What is Platform Engineering?

Platform engineering elevates DevOps principles by empowering development teams to deliver value faster, more securely, and at lower cost. By providing self-service tools and automated governance, organizations can unlock greater agility without sacrificing control. In this article, we will dive deep into platform engineering, exploring its core principles, benefits, and how it's reshaping modern software development.

Scenario 1

My friend, let's call him Alex, landed his dream job at a tech company. We celebrated his achievement with enthusiastic tweets and virtual high-fives. He was beyond excited to dive into his first project, eager to make his mark.

Then reality hit.

Instead of a well-structured onboarding and clear instructions, Alex received a link to a poorly maintained wiki and a cryptic message pointing him towards a labyrinthine collection of code repositories. These repositories, scattered across multiple folders, were like archaeological digs – filled with ancient code, undocumented features, and confusing configurations.

A week went by, and Alex was still lost in this digital jungle. He finally managed to decipher some code, only to discover a horrifying truth: his colleagues had been engaging in questionable coding practices. Their “template” for new services was essentially a Frankensteinian amalgamation of code copied and pasted from an older service, with bits of outdated logic still lurking within.

Discouraged, Alex reached out to me, venting his frustration. We brainstormed, offering each other moral support and technical guidance, eventually finding workarounds for the mess. But just when he thought he was in the clear, another obstacle arose – infrastructure.

He needed access to the company’s infrastructure to test his code, a privilege reserved for the operations team. Waiting for them to provision resources could take weeks! He could, theoretically, create the infrastructure himself if he had access to the cloud provider. But that came with its own set of challenges. How could he ensure he was adhering to company guidelines? Would he be navigating a clunky console interface, or was he expected to know Terraform, a technology he had only heard whispers of?

And Kubernetes? The mere mention of it sent shivers down his spine. Deploying services to a Kubernetes cluster without inadvertently causing a system meltdown seemed like a Herculean task for someone with minimal experience.

This, unfortunately, is not a unique story. Many organizations find themselves trapped in a similar cycle of chaotic development practices, leading to frustration, wasted time, and slower innovation. But there is a solution: platform engineering.

What is Platform Engineering?

In essence, Platform Engineering provides developers within an organization with self-service capabilities to handle their infrastructure needs. It's like having an internal "platform team" that's always available, providing the tools and automation needed to deploy, operate, monitor, and manage services with minimal friction. Instead of hacking through the undergrowth of configuration files and battling mysterious errors, developers get a smooth, guided path to get their code up and running.

The core of platform engineering is the internal developer platform (IDP).Think of it as a curated toolbox designed specifically for developers.

This platform acts as a centralized hub, abstracting away the complexities of infrastructure management(like Kubernetes clusters, cloud provider configurations, etc..), thereby providing developers with everything they need to build, deploy, monitor, and manage their services with minimal friction.

We can think of platform engineers as the architects and builders of this internal platform. They are responsible for ensuring the platform is intuitive, efficient, and aligned with the organization's best practices.

The Power of Abstraction: Making Infrastructure Invisible

Expecting every developer to be an expert in infrastructure management is unrealistic and inefficient. It's like asking a chef to build their own kitchen before cooking a meal. Even if some developers have the skills, it takes their focus away from what they do best: writing code.

Platform engineering addresses this challenge through abstraction. It hides the complexities of underlying infrastructure (think Kubernetes clusters, cloud provider configurations, etc.) behind a user-friendly interface. Developers can interact with these complex systems through simple commands and workflows, without needing in-depth knowledge of how it all works under the hood.

How Does Platform Engineering Solve Key Software Engineering Challenges?

Scenario 2

Your development team is stuck. They need a new database for a critical feature, but requesting it through operations means a week of back-and-forth emails and delays. Meanwhile, another team is struggling to deploy their microservice because their infrastructure configuration differs slightly from everyone else's. Sound familiar? This is the chaos platform engineering aims to resolve.

While DevOps aimed to bridge the gap between development and operations, the reality is that managing complex, cloud-native infrastructure often remained a bottleneck. Even with the best intentions, expecting all developers to become infrastructure experts is unrealistic and inefficient.

