Google Cloud Deployment Manager vs Terraform: What are the differences?
Introduction
This Markdown code provides a comparison between Google Cloud Deployment Manager and Terraform, highlighting their key differences.
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1. Resource Support: Google Cloud Deployment Manager focuses on providing native support for Google Cloud resources, allowing users to create and manage them using YAML or Python files. In contrast, Terraform is a multi-cloud infrastructure provisioning tool that supports a wide range of resources across multiple cloud providers, including Google Cloud.
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2. Declarative vs Imperative: Google Cloud Deployment Manager follows a declarative approach, where users define the desired state of their infrastructure, and the tool takes care of creating and managing the resources to achieve that state. On the other hand, Terraform follows an imperative approach, where users specify the exact steps and sequence to provision and manage their infrastructure.
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3. Configuration Language: Google Cloud Deployment Manager uses YAML or Python configuration files, allowing users to define their infrastructure and resource specifications. Terraform, on the other hand, uses a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) called HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), which provides a concise and expressive way to define infrastructure configurations.
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4. Ecosystem and Community: Terraform boasts a larger ecosystem and community compared to Google Cloud Deployment Manager. Terraform has a wide range of modules and providers contributed by its community, enabling users to easily provision resources beyond the scope of a single cloud provider. Google Cloud Deployment Manager, on the other hand, has a smaller ecosystem focused primarily on Google Cloud resources.
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5. Learning Curve: Google Cloud Deployment Manager has a relatively lower learning curve, especially for users already familiar with YAML or Python. Its simple and intuitive approach makes it easier to get started. In contrast, Terraform has a steeper learning curve due to its unique HCL language syntax and additional concepts like state management and plan execution.
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6. Maturity and Release Cycle: Google Cloud Deployment Manager is built specifically for Google Cloud and tightly integrated with its services, making it more aligned with Google's release cycles and updates. Terraform, being a multi-cloud tool, follows a broader release cycle and may have a time lag in adopting certain cloud provider features or enhancements.
In Summary, Google Cloud Deployment Manager focuses on native support for Google Cloud resources, follows a declarative approach, uses YAML or Python configuration files, and has a smaller ecosystem and learning curve compared to Terraform, which supports multi-cloud provisioning, follows an imperative approach using HCL, has a larger ecosystem and community, and a steeper learning curve.
