terraform/website/source/intro/getting-started/remote.html.markdown

---
layout: "intro"
page_title: "Terraform Remote"
sidebar_current: "gettingstarted-remote"
description: |-
  We've now seen how to build, change, and destroy infrastructure from a local machine. However, you can use Atlas by HashiCorp to run Terraform remotely to version and audit the history of your infrastructure.
---

# Why Use Terraform Remotely?
We've now seen how to build, change, and destroy infrastructure
from a local machine. This is great for testing and development,
however in production environments it is more responsible to run
Terraform remotely and store a master Terraform state remotely.
Otherwise it's possible for multiple different Terraform states
to be stored on developer machines, which could lead to conflicts.
Additionally by running Terraform remotely, you can move access
credentials off of developer machines, release local machines from
long-running Terraform processes, and store a history of
infrastructure changes to help with auditing and collaboration.

# How to Use Terraform Remotely
Using Terraform remotely is straightforward with [Atlas by HashiCorp](https://atlas.hashicorp.com/?utm_source=oss&utm_medium=getting-started&utm_campaign=terraform).
You first need to configure [Terraform remote state storage](/docs/commands/remote.html)
with the command:

```
$ terraform remote config -backend-config="name=ATLAS_USERNAME/getting-started"
```

Replace `ATLAS_USERNAME` with your Atlas username. If you don't have one, you can
[create an account here](https://atlas.hashicorp.com/account/new?utm_source=oss&utm_medium=getting-started&utm_campaign=terraform).

Next, [push](/docs/commands/push.html) your Terraform configuration to Atlas with:

```
$ terraform push -name="ATLAS_USERNAME/getting-started"
```

This will automatically trigger a `terraform plan`, which you can
review in the [Environments tab in Atlas](https://atlas.hashicorp.com/environments).
If the plan looks correct, hit "Confirm & Apply" to execute the
infrastructure changes.

# Version Control for Infrastructure
Running Terraform in Atlas creates a complete history of
infrastructure changes, a sort of version control
for infrastructure. Similar to application version control
systems such as Git or Subversion, this makes changes to 
infrastructure an auditable, repeatable,
and collaborative process. With so much relying on the
stability of your infrastructure, version control is a
responsible choice for minimizing downtime.

## Next
You now know how to create, modify, destroy, version, and
collaborate on infrastructure. With these building blocks,
you can effectively experiment with any part of Terraform.

Next, we move on to features that make Terraform configurations
slightly more useful: [variables, resource dependencies, provisioning,
and more](/intro/getting-started/dependencies.html).