When moving to the cloud, one of the first architectural decisions enterprises face is how to set up their cloud foundation. Should you go with a pre-defined, structured OCI Landing Zone, or take the custom route, building your infrastructure piece-by-piece? Both options have their strengths—and trade-offs.

This post breaks down the key differences between OCI Landing Zones and custom-built cloud environments, comparing their benefits, challenges, and ideal use cases to help you make the right choice for your organization.

What is an OCI Landing Zone?

An OCI Landing Zone is a pre-packaged, opinionated framework provided by Oracle that helps you quickly deploy a secure, scalable, and governed cloud environment. It’s built using Oracle's best practices and leverages automation tools like Terraform and Oracle Resource Manager to spin up compartments, IAM policies, network resources, and more—all in a consistent, repeatable way.

Key features:

Pre-configured security and governance controls

Multi-compartment architecture

Integration with Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Automated with Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

What is a Custom Cloud Setup?

A custom cloud setup means designing and building your OCI environment manually, tailored precisely to your organization’s unique needs. This approach allows full control over how resources are structured, named, governed, and deployed.

You decide:

How many compartments to create and how they’re structured

Your own tagging standards

Custom IAM roles and policies

Specific networking and security configurations

While it offers flexibility and fine-grained control, it also requires more effort, planning, and skilled resources.

Pros and Cons of OCI Landing Zones

✅ Pros

Speed of Deployment: Set up a production-ready cloud environment in hours, not days or weeks.

Built-In Best Practices: Oracle’s recommendations for governance, security, and networking are baked in.

Consistency: Repeatable deployments reduce human error.

Quick Start for Enterprises: Great for companies beginning their OCI journey.

❌ Cons

Less Flexibility: You're limited to Oracle’s predefined architecture unless you customize further.

Complex to Modify: Customizing later can require deep Terraform knowledge.

Overkill for Simple Use Cases: May be too heavy for small projects or proof-of-concepts.

Pros and Cons of a Custom Cloud Setup

✅ Pros

Highly Tailored: Aligns closely with your business processes, policies, and architecture standards.

Granular Control: You define the naming conventions, compartment strategy, and IAM structure.

Lightweight or Minimal: Can start small and scale up over time.

❌ Cons

Slower to Build: Takes more time to design, review, and implement.

Greater Risk of Misconfigurations: Without guardrails, mistakes can lead to security or governance gaps.

Requires Skilled Cloud Architects: You need experienced OCI professionals to do it right.

When to Use OCI Landing Zones

You're starting from scratch and want a secure, production-grade baseline.

You need to scale fast across multiple teams or departments.

You're part of a large enterprise with governance requirements and regulatory standards.

You want a repeatable setup across dev, test, and prod environments.

When to Use a Custom Cloud Setup

Your use case is highly specialized and doesn’t align with Oracle’s default structure.

You already have an established cloud operating model or standards to follow.

You’re building a lightweight project or proof-of-concept and want to avoid over-engineering.

Your team is comfortable with OCI architecture and IaC tooling.

Conclusion

Both OCI Landing Zones and custom cloud setups are valid approaches—the right one depends on your goals, team expertise, and the complexity of your cloud environment. Landing Zones are ideal for enterprises looking for a fast, secure, and compliant starting point. Custom setups shine when you need flexibility and already have mature cloud practices.