Landing Zones in Public Clouds
A Landing Zone is a pre-configured, secure, and scalable cloud environment that provides a baseline for deploying workloads. It includes essential resources, policies, and guardrails to ensure compliance, security, and operational efficiency from day one.
Why Use Landing Zones?
Accelerate cloud adoption with ready-to-use environments
Enforce security, compliance, and governance standards
Standardize networking, identity, and resource organization
Enable multi-account/subscription management
Landing Zone Definitions by Cloud Provider
Azure: Azure Landing Zone
Definition: A set of guidelines, reference architectures, and automation (often via Azure Blueprints, ARM/Bicep, or Terraform) to deploy a secure, governed Azure environment.
Key Features:
Management groups and subscriptions
Azure Policy for compliance
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Hub-and-spoke networking
Integration with Azure Security Center
Reference: Azure Landing Zones Documentation
AWS: AWS Landing Zone / Control Tower
Definition: An automated solution (AWS Control Tower or custom IaC) to set up a secure, multi-account AWS environment with best practices for identity, logging, and networking.
Key Features:
Multi-account structure (using AWS Organizations)
Centralized logging (CloudTrail, S3)
Service Control Policies (SCPs)
VPC baseline networking
Guardrails for compliance
Reference: AWS Landing Zone Solution | AWS Control Tower
GCP: Google Cloud Landing Zone (Foundation)
Definition: A set of Terraform modules and best practices to create a secure, scalable GCP environment, often called the "foundation" or "landing zone".
Key Features:
Hierarchical resource organization (folders, projects)
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Shared VPC and networking
Audit logging
Security Command Center integration
Reference: GCP Landing Zone Foundation
Key Differences Between Cloud Landing Zones
Resource Hierarchy
Management Groups, Subs
Organizations, Accounts
Folders, Projects
Automation Tools
Blueprints, ARM, Bicep, TF
Control Tower, CloudFormation, TF
Terraform, Deployment Manager
Policy/Guardrails
Azure Policy, RBAC
SCPs, IAM, Guardrails
IAM, Org Policy
Networking
Hub-Spoke, VNet
VPC, Subnets
Shared VPC
Logging & Auditing
Azure Monitor, Log Analytics
CloudTrail, CloudWatch
Cloud Audit Logs
Security Integration
Security Center, Defender
Security Hub, GuardDuty
Security Command Center
Best Practices
Use Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Bicep, CloudFormation) for repeatability
Start with the official landing zone reference architectures
Customize guardrails and policies for your organization
Automate account/subscription/project creation
Integrate with CI/CD for continuous compliance
Landing Zone Joke
Why did the cloud architect refuse to land in an unprepared environment?
Because there was no landing zone—he didn’t want to crash the deployment!
For more details, always refer to the official documentation and cloud adoption frameworks for each provider.
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