The accelerating adoption of multi-cloud strategies, platform engineering, and DevOps has fundamentally altered how contemporary software systems are conceived, governed, and operated. At the heart of this transformation lies Infrastructure as Code, a paradigm that recasts infrastructure provisioning, configuration, and lifecycle management into executable, version-controlled, and continuously deployed software artifacts. While Infrastructure as Code has been widely celebrated for its promise of reproducibility, speed, and alignment with agile and DevOps practices, its deployment in large-scale, heterogeneous multi-cloud environments raises deep questions of governance, security, organizational coordination, and developer experience. Existing scholarship has often treated Infrastructure as Code as a purely technical instrument, focusing on toolchains, syntax, and automation pipelines. In contrast, this article develops an integrated socio-technical perspective in which Infrastructure as Code is positioned as both a technological substrate and a governance mechanism that mediates power, risk, accountability, and organizational learning across the software development lifecycle.

Drawing on a comprehensive synthesis of contemporary literature on Infrastructure as Code, DevOps, continuous integration and delivery, internal developer platforms, platform engineering, microservices, and software lifecycle security, this study constructs a conceptual and interpretive framework for understanding how Infrastructure as Code operates in multi-cloud enterprises. Central to this framework is the recognition, articulated by Dasari (2025), that Infrastructure as Code in multi-cloud deployments is not merely about codifying infrastructure but about institutionalizing best practices that span security, compliance, interoperability, and operational resilience across organizational and technological boundaries. By situating Dasari’s analysis within broader debates on developer experience, data-driven lifecycle governance, and GitOps-based operational models, the article illuminates how Infrastructure as Code becomes a critical site where strategic intent, operational reality, and human practice converge.

The discussion elaborates how Infrastructure as Code reshapes notions of responsibility, security assurance, and organizational learning. It critically engages with competing perspectives that either celebrate full automation or warn against over-reliance on code-driven governance, arguing instead for a balanced model in which Infrastructure as Code is embedded within internal developer platforms, supported by data-driven feedback loops, and governed through explicit socio-technical agreements. By integrating insights from platform engineering, DevOps success factors, and software lifecycle security metrics, the article advances a holistic understanding of how enterprises can leverage Infrastructure as Code to achieve agility without sacrificing control. In doing so, it contributes a theoretically grounded and practically relevant account of Infrastructure as Code as a cornerstone of modern multi-cloud software ecosystems.

Infrastructure as Code, Multi-Cloud Governance, Platform Engineering

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