Terraform reads `.tf` files describing AWSAmazon Web Services — the dominant cloud platform for compute, storage, and managed infrastructure., GCPGoogle Cloud Platform — Google's suite of cloud infrastructure and managed developer services., AzureMicrosoft's cloud platform — virtual machines, storage, databases, and managed application services., and hundreds of other resources, then plans and applies changes with dependency graphs. `terraform plan` shows diffs before `terraform apply` creates or updates infrastructure. It became the lingua franca of multi-cloud DevOpsPractices combining software development and IT operations — automation, CI/CD, and faster releases. alongside KubernetesAn orchestration system for containers — schedules, scales, and manages fleets of services in production. and CI pipelines.

Terraform made multi-cloud infrastructure reproducible, reviewable, and version-controlled.

It popularized declarative IaC workflows beyond single-vendor cloud templates.