Terraform maps are data structures used to represent collections of key-value pairs in the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL). They are commonly used to store configuration data, define variables, and pass information between different parts of your infrastructure code. Maps can be defined with specific types such as string, number, bool, list, set, or object, each with distinct purposes and use cases. The main difference between maps and objects lies in their intended purpose and where they are typically used in Terraform providers. Maps are used to represent structured data with multiple attributes for each key, while objects are mainly used to manage resource attributes in Terraform providers. Terraform provides various functions such as toset(), flatten(), map(), and tomap() to convert between different data types and maps. These functions can be used to create, manipulate, and convert maps in your Terraform code. Additionally, Terraform offers Spacelift, a tool that makes it easy to work with Terraform by providing features such as policy as code, programmatic configuration, context sharing, drift detection, and more.