Platform Engineering
What is Platform Engineering?
Platform Engineering has emerged as a distinct discipline within the broader realm of software development and IT operations, gaining traction as organizations increasingly seek to optimize and scale their cloud infrastructure. But what exactly is Platform Engineering, and how does it relate to other well-established practices like DevOps? Is it simply the next step in the evolution of DevOps, or is it something more distinct, particularly in its focus on building and operating Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs)?
Platform Engineering: The Evolution of DevOps?
At its core, Platform Engineering can be seen as a natural evolution of the DevOps movement, which has been focused on breaking down silos between development and operations teams to enable more efficient and automated software delivery. DevOps introduced practices like Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD), Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and automated testing, all aimed at improving collaboration and speeding up the delivery of software.
Platform Engineering builds on these foundations but takes them a step further by focusing more intensely on the infrastructure layer. While DevOps emphasizes the entire software delivery pipeline, Platform Engineering hones in on creating a robust, reusable, and scalable infrastructure that can be easily consumed by development teams. This involves:
Low-Level Configuration and Integration: Platform Engineers work on configuring and integrating various infrastructure components, such as networking, storage, and compute resources, into a cohesive platform. They use tools like Terraform, Kubernetes, and other orchestration frameworks to automate the provisioning and management of infrastructure.
Infrastructure as a Product: Platform Engineering treats the underlying infrastructure not just as a set of resources but as a product that is continuously developed, maintained, and improved. The goal is to create a seamless experience for developers, where they can easily deploy and manage their applications without worrying about the complexities of the underlying infrastructure.
Developer Experience (DX): A key focus of Platform Engineering is improving the developer experience by providing self-service capabilities, automated workflows, and standardized environments. This reduces the cognitive load on developers, allowing them to focus more on writing code and delivering features.
In this sense, Platform Engineering can be seen as an extension of DevOps, with a more concentrated focus on the infrastructure layer and the operational aspects of cloud platforms.
Platform Engineering: The Practice of Building and Operating Internal Developer Platforms
While Platform Engineering shares some similarities with DevOps, it also introduces new concepts and practices, particularly in the realm of Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs). An IDP is a self-service layer that sits between the development teams and the underlying infrastructure, providing developers with the tools and environments they need to build, test, and deploy applications efficiently.
Platform Engineers are responsible for designing, building, and operating these IDPs, ensuring they are scalable, secure, and easy to use. The goal of an IDP is to abstract away the complexities of the underlying infrastructure, providing developers with a consistent and reliable platform that meets their needs.
Abstracting Complexity: Platform Engineers create IDPs that simplify the interaction between developers and infrastructure. For example, instead of requiring developers to manually configure network policies or storage volumes, an IDP can provide pre-configured templates or automation scripts that handle these tasks automatically.
Scalability and Reliability: Platform Engineering ensures that the IDP is scalable and reliable, capable of supporting multiple teams and projects simultaneously. This involves not only building the platform but also continuously monitoring and optimizing it to ensure it meets performance and availability requirements.
Security and Compliance: Platform Engineers embed security and compliance controls into the IDP, ensuring that all applications deployed on the platform adhere to organizational policies and industry regulations. This reduces the burden on development teams to manage security and compliance, as it is built into the platform itself.
In this view, Platform Engineering is distinctly focused on creating and maintaining IDPs, making it a specialized discipline that goes beyond the traditional scope of DevOps.
Platform Engineering: A Combination of Both?
The reality is that Platform Engineering encompasses elements of both the evolution of DevOps and the practice of building and operating IDPs. It can be seen as a hybrid discipline that merges the best aspects of DevOps with a more specialized focus on infrastructure and platform development.
Bridging the Gap: Platform Engineering bridges the gap between traditional DevOps practices and the specialized needs of modern cloud infrastructure. It takes the automation, collaboration, and continuous improvement principles of DevOps and applies them specifically to the challenges of infrastructure management and platform delivery.
Holistic Approach: Platform Engineering adopts a holistic approach to infrastructure and platform management, integrating everything from low-level configuration and automation to high-level platform design and developer experience. This makes it a versatile discipline that can adapt to the needs of different organizations, whether they are focused on cloud-native development, hybrid cloud strategies, or on-premises deployments.
Empowering Developers: By combining the efficiency and automation of DevOps with the tailored, user-friendly environments provided by IDPs, Platform Engineering empowers developers to be more productive and innovative. It removes many of the barriers that can slow down software delivery, allowing development teams to focus on building great products.
