---
title:      "Terraform"
ring:       adopt
quadrant:   platforms-and-aoe-services
tags:       [academy training, devops]
featured:   false
---

Terraform has become a de facto standard as a cloud-provider-agnostic infrastructure-as-code tool in recent years.

Unfortunately, the [license change for HashiCorp products in August 2023](https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/hashicorp-adopts-business-source-license) has caused [some](https://blog.gruntwork.io/the-future-of-terraform-must-be-open-ab0b9ba65bca) [turmoil](https://zeet.co/blog/the-impact-of-hashicorps-license-change-on-terraform-users-and-providers-what-you-need-to-know) within the open-source community. Terraform can no longer be considered truly open source. Of particular concern are the [usage limitations that prohibit "competitive offerings" to HashiCorp's products](https://www.hashicorp.com/license-faq#usage-limitations). The vagueness of this definition, coupled with the fact that HashiCorp can change their interpretation of what constitutes a "competitive offer" at any time, poses a potential liability for agencies and their customers.

As a result, we are currently [assessing OpenTofu](/platforms-and-aoe-services/opentofu/) as a drop-in replacement for Terraform. [OpenTofu](https://opentofu.org) is an open-source fork under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation, created from the last commit before Terraform's license change.