Infrastructure as code with Terraform and Pulumi
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has transformed from DevOps best practice to enterprise standard. According to HashiCorp's State of Cloud Strategy Survey, 78% of organizations now use IaC tools to manage infrastructure, with Terraform leading at 58% adoption. Yet the rise of Pulumi and other alternatives is reshaping how teams think about infrastructure management.
The state of IaC in 2025
According to Puppet's State of DevOps Report, organizations with mature IaC practices deploy 200x more frequently with 2,555x faster recovery from failures.
IaC maturity model
Manual with Scripts
Ad-hoc scripts, manual console changes, limited version control.
Basic IaC
Terraform/Pulumi for core infrastructure, manual approvals, basic CI.
Automated IaC
Full GitOps workflow, automated testing, policy as code.
Self-Service Platform
Developer self-service, guardrails, cost management, drift detection.
GitOps Principle: Infrastructure changes should follow the same workflow as application code—version control, code review, CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing.
Terraform vs Pulumi comparison
Terraform vs Pulumi Feature Comparison
| Feature | Terraform | Pulumi | AWS CDK | Crossplane |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Purpose Languages | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Strong Typing | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| IDE Support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| State Management | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Provider Ecosystem | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Enterprise Features | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
When to choose Terraform
Team Familiarity
Team already knows HCL or wants declarative approach
Provider Coverage
Need providers not yet available in Pulumi
Industry Standard
Hiring is easier; more documentation available
Enterprise Features
Terraform Cloud/Enterprise for governance
Simple Infrastructure
Straightforward deployments without complex logic
Existing Modules
Rich registry of community modules to leverage
When to choose Pulumi
Developer Teams
Developers want to use TypeScript, Python, Go, C#
Complex Logic
Infrastructure requires conditionals, loops, abstractions
Testing Needs
Unit testing infrastructure with familiar frameworks
Component Reuse
Building reusable infrastructure components
Type Safety
Catch errors at compile time, not apply time
Platform Engineering
Building internal developer platforms
Provider ecosystem comparison
Terraform Resource Types by Provider
Best practices for IaC
Modular Architecture
Break infrastructure into reusable modules/components. DRY principles apply.
Environment Parity
Dev, staging, prod should use identical infrastructure definitions with different variables.
Immutable Infrastructure
Replace rather than update. Prevents configuration drift.
State Management
Remote state with locking. Never commit state files to git.
Secrets Handling
Use secret managers (Vault, AWS Secrets Manager). Never hardcode secrets.
IaC testing strategies
IaC Testing Distribution by Type
Policy as code
Policy as Code Tools Comparison
| Feature | OPA/Rego | Sentinel | Checkov | Crossguard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terraform Support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Pulumi Support | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pre-Deploy Checks | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Runtime Enforcement | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Cost Policies | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Compliance Templates | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Shift Left Security: 73% of infrastructure vulnerabilities can be detected before deployment with proper policy as code. Integrate security scanning into your CI/CD pipeline.
State management best practices
Remote Backend
S3, GCS, Azure Blob, or Terraform Cloud for state storage
State Locking
DynamoDB, GCS, or native locking to prevent conflicts
State Encryption
Encrypt state at rest—contains sensitive information
State Isolation
Separate state files per environment and component
Backup Strategy
Version state files, enable point-in-time recovery
Access Control
Limit who can read/modify state files
CI/CD pipeline for IaC
IaC Pipeline Risk Reduction
Cost management with IaC
IaC Cost Estimation Tool Accuracy (%)
Migration strategies
Import Existing Resources
terraform import or pulumi import to bring existing infrastructure under IaC control.
Parallel Infrastructure
Build new IaC-managed infrastructure alongside existing, migrate workloads gradually.
Greenfield Environments
Use IaC for new environments only, legacy stays manual until replacement.
Reverse Engineering
Use tools like Terraformer or former2 to generate IaC from existing resources.
FAQ
Q: Should we standardize on one IaC tool? A: Generally yes—standardization reduces cognitive load and enables team mobility. However, some organizations use Terraform for infrastructure and Pulumi for Kubernetes resources where programming logic helps.
Q: How do we handle state file conflicts in a team? A: Use remote state with locking (mandatory), implement CI/CD pipelines so changes go through a single path, and consider workspaces or state isolation to reduce contention.
Q: Terraform vs CloudFormation for AWS-only shops? A: Terraform offers better multi-cloud support and ecosystem. CloudFormation has deeper AWS integration and same-day support for new services. For AWS-only with no plans to change, either works.
Q: How do we test infrastructure changes safely? A: Use terraform plan/pulumi preview extensively, implement policy as code, test in lower environments first, use blue-green deployments for critical changes, and maintain rollback procedures.
Sources and further reading
- HashiCorp State of Cloud Strategy
- Puppet State of DevOps Report
- Pulumi Documentation
- Terraform Best Practices
- Open Policy Agent
IaC Implementation: Implementing Infrastructure as Code requires expertise across cloud platforms, DevOps practices, and security. Our team helps organizations adopt IaC with proper patterns and governance. Contact us to discuss your infrastructure automation strategy.
Ready to adopt Infrastructure as Code? Connect with our DevOps experts to develop a tailored implementation plan.
