At MadeCurious, we’re always asking why. Why solve this problem? Why use that approach? And why Terraform?
To explore this, we sat down with Steve Foster, one of our cloud engineer specialists, to talk about why Terraform has become a go-to tool in our toolkit. In this conversation, he shares what Terraform is in simple terms, how it makes a difference in real projects, and why it helps us deliver digital experiences that are as reliable as they are innovative.
The Engineer's Perspective
Can you tell us a bit about your role at MadeCurious and the kind of projects you work on?
I’m the resident cloud engineer/architect which means that I get involved in the design, implementation and operations of our cloud infrastructure.
Because of the broad nature of this role I work on pretty much all of the projects in the organisation. Generally I get involved at the start of a project getting all the infrastructure stood up and then at the end/go-live when it goes into an operational phase.
How did you first come across Terraform?
I first came across terraform while working at Tait Communications, where we used it as a tool to deploy Kubernetes clusters for a critical communications project. We had previously used another tool called Ansible, but had migrated to Terraform to address some of the issues that we faced at the time with state management and idempotency.
Why Terraform?
For someone non-technical, how would you explain what Terraform does?
Terraform is a tool which allows you to specify how you would like some infrastructure to look like in a template, then it stands that infrastructure up by telling a cloud service to create it, and when you re-apply the same template ensure that it looks like it was before.
What problem does Terraform solve that makes it valuable to you as an engineer?
Terraform doesn’t just solve a single problem, it provides a means to define what I want the infrastructure to look like. Then by parameterising that definition it allows me to create multiple copies of that infrastructure that are functionally the same, but have different identities.
Why did MadeCurious choose Terraform as part of its toolkit?
We were faced with the problem of having to manage and deploy infrastructure using a suite of tools that all did the roughly the same thing: manage infrastructure. But they were used in different ways in different projects and that due to the organic nature of the way that the organization has implemented projects over the years, it meant that we had a mix of different tooling depending on which person took the lead.
What makes Terraform stand out compared to other tools?
It supports all of the major cloud platforms which means that we can manage resources using the same language without needing to become fluent in another tool or framework.
There are a significant number of providers to support other ancillary platforms, services, and tools that we use.
There are modules available that reduce the amount of work or rework needed to add in new collections of resources to projects.
It’s a tool that broadly does what it does with the least amount of surprise! Meaning that it does what it says it is going to do in a timely manner, without exploding in your face!
How does Terraform help you deliver safer, faster, or more scalable solutions for clients?
By being able to re-use terraform templates we can make projects that use similar patterns use the same set of building blocks. For partners this means that we can provide projects that require less effort to stand up, maintain, and upgrade over time.
Because Terraform just does the right thing, there is a reduction in cognitive overhead from infrastructure changes, meaning that the developers can focus on shipping software. Which for the partner means more time spent on features, updates, and upgrades.
In Practice
Can you share an example of how Terraform made a difference in a project?
There was a period of rapid growth a few years back where we were developing 3 very similar applications for separate projects. By using the same terraform templates for each one we reduced the amount of time and effort required to stand the applications up.
How does Terraform change the way you and the team work together?
By being able to generate a plan of the changes that terraform is going to make we can review them in advance of any work. This allows us to collaboratively review and validate that the changes that are going to be made are the expected ones.
Looking Ahead
How do you see tools like Terraform shaping the future of software delivery?
They already have changed how developers and engineers define infrastructure and deploy software.
What excites you most about where this technology is going?
In all honesty what makes it more exciting is how boring it makes infrastructure, the more confidence that we can have in how a change is going to pan out then the more time and energy we have for the harder challenges we face!
Wrap-up
If you had one piece of advice for organisations thinking about Terraform, what would it be?
There are so many snippets of advice to give, but if there was a significant one it would be that… Although it is possible to control all the things with terraform; sometimes you need to know that there are some hand-over points that doing it all in terraform makes for an over engineered setup. Just enough terraform to stand up a platform and then hand over to a continuous delivery tool is the sweet spot in most cases.
Finally — What’s one thing about Terraform that continues to surprise you to this day?
That it doesn’t cause surprises!
For us, Terraform isn’t just about automating infrastructure — it’s about giving our clients confidence that their digital foundations are solid, scalable, and future-ready.
As Steve has highlighted, curiosity drives us to find the right tools to solve the right problems. Terraform is one of those tools — helping us move faster, reduce risk, and create better outcomes for the people we work with.
Curious about what this could mean for your next project? Let’s talk.
