Introducing OpenTofu

4 minutes read

According to its documentation,

OpenTofu is an infrastructure as code tool that lets you define both cloud and on-prem resources in human-readable configuration files that you can version, reuse, and share. You can then use a consistent workflow to provision and manage all of your infrastructure throughout its lifecycle. OpenTofu can manage low-level components like compute, storage, and networking resources, as well as high-level components like DNS entries and SaaS features.

OpenTofu prioritizes transparency and collaboration, allowing organizations to customize and scale their infrastructure without being tied to proprietary solutions. With support for multiple providers and a strong focus on interoperability, OpenTofu is an essential tool for teams adopting DevOps practices and seeking to optimize their infrastructure management.

OpenTofu is rapidly gaining popularity due to its open source and user-friendly nature. Its GitHub repository has attracted significant attention, reflecting its growing adoption within the developer community.

Terraform is a popular IaC tool that was open-sourced in 2014 under the Mozilla Public License (v2.0) (MPL). Over the next nine years or so, it built up a community that included thousands of users, contributors, customers, certified practitioners, vendors, and an ecosystem of open source modules, plugins, libraries, and extensions.

Then, on August 10, 2023, with little to no advance notice, HashiCorp switched Terraform’s license from the MPL to the Business Source License (v1.1) (BUSL), a non-open source license. This change threatened the entire community and ecosystem built around Terraform. Due to this sudden change, tens of thousands of businesses, ranging from one-person shops to Fortune 500 companies, found that fundamental aspects of their infrastructure unexpectedly became a possible legal liability.

The developer community asked HashiCorp to switch back to an open source license to ensure a single, impartial, reliable home for Terraform. With no response from Hashicorp by August 25, 2023, the community decided to create a fork of Terraform, and that’s how OpenTofu was born.

Some of the key advantages that make OpenTofu a standout tool in the IaC ecosystem are listed below:

  • Open source: The legacy MPL-licensed Terraform fork is now hosted under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation, an impartial and neutral home that fosters the growth and development of open source software worldwide. OpenTofu is fully open source, allowing organizations to avoid vendor lock-in and have greater control over their infrastructure management. This transparency enables users to understand how the tool works and contribute to its development.

  • Community-driven: As an open source project, OpenTofu benefits from a strong community of developers and users who actively contribute to its growth. This ensures continuous updates, support, and an evolving library of modules and plugins, so that valuable features and fixes are accepted based on their value to the community, regardless of their impact on any particular vendor. OpenTofu prioritizes openness, ensuring users can inspect the source code and fully understand its functionality. This fosters trust and encourages collaboration among teams and contributors.

  • Layered and modular: OpenTofu’s modular design allows teams to break infrastructure into reusable components, simplifying maintenance and scaling. It integrates seamlessly with other tools and workflows, making it easy to adopt alongside existing DevOps practices and enabling a new vibrant ecosystem of tools and integrations.

  • Backwards-compatible: Existing configurations and workflows created with similar IaC tools (such as Terraform) can be seamlessly migrated and used without significant changes. This reduces the effort required for organizations to adopt OpenTofu, as they can leverage their existing infrastructure code and knowledge base. Backward compatibility simplifies transitions, protects past investments, and ensures continuity for teams managing complex or legacy infrastructure.

  • Multi-cloud and hybrid support: OpenTofu supports multiple cloud providers and on-premises environments, making it an easy choice for organizations with diverse infrastructure needs. Teams can use a single tool to manage resources across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.

  • Declarative configuration language: OpenTofu uses a declarative approach, enabling users to focus on the desired end state of their infrastructure rather than the steps to achieve it. This reduces complexity and ensures consistency across environments.

  • Cost-effective: As an open source tool, OpenTofu is free to use, reducing infrastructure management costs, particularly for small and medium-sized organizations that might find proprietary tools expensive.

OpenTofu is an IaC tool that supports many use cases in infrastructure management. It is suitable for automating the provisioning and configuration of cloud resources across platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, making it a go-to choice for managing multi-cloud and hybrid environments. OpenTofu simplifies tasks such as setting up virtual machines, networking, databases, and storage and is equally effective for managing on-premises infrastructure. Teams use OpenTofu to deploy repeatable environments, implement disaster recovery plans, and scale resources dynamically to meet demand. Its support for modular configurations and integration with CI/CD pipelines makes it a good choice for DevOps workflows, enabling faster, more reliable deployments. Whether for startups or large enterprises, OpenTofu streamlines infrastructure management while ensuring consistency, scalability, and security.