OpenTofu!

If you’re a DevOps or infrastructure professional, you’re likely familiar with Terraform, the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool that has become the go-to choice for provisioning and managing infrastructure. But have you heard of OpenTofu? This innovative fork of Terraform is shaking up the IaC landscape and bringing exciting new features to the table.

In this blog post, we’ll explore what OpenTofu is, what sets it apart from the original Terraform, and how it can benefit your infrastructure management.

What is OpenTofu?

OpenTofu is an open-source fork of Terraform that was born out of a desire to address some of the limitations and challenges users faced with the original Terraform project. Developed by a passionate community of DevOps engineers, OpenTofu aims to extend Terraform’s capabilities and improve the IaC experience.

OpenTofu is a Terraform fork, created as an initiative of Gruntwork, Spacelift, Harness, Env0, Scalr, and others, in response to HashiCorp’s switch from an open-source license to the BUSL.

BUSL???

The Business Source License (BUSL) is a source-available license that gives you the freedom to copy, modify, and redistribute as well as use it for non-production purposes. In some cases, it even allows limited production use for creating competing products.

However, it’s important to note that this license doesn’t permit embedding or hosting a HashiCorp product that’s also licensed under BUSL if your intention is to create a product that directly competes with HashiCorp’s commercial offerings.

The BUSL and the additional use grant outlined by the HashiCorp team are ambiguous, which makes it challenging for companies, vendors, and developers using Terraform to decide whether their actions could be interpreted as being outside the permitted scope of use.

 
 

Why should you use OpenTofu instead of Terraform?

Personal use
Initial impressions suggest you could use either OpenTofu or Terraform for personal use, as the BUSL license has no restrictions for non-commercial use cases. That may change as the Terraform ecosystem becomes increasingly unstable, and a switch to another license may happen. Those familiar with Terraform will have no issues adopting OpenTofu for personal use, so there will be no knowledge gaps, at least at the start.

Consultants
A consultant should offer their clients the best possible solution that aligns with their budget. OpenTofu will be on par with Terraform, and one of the project’s central objectives is to listen to the community’s issues, so it makes sense to recommend a project that will always stay open-source. Anyone who has used Terraform in the last eight years has probably come across issues that took some time to be resolved. The large community involved in developing OpenTofu means this will no longer be the case.

Companies
Companies will encounter more difficulties with the situation. Switching to a new project carries risks, but staying with a project that changes its license without warning is far riskier. This risk is minimized by giving OpenTofu to the Linux Foundation, and OpenTofu’s aim of maintaining feature parity with Terraform for future releases reduces the technical risks.

 
 

How to Get Started with OpenTofu

Getting started with OpenTofu is easy. You can download the latest release from the OpenTofu GitHub repository and follow the installation instructions provided in the documentation.

Once you’ve installed OpenTofu, you can start using it just like you would with Terraform. Many Terraform configurations can be seamlessly imported into OpenTofu, making the transition a breeze.

 
 

Community and Support

OpenTofu has a thriving community of users and contributors. You can get involved by joining the OpenTofu Slack channel to ask questions, share your experiences, and collaborate with others in the community.

 
 

Conclusion

OpenTofu is an exciting fork of Terraform that brings enhanced capabilities and features to the world of Infrastructure as Code. Whether you’re a seasoned Terraform user or just getting started with IaC, OpenTofu is worth exploring for its performance improvements, security enhancements, and extended support for multi-cloud environments.

Give OpenTofu a try, and join the community to be part of the evolving landscape of infrastructure management.

Happy provisioning and coding with OpenTofu!

 
 

All The best! Stefan