UniSuper turns to HashiCorp Terraform Cloud capabilities

UniSuper, one of Australia's most significant super funds, has turned to HashiCorp Terraform Cloud for cloud standardisation, faster delivery and scalability.

HashiCorp Terraform Cloud provides Unisuper with a framework for safely extending cloud functionality and reducing infrastructure deployment time. The use of cloud platform teams also leads to infrastructure modernisation efforts. 

The implementation has enabled other benefits, including a developer self-service model and engineers being able to earn and innovate. The partnership is achieved while meeting customer needs around collaboration, governance, security, and compliance.

With a long track record of delivering value to customers via solid investment performance and member services, Unisuper has a hardworking cloud infrastructure behind its offerings. 

Benny Goh, Projects and Strategic Engineering Manager, Unisuper, endeavoured to extend Terraform's value by enabling a wider group of developers to fortify developers' ability to deliver value to customers. Using various internal milestones as learning opportunities, Goh's team focused on creating a self-service model for cloud resources.

To achieve his vision, Goh formed a cloud platform team that worked to align cloud modernisation with cost-saving activities. The goal of the cloud platform team was to provide internal developers with a more automated and standardised approach to infrastructure. This approach would enable efficient and scalable operations so engineers could focus on thinking, creating, and investigating.

Team members would also train on Terraform through real-world projects. The goal of training would be to "encourage developers to become champions in automation," says Goh. 

After learning Terraform, the platform team will also establish guardrails and transition to an operations team. It will leverage those skills to build CI/CD pipelines with standardised modules. Moreover, the platform team will work to scale Terraform and look for new avenues for innovation.

"The goal is to have engineers learn and help everyone work effectively in a continuous manner to improve that environment," says Goh.

Throughout the HashiCorp collaboration, Goh and his team have maintained the ethos that UniSuper is a place where future-minded Australians can come together. 

"Now, the team can answer the question, 'How can I make what I'm doing repeatable?' because HashiCorp is easy to learn and implement," says Benny Goh. 

"Our relationship with HashiCorp is not just a business transaction. The team has always been attentive to our needs and helps us determine how we can deliver our projects."

Terraform Cloud also offers another valuable benefit to UniSuper. The engineering team will need additional skills as it scales its operations, and the business claims prospective candidates are intrigued by the innovative solution. 

"We see a spark or excitement when candidates learn we're using Terraform. HashiCorp helps reduce turnover because employees feel as though they are progressing alongside UniSuper's cloud journey as they tackle exciting problems," says the Projects and Strategic Engineering Manager, Unisuper.