Business Source License (BSL) v1.1, leaving many thought leaders in the DevOps space feeling betrayed.
What’s Next?
Managing cloud infrastructure effectively is a core aspect of running dynamic software engineering environments. While TFC has established itself as a leading solution, its limitations have prompted teams to seek alternatives that better align with their needs. As the landscape continues to evolve, organizations must align their tools and practices to keep pace with the change and deliver high-quality software on time.
