infrastructure-as-code

Use a remote backend such as S3 with encryption enabled and DynamoDB for state locking. This prevents concurrent modifications from corrupting state and keeps sensitive state data off local machines.

Define input variables with descriptions and validation rules, create resources with consistent naming via locals, and expose outputs like vpc_id and subnet IDs. Consume the module from environment-specific directories that pass different variable values.

Terraform uses HCL with a large provider ecosystem and mature state management. Pulumi lets you write infrastructure in general-purpose languages like Python using component resources. CloudFormation is AWS-native with mappings and parameters but is limited to AWS.

Add validation blocks to variable definitions using conditions like regex matching or contains checks against allowed values. Invalid values fail at plan time with a custom error message before any resources are created.

Skip IaC for one-off simple resource creation where the cloud console is faster, and for application deployment or container orchestration, which belong to CI/CD and containerization workflows instead.