What do you understand about providers in the context of Terraform?

1.	What do you understand about providers in the context of Terraform?
Answer» To INTERFACE with cloud providers, SaaS providers, and other APIs, Terraform uses plugins CALLED "providers." Terraform configurations must specify the providers they need in order for Terraform to install and use them. Some providers also require setup (such as endpoint URLS or cloud regions) before they may be used. Terraform may manage a set of resource types and/or data sources that each provider contributes. A provider implements each resource type; Terraform would be unable to manage any infrastructure without them. The majority of service providers set up a specific infrastructure PLATFORM (either cloud or self-hosted). Local utilities, such as generating random numbers for unique resource names, can be OFFERED by providers.

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