Platform engineering offers a smarter solution. It introduces a dedicated platform team that builds and maintains an internal developer platform – a centralized, self-service hub where developers can access everything they need to build, deploy, and run their applications.

Imagine a developer needing a new message queue. Instead of deciphering complex cloud provider documentation or copying (and potentially messing up) scripts from another team, they select "message queue" from the platform's self-service catalog. The platform then provisions a secure, compliant, and pre-configured message queue, using company-approved infrastructure-as-code templates.

Instead of a messy sprawl of services, developers get a curated catalog with clear documentation, metadata about each service, and visibility into pipelines.

Platform engineering isn't about imposing rigid standards; it's about providing the right guardrails and automation to enable developer autonomy without sacrificing security or compliance. This frees your operations team from tedious, manual tasks, allowing them to focus on building a robust and developer-friendly platform, continuously improving its features and capabilities.

Platform engineering transforms the software development landscape by providing a paved path through the complexities of modern infrastructure. It empowers developers, streamlines operations, and accelerates delivery, enabling organizations to innovate faster and stay ahead of the curve.

Reaping the Rewards: Benefits of Embracing Platform Engineering

The impact of a well-implemented platform engineering strategy can be transformative in the following ways:

1. Increased Developer Autonomy (and Happiness!)

• Instead of: Submitting tickets ( e.g Jira) and waiting days for infrastructure provisioning, developers can spin up environments with a few clicks.
• Imagine: Developers launching a new testing environment for a feature branch in minutes, all on their own. This translates to faster feedback cycles and increased developer satisfaction.

2. Faster Time to Market (and a Competitive Edge)

• Instead of: Spending weeks on manual deployments and troubleshooting configuration issues, teams can release features multiple times per day.
• Imagine: Being able to respond to market demands and customer feedback in real-time. Platform engineering enables this agility, giving your organization a significant competitive advantage.

3. Reduced Cognitive Load (More Brainpower for Innovation)

• Instead of: Wading through complex infrastructure documentation and troubleshooting YAML files, developers can focus on solving business problems with code.
• Imagine: Your development team freed from the burden of infrastructure management, allowing them to dedicate more brainpower to innovation and building exceptional products.

4. Standardization Across Teams (Goodbye, Configuration Chaos)

• Instead of: Each team reinventing the wheel with their own deployment scripts and infrastructure setups, the platform provides a consistent and repeatable process.
• Imagine: Onboarding new developers becomes easier, knowledge sharing improves, and troubleshooting issues becomes less of a headache. Standardization leads to improved maintainability, reduced risk, and increased operational efficiency.

Platform Engineering Principles

Good platform engineering is all about creating a platform that developers love to use while maintaining control and consistency. Here are ten key principles:

1. Treat the Platform as a Product:

   • Challenge: Internal tools are often neglected, leading to poor user experience and developer frustration.
   • Solution: By treating the platform as a product with a dedicated owner, you ensure it receives the same attention and care as any external product. This leads to a better developer experience, higher adoption rates, and ultimately, greater productivity.

2. Centralize Standards and Documentation:

   • Challenge: Inconsistent practices and scattered documentation lead to confusion, errors, and wasted time.
   • Solution: A centralized repository for standards, documentation, and guidelines becomes the single source of truth. This promotes consistency, reduces onboarding time for new developers, and simplifies maintenance.

3. Implicit Security and Compliance:

   • Challenge: Ensuring security and compliance can be complex and time-consuming for individual developers.
   • Solution: By baking security and compliance measures directly into the platform, you eliminate the need for developers to handle these concerns manually. This reduces the risk of errors and ensures that all applications meet organizational standards.

4. Provide Options Without Overcomplicating:

   • Challenge: Too much choice can be paralyzing, while too little can stifle innovation and flexibility.
   • Solution: Platform engineering strikes a balance by offering a curated set of pre-approved options, giving developers the freedom to choose without overwhelming them with complexity.

5. Offer Observability:

   • Challenge: Debugging and troubleshooting issues in complex environments can be incredibly difficult without proper visibility.
   • Solution: The platform provides comprehensive logging, monitoring, and tracing capabilities, giving developers the insights they need to quickly identify and resolve issues.

