Update Once, Deploy Everywhere with Tensor9’s New Release for Terraform/OpenTofu
Delivering a SaaS or AI product into a customer's dedicated VPC/environment (cloud-prem or on-prem) is notoriously complex, and typically requires significant rewrites or platform re-architectures.
That’s why we’re especially excited to announce that a major upgrade to the Tensor9 platform, native support for infrastructure as code as defined in Terraform compatible and OpenTofu configurations, is now available. This new capability works alongside our existing support for Docker and CloudFormation, and is the fastest, lowest-friction solution to the problem of adapting your software for cloud-prem deployment.
Tensor9 enables SaaS and AI vendors to deliver their existing products directly into customer-owned environments, including cloud-prem and on-prem. This unlocks new markets for SaaS vendors without burdening the vendor with complex bespoke engineering and operations. Tensor9 works by translating the vendor’s existing SaaS stack as defined via infrastructure as code for deployment into customer-owned environments. As Terraform/OpenTofu are the most widely used IaC tools, it was an obvious next step for the Tensor9 platform.
What's New: Terraform/OpenTofu Integration
We've integrated Terraform and OpenTofu directly into Tensor9. This means you can now:
Deploy Your Existing Stack: Use your existing Terraform and OpenTofu configurations to deploy your entire stack into customer environments, starting with AWS.
Bring Your Entire Stack: Anything configurable via Terraform and OpenTofu, including AWS services like EKS, S3, RDS, and Lambda, can be deployed as-is. No need to refactor or simplify your code for a Kubernetes deployment.
Use Your Automation Tools: Works seamlessly with popular infrastructure automation tools you already use, including Atlantis and Spacelift.
Why It Matters
Our goal is to empower you to deploy your current SaaS stack into customer environments with minimal friction and maximum flexibility. Here’s what this release means for you:
No Rewrites Required: This is perhaps the most crucial benefit. You've invested time and effort into your existing Terraform/OpenTofu configurations. With Tensor9, you can re-use your current stack with only minor modifications, saving months of engineering effort.
Operational Simplicity: Tensor9 provides a single interface to deploy to multiple, different customer environments, abstracting environment differences where possible and highlighting them when needed.
Maintain Your Workflow: Continue using the same Terraform/OpenTofu actions and automation tools you've always used. Whether you're a fan of Atlantis or Spacelift, you can continue to use these powerful automation tools without interruption.
Customer Confidence: Phased permissions ensures customers can manage the SaaS vendor’s level of control, and provides auditability of any actions. Tensor9 also provides controlled management of artifacts and permissions in customer accounts.
Observability: Tensor9 helps you understand issues in customer deployments before they arise, by routing logs and metrics to observability tools such as Datadog, Splunk, and CloudWatch.
How It Works
Tensor9 ingests your existing Terraform/OpenTofu code and produces a deployable appliance that can be instantiated in a customer’s own AWS account.
Tensor9 high level architecture with OpenTofu/Terraform
The simple steps for you, the SaaS vendor are:
Commit: Write or update your IaC (Terraform/OpenTofu) as usual.
Bind and Build: Create a reference to your source Terraform/OpenTofu code in Tensor9, and build your root modules for deployment into customer environments. The compiled code is outputted to your current working directory.
Deploy: Apply the compiled stack into customer environments with Terraform/OpenTofu commands or your preferred automation tools.
Here is a simple example of the workflow for deploying an S3 bucket:
To do updates, you follow the same workflow: modify the IaC code, bind and build the stack, and deploy it as you typically would. You can update all or a portion of appliances, and follow customer requirements for release windows.
Ready to try it out?
Interested in trying it out? Reach out to us at hello@tensor9.com to deploy your app via Terraform/OpenTofu. You can also get access to try out our Quick start for Terraform/OpenTofu; learn more about it here.
