Infrastructure as Code: Terraform Best Practices

Infrastructure as Code only pays off if it stays clean. After provisioning a lot of AWS and Azure with Terraform, here are the practices that keep it maintainable.

Remote state and locking

Store state in S3 with DynamoDB locking (or an Azure blob) so teams do not clobber each other. Never commit state to Git.

Modules and structure

Wrap reusable pieces in modules and separate environments so changes stay isolated and reviewable.

module "network" {
  source = "./modules/network"
  cidr   = var.vpc_cidr
}

Plan, review, apply

Run terraform plan in CI on every PR so changes are reviewed before apply. Pin provider versions for reproducibility.

Wrapping Up

Treat infrastructure like application code — modular, reviewed and versioned — and your cloud stays reproducible instead of a snowflake.