6. Abstract Complexity:

   • Challenge: The steep learning curve associated with technologies like Kubernetes and cloud providers can hinder developer productivity.
   • Solution: Platform engineering abstracts away the complexities of these underlying systems, presenting developers with a simpler, more manageable interface. This allows them to focus on building and deploying applications without needing to be infrastructure experts.

7. Ensure Infrastructure Consistency:

   • Challenge: Inconsistent infrastructure configurations across teams can lead to deployment errors, security vulnerabilities, and management headaches.
   • Solution: The platform enforces standardized configurations and infrastructure-as-code practices, ensuring consistency and predictability across all environments.

8. Implement Role-Based Access Control (RBAC):

   • Challenge: Uncontrolled access to critical infrastructure can pose significant security risks.
   • Solution: Implementing RBAC allows organizations to manage permissions effectively, granting developers the appropriate level of access based on their roles and responsibilities.

9. Enable Extensibility:

   • Challenge: A one-size-fits-all platform may not meet the specific needs of all teams and projects.
   • Solution: By making the platform extensible, organizations empower developers to build custom tools, plugins, and integrations, tailoring the platform to their unique requirements.

10. Provide End-to-End Environments:

    • Challenge: Setting up and managing development, testing, and staging environments can be time-consuming and error-prone.
    • Solution: The platform simplifies this process by providing developers with pre-configured, end-to-end environments that mirror production as closely as possible. This streamlines development workflows and reduces the likelihood of deployment issues.

By adhering to these principles, organizations can build robust and effective internal developer platforms that empower developers, accelerate delivery, and foster a culture of innovation.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid in Platform Engineering

While platform engineering offers significant advantages, it’s crucial to be aware of potential pitfalls that can hinder its success:

1. Over-Engineering the Platform:

   • The Trap: It’s easy to get caught up in building a feature-rich platform with every bell and whistle imaginable. However, this often leads to a bloated, complex system that’s difficult to use and maintain.
   • The Solution: Start small and focus on solving the most pressing pain points for your developers. Prioritize simplicity and ease of use. Gather continuous feedback from developers and iterate on the platform based on their needs.

2. Relying on Jenkins as a Platform:

   • The Trap: While Jenkins is a powerful CI/CD tool, it wasn't designed to be a comprehensive developer platform. Using it as such can lead to complex scripting, plugin overload, and a fragmented developer experience.
   • The Solution: Explore purpose-built platform engineering tools and technologies that provide a more integrated and streamlined approach to building and managing internal platforms. Consider solutions that offer pre-built integrations, declarative configuration, and better support for modern cloud-native workflows.

3. Poor Infrastructure Templates:

   • The Trap: Providing basic infrastructure templates is a good starting point, but if developers still need to extensively modify and manage the underlying infrastructure code, you haven't achieved true abstraction.
   • The Solution: Invest in high-quality, well-documented infrastructure templates that are easy to use and understand. Strive for a declarative approach, allowing developers to specify what they need without having to worry about the how.

Does Your Company Need Platform Engineering?

Not every organization requires a dedicated platform engineering team or a fully-fledged internal developer platform. Here's a guide to help you decide:

Consider Platform Engineering IF:

• Your infrastructure is becoming increasingly complex: You’re heavily using microservices, Kubernetes, serverless, or other cloud-native technologies.
• You have multiple development teams: Standardization and consistency become critical as the number of teams grows.
• You’re experiencing slow and painful deployments: Bottlenecks, manual processes, and inconsistent environments are hindering your development velocity.
• Your developers are spending too much time on infrastructure: They should be focusing on building features and adding business value.

You might NOT need Platform Engineering IF:

• You’re a small team with a relatively simple infrastructure: PaaS solutions might suffice for your current needs.
• Your development practices are already highly standardized and efficient: You have a mature DevOps culture with minimal friction in your development workflows.

Conclusion

Platform engineering represents a significant shift in how organizations approach software development. By embracing its principles, you can empower developers, increase agility, and accelerate the delivery of high-quality software.

Remember, the journey to a successful platform engineering implementation requires careful planning, a focus on developer experience, and a commitment to continuous improvement.