Terraform AWS Provider 6.0: A New Era of Multi-Region Infrastructure Management

HashiCorp and AWS have officially rolled out Terraform AWS Provider 6.0, a major release that changes how we manage infrastructure across multiple regions. For years, Terraform users had to juggle multiple provider configurations and aliases to handle regional resources. With this release, that workflow gets streamlined — reducing duplication, improving performance, and simplifying infrastructure as code.

Why This Release Matters

The AWS provider is the glue that connects Terraform code to AWS services. Every resource you create — whether it’s a VPC, EC2 instance, or KMS key — flows through this provider.

Until now, each provider block targeted only one AWS region, forcing practitioners to maintain duplicate provider definitions (alias blocks) for every region they needed. This approach worked but was cumbersome, especially for enterprises operating across 10, 20, or more regions.

Provider 6.0 changes that. You can now define multiple regions directly at the resource level, using a region argument, all within a single provider configuration. No more cluttered aliases, no more redundant boilerplate.

Key Enhancements in AWS Provider 6.0

Here are the highlights that make this release important:

• Single provider block for multi-region
  Manage resources in different regions without loading multiple provider instances. This lowers memory usage and simplifies codebases.

Example: VPC Peering Across Regions

Previously, you had to define two providers (one per region). Now, you can define both resources in a single configuration:

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
}

resource "aws_vpc" "main" {
  cidr_block = "10.0.0.0/16"
}

resource "aws_vpc" "peer" {
  region     = "us-west-2"
  cidr_block = "10.1.0.0/16"
}

resource "aws_vpc_peering_connection" "main" {
  vpc_id      = aws_vpc.main.id
  peer_vpc_id = aws_vpc.peer.id
  peer_region = "us-west-2"
  auto_accept = false
}

resource "aws_vpc_peering_connection_accepter" "peer" {
  region                    = "us-west-2"
  vpc_peering_connection_id = aws_vpc_peering_connection.main.id
  auto_accept               = true
}

Notice how both VPCs and the accepter resource simply use the region attribute, eliminating the need for a provider "aws" { alias = "peer" } block.

Example: Multi-Region KMS Keys

KMS multi-region keys are another great fit for this feature:

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-west-2"
}

resource "aws_kms_key" "primary" {
  region                  = "us-east-1"
  description             = "Primary multi-region key"
  deletion_window_in_days = 30
  multi_region            = true
}

resource "aws_kms_replica_key" "replica" {
  description             = "Replica key"
  deletion_window_in_days = 7
  primary_key_arn         = aws_kms_key.primary.arn
}

Migrating to Version 6.0

If your current setup uses provider aliases (provider "aws" { alias = "peer" ... }), here’s how to migrate:

1. Upgrade provider
   Pin the provider to version 6.0 in your configuration:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = "~> 6.0"
    }
  }
}

terraform plan -refresh-only
terraform apply -refresh-only

# Old way
resource "aws_kms_key" "test" {
  provider = aws.peer
  description  = "Multi-Region key"
  multi_region = true
}

# New way
resource "aws_kms_key" "test" {
  region       = "us-west-2"
  description  = "Multi-Region key"
  multi_region = true
}

Things to Keep in Mind

• This release introduces breaking changes, so carefully test in a non-prod environment first.

version = "~> 6.0"

Final Thoughts

The Terraform AWS Provider 6.0 release is a big step forward for teams managing AWS infrastructure at scale. By collapsing multiple provider aliases into a single provider block, it makes configurations cleaner, faster, and easier to maintain — especially in multi-region deployments.

For DevOps teams, this means less boilerplate, lower memory usage, and a smoother developer experience when working with Terraform and AWS.