Use Delphix and Terraform Automation to Speed Up Delivery

Transforming DevOps with Delphix & Terraform Automation

When it comes to automating enterprise applications, Terraform, backed by HashiCorp, has become a foundational tool, enabling organizations to manage infrastructure-as-code. However, while software, servers, and networks have been streamlined, data remains a bottleneck. Slow, manual processes for provisioning test data environments often hinder DevOps workflows, leading to inefficiencies and delays.

That's where Perforce Delphix comes in. The new Terraform Provider for Delphix allows users to automatically provision fresh, compliant, and complete test data environments. By integrating Terraform with the Delphix DevOps Data Platform, enterprises can now automate the delivery of fresh, compliant, and complete test data environments seamlessly. This blog explores the benefits of using Terraform and Delphix together, showcasing how this pairing accelerates development, reduces risks, and optimizes operations.

Why Deploy Data Using Terraform Automation?

The benefits of provisioning data alongside infrastructure through Terraform include:

Increasing Speed

Moving from slow to fast application releases requires eliminating manual activities such as ticketing systems to request database administrators to refresh test data environments.  With Terraform and Delphix, manual processes can be streamlined by automating test data environment availability through existing enterprise DevOps toolchains. Ultimately, having the right data at the right time is no longer a painful DevOps bottleneck.

Improving Quality

Many development programs lack adequate amounts of time or coverage to fully test a new release, and errors discovered late in the process can either delay releases or cause production setbacks. With data-as-code, you can automate the hardest environments and tests and run them earlier.  When errors or “shift left” testing are discovered earlier, developers get fast feedback to quickly address issues. That improves development productivity and keeps programs on time and on quality.

Reducing Cloud Waste 

For many QA teams, actual test time and/or environment utilization is only 5%, which means paying a high cost for idle infrastructure.  Moving to ephemeral test runs can lower cost by 20x or increase utilization by 20x.  In just a few minutes after a successful build, an ephemeral test data environment can be spun up, tests executed, results logged, and then the environment retired.  Leveraging Delphix’s virtualization technology also ensures that the footprint of the data is a fraction of a physical clone, further compressing infrastructure costs.

Standardizing Multicloud Infrastructure

Since Terraform and Delphix are both cloud agnostic, users can quickly plug solutions into their enterprise toolchains and support application modernization to the multicloud.  Many enterprises have standardized policy to require all cloud infrastructure changes to be deployed through Terraform— and now data can be part of that approach.

How Delphix + Terraform Automation Works

Seamless CI/CD Integration

When developers commit code to a central repository, automation servers like Jenkins trigger Terraform scripts to provision test data environments using Delphix. Here's the typical flow:

1. Code Commit → Developers push code changes.
2. Automation Triggered → CI/CD tools call Terraform to orchestrate infrastructure and test data.
3. Environment Provisioning → Delphix APIs ensure compliant data is provisioned precisely.
4. Testing Executed → Automated tests run on the fresh data.
5. Environment Teardown → Upon successful testing, ephemeral environments are destroyed, saving resources.

Advanced enterprises are leveraging this integrated approach to enable continuous testing workflows, reducing bottlenecks and improving agility.

Supporting Use Cases Beyond DevOps

While Terraform and Delphix excel in DevOps use cases, they also extend benefits to other scenarios:

• Incident Reproduction → Create data environments to diagnose production issues.
• AI and Analytics → Train machine learning models faster with clean, organized data.
• Data Catalogs → Automate catalog management for better data discoverability.

Realizing Tangible Benefits with Delphix + Terraform Automation

Increasing Speed and Agility

Organizations using Delphix and Terraform report up to a 2x acceleration in application releases. Post-implementation, developers gain greater control over testing environments, reducing delays and boosting efficiency.

Reducing Infrastructure Costs

On top of eliminating cloud waste with ephemeral environments, enterprises reduce storage costs by up to 80% with Delphix’s data virtualization.

Enhancing Compliance and Security

Integrating Delphix ensures all non-production data complies with regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA via advanced masking capabilities. Sensitive data risks are reduced by 77%, safeguarding enterprise reputations.

Ready to get started with Delphix? Have questions about integrations with Terraform and other DevOps tools?

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