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Everyone in the DevOps community has surely come across the term ‘platform engineering’. It can imply anything from DevOps to SRE, to sysadmin work, depending on the context in which it is used. As platforms function at the intersection of human factors and technology, they are inherently complex. 

Depending upon user requirements, platforms can provide coverage for many features. A platform may be bare bones and comprise a dozen Python scripts serving half as many developers; or they may cater to hundreds of developers and be procured in a multi-million-dollar deal, with dedicated teams of engineers internally and externally. In both cases, the platform exists to serve developers and unlock the promised benefits of speed and automation. 

Let us take a dive into the platform engineering discipline and explore what joys await engineering teams as they adopt platforms. 

Agility and Responsiveness

Platform engineering provides important capabilities to software development teams such as agility and responsiveness to changing market demands. These foundational aspects are realized thanks to platforms being able to do the following: 

  • Accelerate Development: Streamlining workflows and automating repetitive tasks 
  • Improve Developer Experience: Providing a consistent and user-friendly development environment 
  • Enhance Security and Compliance: Implementing standardized security practices and compliance measures 
  • Boost Innovation: Empowering developers to focus on building innovative features. 

The DevOps community has long been focused on breaking down silos between development and operations teams. Platform engineering aligns with this goal by providing a shared platform that both teams can use. By automating infrastructure provisioning, deployment pipelines and monitoring, platform engineering can significantly reduce the time it takes to deliver software. 

In smaller organizations, platforms may be lightweight and focused on specific needs, such as the following: 

  • Self-Service Infrastructure: Enabling developers to provision their own infrastructure resources 
  • CI/CD Pipelines: Automating the building, testing and deployment of applications 
  • Monitoring and Logging: Providing visibility into application performance and health. 

Mid-sized firms may require more sophisticated platforms that can handle increased complexity and scale. Some key functions include the following: 

  • Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud Support: Managing workloads across multiple cloud providers 
  • Security and Compliance: Enforcing strict security policies and compliance standards 
  • Centralized Configuration Management: Managing configuration settings for all applications. 

Large enterprises often have complex IT landscapes and diverse teams. Platforms can help unify these environments and improve efficiency with the following attributes: 

  • Standardization: Enforcing consistent standards and practices across the organization 
  • Automation: Automating routine tasks to reduce manual effort 
  • Governance: Implementing governance policies to ensure compliance and security 
  • Scalability: Supporting large-scale workloads and rapid growth. 

Now, let’s take an example tool and see how it is evaluated for inclusion within a platform — in this case, let’s pick Istio. Istio is a powerful service mesh platform designed to simplify the management, security and observability of complex microservices architectures, particularly those deployed on Kubernetes. It acts as a transparent layer between services, handling tasks like traffic management, security and monitoring.  

Istio comes into the picture when engineering teams require fine-grained control over traffic flow, routing and load balancing. This, in turn, facilitates canary deployments, A/B testing and fault injection. Additionally, Istio can be chosen for its ability to secure communication between services through mutual TLS encryption and enforcement of authorization and authentication policies. 

Ultimately, the choice of Istio simplifies the management of complex microservices environments by helping automate routine tasks and providing a unified control plane. This makes it a great choice to include as part of any platform project, especially when working with Kubernetes and cloud-native tech. 

Similarly, when deciding to use Buildpacks, the following parameters can be used for assessing a fit. 

  • How easy to use are Buildpacks in simplifying building and packaging applications? 
  • How can Buildpacks optimize application performance? 
  • How can Buildpacks help to improve application security? 
  • How can we ensure that Buildpacks are compatible with our existing infrastructure and tools? 

Build or Buy?

The age-old ‘build vs. buy’ debate continues to perplex organizations grappling with platform engineering decisions. While building a custom platform using open-source software offers unparalleled flexibility and control, it demands significant upfront investment and ongoing maintenance.  

On the other hand, purchasing a commercial platform can accelerate time to market, leveraging pre-built features and vendor support. However, this approach may limit customization options and potentially lock organizations into proprietary solutions. The optimal choice hinges on a careful evaluation of factors such as the organization’s specific needs, budget constraints and technical expertise. Ultimately, the decision to build or buy should be driven by a strategic assessment of long-term goals and the desire to balance innovation with operational efficiency. 

Platforms present a complex challenge, requiring meticulous planning and execution. Architecting a platform that caters to diverse teams and workflows is a daunting task, given the vast array of tools and technologies available. Recognizing that no two platform journeys are identical, organizations must tailor their approach to their specific needs. While the complexity may seem overwhelming, it is crucial to embrace the challenge and invest in building robust platforms that empower developers and drive innovation. By carefully considering factors such as team expertise, organizational culture and long-term goals, organizations can navigate the complexities of platform engineering and emerge with solutions that deliver tangible benefits for many years to come. 

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