Terraform vs Ansible: Which Automation Tool is Best for Your Needs
When it comes to cloud automation, Terraform and Ansible are two of the most popular tools in the market. Both have their unique features, capabilities, and limitations. But, which one should you choose? In this blog post, we will do an unbiased comparison of Terraform and Ansible, considering factors like deployment complexity, ease of use, and scalability.
Terraform
Terraform is a provisioning tool developed by Hashicorp. It is designed to create, manage, and modify infrastructure as code. Terraform uses declarative syntax, which means that you describe what you want the resources to look like, and Terraform takes care of the how.
Deployment Complexity
Terraform has a learning curve, and it can be complex to deploy at first. Its complex features require extensive knowledge of HCL, the configuration language used by Terraform. However, Terraform aims to simplify the process of creating, managing and modifying infrastructure as code, being an excellent fit for large and more complex environments.
Ease of Use
Once you have learned how to use Terraform, it becomes an easy to use tool. It has a robust CLI interface, allowing full deployment using command-line prompts, providing full control of the automation. For instance, the ability to build a new VM requires fewer commands than its Ansible equivalent.
Scalability
Terraform supports multiple providers, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, making it a scalable tool. With Terraform's programmatic approach, it allows scaling the infrastructure up and down as needed.
Ansible
Ansible is a configuration management tool for automation from Red Hat. It is designed to enable you to describe infrastructure as code and bring systems into compliance. Ansible uses an imperative approach, in which you specify each step that the system should execute.
Deployment Complexity
Ansible is easy to deploy and easy to use. Its simplicity makes it an excellent fit for small environments, reducing deployment time compared to Terraform. Nevertheless, for larger, more complex environments, Ansible can be comparatively more challenging to work with compared to Terraform.
Ease of Use
Ansible’s YAML-based syntax makes it easy to learn and read, providing users with a quick start in getting things done. The web-based GUI (Tower) also makes it easy to use, especially for beginners, providing full control through a visual interface.
Scalability
Ansible is a great tool for small to medium scale environments. When it comes to larger environments, scaling with Ansible will often require additional strategy, such as clustering, and considerable expertise to implement.
Conclusion
Both Terraform and Ansible offer extensive benefits, but choosing the right one depends on your needs. Terraform is great for larger and more complex environments, whereas Ansible ideal for smaller and less complex environments. In general, Ansible is an excellent entry point for beginners looking for easy automation, while Terraform is the best choice for enterprises seeking advanced automation.
In summary, both tools have their unique capabilities and limitations, and we hope this comparison has helped you to choose the right automation tool for your business.
References
- Terraform. (n.d.). Retrieved October 17, 2021, from https://www.terraform.io/
- Ansible | Automation for Everyone. (n.d.). Retrieved October 17, 2021, from https://www.ansible.com/