The Future of Platform Engineering
Platform Engineering is both an evolution of DevOps and a specialized practice focused on building and operating Internal Developer Platforms. It takes the core principles of DevOps—automation, collaboration, and continuous improvement—and applies them to the specific challenges of infrastructure management and platform delivery.
As organizations continue to scale their cloud operations and adopt more complex technology stacks, the role of Platform Engineering will become increasingly important. Whether viewed as the next step in the evolution of DevOps or as a distinct discipline focused on IDPs, Platform Engineering is poised to play a central role in shaping the future of software development and infrastructure management. By providing developers with the tools, environments, and automation they need to succeed, Platform Engineering will help organizations accelerate their digital transformation and achieve their strategic goals.
Cloud Platforms and Platform Engineering
A Cloud Platform and Platform Engineering are closely related but serve different roles within the broader landscape of cloud computing and software development. Understanding how they fit together is essential for grasping how modern infrastructure and development practices are evolving.
How a Cloud Platform Fits with Platform Engineering
Foundation and Building Blocks:
- Cloud Platform: Provides the foundational infrastructure (compute, storage, networking, etc.) and a wide array of services (databases, analytics, security tools) that organizations use to build and run applications. It abstracts the complexities of managing physical hardware, data centers, and low-level infrastructure.
- Platform Engineering: Utilizes these building blocks provided by the cloud platform to design, create, and manage a platform tailored to the needs of developers and operations teams within an organization. Platform Engineering focuses on building a cohesive and integrated environment that makes it easier for developers to build, test, and deploy applications.
Abstraction and User Experience:
- Cloud Platform: Offers raw, flexible services that users can configure and combine in various ways to meet their needs. However, these services often require significant expertise to set up and optimize effectively.
- Platform Engineering: Builds on top of these services, abstracting away even more complexity and providing a streamlined, user-friendly experience. This might include creating self-service portals, automated pipelines, and standardized environments that make it easier for developers to deploy code without needing deep knowledge of the underlying cloud infrastructure.
Automation and Integration:
- Cloud Platform: Provides the tools and APIs necessary for automation (e.g., provisioning VMs, setting up networks, deploying applications). However, it's up to the user to stitch these together into automated workflows.
- Platform Engineering: Engineers these workflows, integrating various cloud services into cohesive pipelines that automate repetitive tasks, enforce best practices, and ensure consistency across environments. This might involve creating CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code (IaC) templates, and automated security checks.
Customization and Flexibility:
- Cloud Platform: Offers a wide range of customizable services that can be tailored to meet specific needs. However, these customizations often require a deep understanding of the cloud platform's capabilities and limitations.
- Platform Engineering: Leverages this flexibility to build platforms that are specifically tailored to the organization’s needs. This might involve creating custom middleware, selecting the right mix of services, or integrating third-party tools to fill gaps in the cloud platform's offerings.
Security and Compliance:
- Cloud Platform: Provides tools and services for security (e.g., IAM, encryption, firewall management) and compliance (e.g., audit logs, regulatory certifications). However, these need to be configured and managed appropriately.
- Platform Engineering: Embeds security and compliance into the platform by designing systems that automate security practices, enforce compliance policies, and provide monitoring and alerting capabilities. This ensures that security is not an afterthought but an integral part of the platform.
Support for Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Environments:
- Cloud Platform: Typically focuses on its own ecosystem, though many offer some degree of interoperability with other platforms.
- Platform Engineering: Often needs to work across multiple cloud platforms or integrate on-premises systems with cloud environments. Platform engineers design solutions that are portable, flexible, and capable of operating across different cloud providers, ensuring consistency and reliability regardless of the underlying infrastructure.
How They Fit Together
- Cloud Platform: Acts as the foundational layer that provides the raw infrastructure, services, and tools necessary for running applications and managing data in the cloud.
- Platform Engineering: Builds on top of this foundational layer, crafting a cohesive and optimized platform that enhances developer productivity, ensures operational efficiency, and abstracts away the complexities of cloud management.
In essence, Platform Engineering adds value by creating a tailored, user-centric experience on top of the Cloud Platform's raw capabilities. It takes the flexible but often complex offerings of a Cloud Platform and turns them into something that developers and operations teams can use effectively without needing to manage every detail of the underlying infrastructure. This relationship is synergistic: Cloud Platforms provide the essential services, and Platform Engineering refines and optimizes these services to meet specific organizational needs.