AWS with Terraform (Day 01)

 

Terraform Fundamentals – Day 01

(My Learning Notes as a DevOps Engineer)

Today I wrapped up Day-01 of my Terraform with AWS series, and even with my DevOps background, this session helped me tighten my fundamentals and rethink how I approach cloud provisioning. Terraform is something I’ve used before, but today was more about understanding why IaC matters at scale and why Terraform continues to dominate in real-world DevOps ecosystems.

Understanding Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

As a DevOps engineer, IaC is not new to me. But today’s session broke it down in a way that clarified its real value.

IaC = Infrastructure represented as code.
Instead of building resources manually through AWS/Azure/GCP consoles, we define everything in .tf files. This ensures our setup is predictable, repeatable, and version-controlled.

What I liked most is how clearly the contrast was shown:

Cloud-Agnostic Tools (Terraform / Pulumi)

  • Work across AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, GitHub, etc.

  • One workflow for any platform

  • Perfect for hybrid or multi-cloud setups

Cloud-Native Tools (CloudFormation / ARM / Bicep / CDK)

  • Provider-specific

  • Lock you into that ecosystem

As someone who works across both AWS and Azure, this reinforced why Terraform is my go-to tool. Its cloud-agnostic nature is a massive advantage.

The Reality of Manual Provisioning

This part hit close to home because I’ve lived these challenges in real environments.

Manually clicking through AWS or Azure consoles works fine when you're spinning up a single EC2 or a test VPC. But at enterprise scale? It collapses instantly.

The pain points I resonated with:

  • Scaling slows down → provision 200+ components manually? Impossible.

  • Human errors creep in → one wrong CIDR, one incorrect security group rule, and entire deployments fail.

  • Environment drift becomes unavoidable → dev ≠ staging ≠ prod.

  • Security gets inconsistent → forgotten encryption, misconfigured access, untracked changes.

  • Teams waste time → manual provisioning simply does not align with DevOps speed.

It reminded me why IaC is not optional anymore — it’s a necessity.

Terraform as the Answer

Terraform solves all of this in a clean, consistent way.

What stood out for me today:

  • Write once → deploy everywhere

  • Zero drift because everything is codified

  • Cost savings with quick teardown (terraform destroy)

  • Repeatability across dev, test, staging, prod

  • Audit and versioning via Git

  • Standardization across global teams

As someone who manages multiple environments, the consistency Terraform provides is a lifesaver.
Same code → same behavior → fewer surprises.

How Terraform Actually Works (Reinforced My Understanding)

Even though I’ve used Terraform before, the high-level architecture recap was helpful.

Terraform’s workflow is simple but powerful:

terraform init
terraform validate
terraform plan
terraform apply
terraform destroy

  • init downloads providers

  • validate catches syntax issues

  • plan gives a preview (my personal favorite safety net)

  • apply provisions infra

  • destroy cleans everything up

The clarity came when understanding that Terraform doesn’t “magically create infra” —
it interacts with cloud APIs just like AWS console or CLI does… but in a controlled, automated, scalable workflow.

That perspective makes Terraform feel less like a tool and more like a reliable automation layer for cloud operations.

Prerequisites & Setup – My Takeaway

Day-01 also covered the essentials needed to start strong:

  • Understanding AWS basics (EC2, VPC, Subnets, IAM)

  • Comfort with Linux and shell commands

  • Git fundamentals

  • Installing Terraform CLI

  • Setting up VS Code + extensions

  • Configuring AWS CLI

Pretty much everything I already use in day-to-day DevOps work, but it was good to see how nicely everything ties together when preparing for IaC automation.

My Reflection as a DevOps Engineer

Day-01 reinforced a simple truth:

👉 Manual cloud provisioning dies at scale. IaC is the only sustainable path.

Terraform remains unmatched because:

  • It’s cloud-agnostic

  • It’s consistent

  • It’s fast

  • It’s team-friendly

  • It scales from small apps to enterprise-grade architecture

With Day-01 setting the base, I’m ready to move deeper into providers, variables, modules, state management, and actual AWS resource creation.

Below is the video link: 


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