Why Terraform Automation Tools Fall Short - And What Comes Next

Tools like Terraform Enterprise, env0 etc helped us automate IaC workflows. They solved for execution, state management, and guardrails. But for platform engineers and DevOps leads, a deeper problem remains.

Infrastructure as Code is hard to maintain, and nearly impossible to scale across teams without bottlenecks.

The reason? These tools are built with the assumption that only a core group of Terraform practitioners aka infrastructure/platform engineers write, maintain and execute the IaC. But in reality, for operations to scale, terraform practitioners, product developers and security teams must effectively collaborate to build and maintain their organization’s infrastructure. This requires careful abstraction and isolation.

Problem: Workflow Automation ≠ Self-Service Infrastructure

Let’s be clear: remote state, plan approvals, and policy-as-code are useful — but they’re table stakes now. Tools like Terraform Enterprise, env0 etc offer pipeline-based orchestration, but they stop short of solving the deeper operational bottlenecks.

Teams still face  challenges in:

Effectively collaborating over a single terraform project
Dependency management across terraform projects
Ensuring that environments do not drift apart
Terraform sprawl — with modules copied, tweaked, and forgotten across teams
So-called “self-service” that still expects product teams (Devs, App Teams) to know how to write or wire Terraform modules

Why? Because everything still operates at the same low-level abstraction. Platform engineers are responsible for the how — and product teams are still dragged into it. Every environment, every service, every tweak requires a human manually stitching Terraform together.

You can automate Terraform workflows — but if every team still has to think in Terraform, debug modules, and manage state, it’s not really self-service. It's a delegation dressed as automation.

Facets.cloud: A Higher-Level Abstraction for IaC

Facets.cloud takes a different route. It provides a type-safe, declarative model over Terraform.

Platform teams define how it’s built: using typed, versioned modules
Product teams (Devs, Apps Teams) define what they need: a database, a service, a cluster
Facets generates Terraform to provision using the same modules written by the platform team

It’s not just a workflow engine. It’s an abstraction layer that enables safe, scalable self-service.

3 Real Problems Facets Solves

1. Collaboration Without Collisions

Terraform workflow automation tools don’t stop teams from stepping on each other’s toes.

With Facets:

Project-specific Terraform is replaced by declarative blueprints, ensuring each environment has a clear, centralized source of truth
Every module invocation is isolated by design — teams can safely mutate infrastructure without risking downstream breakage, while dependencies are still respected
Facets supports selective releases, allowing teams to promote changes module-by-module — enabling safe, independent deployments across teams and environments

2. Self-Service for Developers

Other platforms offer “templates”—but they still expect developers to write or understand Terraform.

With Facets:

Developers choose intents (e.g. “web service”, “database”), not low-level resources or IaC
Infrastructure is provisioned automatically with policies, constraints, and best practices already enforced
No Terraform knowledge required — platform teams define the how, so developers can focus on the what

3. Governance by Design

Most tools layer policies on top of Terraform. Facets builds governance into the core workflow.

With Facets:

Platform teams define standards at the module level, ensuring every provisioned resource is compliant by default
Inputs are typed, constrained, and validated — reducing errors before they happen
Drift can’t sneak in — because changes only happen through approved blueprints and workflows

This isn’t just policy-as-code. It’s platform-as-code — built for scale and safety.

Facets doesn’t replace Terraform expertise — it makes it scale. Your team writes it once, and every other team benefits from it safely.

Don’t Just Automate Terraform. Abstract It.

Most IaC platforms help you run Terraform faster, safer, and in sequence. But they still expect every team to write, reuse, and wire modules on their own.

Facets flips the model:

Platform teams define how infrastructure is built — once — as typed, versioned modules with guardrails
Developers declare what they need. Facets generate the Terraform

Infrastructure scales like code: through safe reuse, strict contracts, and zero duplication.

Platform engineers ship modules. Developers consume them — no tickets, no drift, no guesswork.

Facets vs. Terraform Platforms

#	Challenge	Facets.cloud	env0	TFE (Terraform Enterprise)
1	Writing modular IaC with the right abstraction	✅ Yes — type-safe module outputs, abstraction boundaries enforced by platform	❌ No — up to teams to design	❌ No — up to teams to design
2	State management and automated execution	✅ Yes — built-in orchestration, remote state, retries, drift detection	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
3	Isolation across environments	✅ Yes — environments are first-class with overrides and policies	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
4	Rollout from lower to higher environments	✅ Yes — native environment promotion workflows	⚠️ Partial — manual/pipeline-based	⚠️ Partial — requires scripting
5	Isolation between logical resources to enable collaboration	✅ Yes — dependency graph, per-resource visibility, and RBAC	⚠️ Partial — via modules/repos	⚠️ Partial — via workspace structure
6	Well-defined dev workflow for IaC developers	✅ Yes — versioned automation, testing flow, enforced interfaces	⚠️ Partial — VCS and hooks	✅ Yes — VCS, Sentinel policies
7	Self-service for product teams with IaC safeguards	✅ Yes — product teams define needs via UI, platform enforces how via typed automation	❌ No — product teams must write IaC	❌ No — requires IaC + Sentinel
8	No need for project-specific automation	✅ Yes — IaC is generated from high-level blueprint intent	❌ No — per-project pipelines required	❌ No — config and state per project
9	Higher-level abstraction on top of Terraform	✅ Yes — typed modules, structured inputs/outputs, architectural modeling	❌ No	❌ No

Your Platform Is a Product. Build It That Way.

If you're responsible for making infrastructure reusable, safe, and scalable — you're not just writing scripts. You're building a platform that other teams depend on.

Terraform gave us automation. Facets gives you modularity, control, and developer enablement by design.

You define the building blocks — typed, versioned, and guard-railed
Developers self-serve with confidence, without tickets, without drift

Facets.cloud doesn’t just run Terraform. It turns your platform team into product engineers — and your infrastructure into a service anyone can use.