HashiCorp Terraform is synonymous with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and is heavily used for infrastructure provisioning, but often, cloud resources are misconfigured. Also, with the rapid adoption of AI, more IaC is being generated using AI tools. The challenge is to identify misconfigurations early, ensuring that provisioned infrastructure is secure and reliable.

 

At Nirmata, we believe that empowering developers with agile, self-service tools is crucial, but it must be done with guardrails in place. This is where the powerful combination of Nirmata and Terraform comes into play. While Terraform is the industry standard for declaring and provisioning infrastructure, Nirmata provides the essential governance, security, and lifecycle management for that infrastructure and the applications running on it.

 

HashiCorp Terraform: The Foundation of Your Infrastructure

Terraform, as the leader in Infrastructure as Code (IaC), allows you to define your cloud and on-premises resources in a declarative, human-readable language. With a vast ecosystem of providers, including a Nirmata provider, you can use Terraform to provision everything from a simple virtual machine to a complex, multi-cluster Kubernetes environment on any cloud, like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

 

The core benefit is clear: you manage your infrastructure in a predictable, repeatable, and version-controlled way.

 

Nirmata: The Governance & Security Layer

While Terraform is ideal for provisioning, it falls short in addressing the ongoing challenges of Day 2 operations, security, and governance. This is where Nirmata’s policy-based platform complements your Terraform workflows.

 

Think of it this way:

• Terraform is your blueprint for provisioning infrastructure across any provider and any cloud.
• Nirmata is your guardrail and control layer, it validates Terraform plans before applying (via Terraform Cloud Run Tasks) and then governs what runs on that infrastructure after it’s provisioned.

 

With the Nirmata Terraform provider, you can manage Nirmata resources directly in your IaC workflow. Use Terraform to:

• Bootstrap environments: Automatically onboard new cloud resources and Kubernetes clusters into Nirmata for governance.
• Enforce policy-as-code: Attach security, compliance, and best-practice policies at creation so every environment is day-one compliant.
• Standardize operations: Define and manage required tags, IAM and network guardrails, application configs, and access controls keeping teams aligned without slowing them down.

 

A Practical Synergy

Imagine you have a team of developers who need to provision cloud resources for a project.

1. A cloud engineer uses a pre-defined Terraform module  to declare what’s needed on any cloud (for example, networking, storage, IAM  a managed Kubernetes cluster such as AWS EKS)
2.  In Terraform Cloud, the workspace is configured with Nirmata Run Tasks, so every Terraform plan is scanned before applying. After the plan step, Terraform Cloud calls Nirmata to validate the plan. If the plan passes, the apply proceeds and the infrastructure is provisioned.
3. The same Terraform code includes a Nirmata resource block that registers the new cluster/environment with Nirmata.
4. Upon creation, Nirmata automatically applies your pre-configured policies ensuring no cluster is created with a public API endpoint, that network policies are in place to restrict traffic, and that nodes/resources follow security best practices
5. If an administrator attempts to introduce a public endpoint or any other non-compliant configuration, Nirmata flags it at the Run Task checkpoint with Mandatory enforcement, the run is blocked and the alert is surfaced preventing a security issue before anything is provisioned.

 

This integrated approach provides the best of both worlds: the speed and agility of Infrastructure as Code, combined with the peace of mind that comes from continuous security and compliance.

 

By combining the power of Terraform for provisioning with Nirmata for policy management and governance, you can create a truly secure, scalable, and automated cloud-native platform. It’s the modern way to deliver infrastructure and applications that are secure by design.

 

To learn more, check out the Nirmata provider on the Terraform Registry and see how you can start building your secure, policy-driven cloud-native environment today.