Platform Engineering
Platform Engineering is the discipline of building and operating an internal platform that empowers developer teams to deploy and operate their applications largely autonomously and with minimal Cognitive Load. The platform acts as a product for the internal developers.
The goal is to create Golden Paths — standardised, proven routes for common tasks (such as creating a new service or a database) that are available via Self-Service.
Anti-Patterns: Cognitive Overload
In modern cloud-native environments, developers are often expected to be experts in Kubernetes, Terraform, security, monitoring, and networking. This enormous breadth of required knowledge (Cognitive Load) means less time is available for actual product development (business logic). The result is slow development cycles and a high error rate in infrastructure configuration.
The Platform as a Product
- Self-Service Portals: Developers request infrastructure and services through a portal (e.g. Backstage) or an API, without having to wait for an IT ticket.
- Abstracting Complexity: The platform hides the details of cloud infrastructure behind simple configuration files or templates.
- Golden Paths: Provision of best-practice templates for various technology stacks that have security and compliance already built in.
- Developer Experience (DevEx): Continuous measurement and improvement of internal developer satisfaction and productivity.
- Standardisation: Reduction of technology sprawl by focusing on the tools supported by the platform.
The Focus: Autonomy with Governance
The platform gives teams the freedom to move fast, while simultaneously ensuring that all applications comply with the company's security and cost policies.
FAQ
Isn't this just a new name for the DevOps team?
No. While DevOps is a culture of collaboration, Platform Engineering builds the tooling (the platform) that makes this collaboration technically possible and scalable in the first place.
Does building your own platform pay off for SMEs?
From around 3–5 developer teams, the platform pays for itself through the massive time savings for every individual team member. It is the scaling of best practices.
Reference Guide
- PlatformEngineering.org: The global community and knowledge base. platformengineering.org
- Internal Developer Platforms: Definition and concepts. internaldeveloperplatform.org
- Backstage.io: Spotify's open-source framework for building IDPs. backstage.io