Cloud landing zones and IaC: Terraform, policy-as-code and guardrails

What a landing zone sets up

• Account or subscription structure, mapped to teams and environments.
• Central identity and least-privilege access.
• Network layout and connectivity.
• Logging, audit trails and monitoring from day one.
• Baseline security settings.

Why code

Describing the environment in code, for example with Terraform, makes changes reviewable, repeatable and reversible. It also removes the drift that builds up when people change things by hand.

Guardrails, not gates

Policy as code checks changes against rules automatically: no public storage by default, required tags, approved regions. Teams get fast feedback and a clear reason, instead of waiting for a manual review.

Starting out

1. Start with the smallest baseline that is safe.
2. Put it under version control and review changes.
3. Add policies as you find real risks.
4. Test changes in a non-production environment first.

IICTP is a new independent credential and is not ISO/IEC 17024 accredited.