Technology has been changing rapidly, and businesses have to keep up. There is a strong need for very efficient, scalable, resilient platforms that allow modern applications to be developed. Therefore, organizations need to work on building and running infrastructure that can support the applications and services that they offer.
This is where the need for platform engineering arises. It allows organizations to build and run the infrastructure that supports applications and services. With the ideal platform, developers can devote their time to writing code without worrying about the underlying systems.
It is more about procedures and culture than technology. It brings automation, security, and scalability to software development.
In this guide, I will explain the best practices of platform engineering. I will also explore its benefits for business owners, developers, and IT leaders, providing the necessary information to make informed decisions.
What Is Platform Engineering?
It creates and maintains proprietary internal tools that help accelerate software development. The processes are sometimes viewed as the next phase of DevOps, but it is more accurate to view it as the supporting spine for DevOps.
It gained importance due to the complexity of modern software development. Conventional tech stacks are a disjointed set of tools and techniques that require deep knowledge and human effort to work with. It merges these tools into a cohesive platform.
Key Elements of a Platform Engineering Strategy
Several actionable considerations would ensure an effective, smooth, and scalable software development process. They include the following:
1. Strong Security and Compliance Integration
Security has to be woven into every step of developing and rolling out new software. When teams adopt DevSecOps practices, the approach shifts so that protection is built in early on rather than waiting to fix problems later. Generally speaking, following standards like HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO 27001 isn't just ticking boxes—it helps keep data sound and builds user confidence in the whole process.
2. Improving Developer Experience for Productivity
A platform that is easy to use can increase the amount of work that developers can do in an hour. It improves workflow with self-service features and automated CI/CD pipelines.
A seamless flow from coding to delivery keeps work moving fast, and businesses that want to stay innovative need this kind of agility. Companies chasing constant new ideas can't afford a clunky process.
3. Automation and Infrastructure as Code Execution
Automation is vital for modern engineering of platform services. Infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform and Ansible help make infrastructure management less error-prone and faster to deploy. Automating workflows increases system reliability and lets teams focus on innovation rather than spending their energy on monotonous chores.
4. Outline Clear Business and Technical Objectives
Start with clear business objectives. This is a solid foundation for an effective strategy. When platform initiatives are fully aligned with the business, the technologies will actually work for developers, operations teams, and, ultimately, end-users. Setting key performance indicators helps you see how things are going and measure the impact of engineering solutions.
5. Scalable and Modular Architecture for Growth
The platform's architecture must be scalable and modular to allow for business expansion. An orderly system will facilitate maintenance and contribute to business growth. Microservices applications and other cloud-native solutions allow businesses to maximize and optimize their infrastructure.
Platform Engineering vs. DevOps vs. SRE
DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering, or SRE, have similar objectives. They improve the speed and efficiency of software delivery and its operations. However, I feel that they differ in the means they use to achieve it:
It consists of elements from both DevOps and SRE, but one of its primary purposes is to build and manage the platform that enables these. It focuses on underlying infrastructure, building tools, and automating workflows supporting developers and operations teams.
DevOps focuses on the culture and practices that enable true collaboration between development teams and operations teams. It concentrates specifically on CI/CD, automation, and a culture of shared responsibility.
Google developed the concept of SRE to integrate software engineering principles into operations. This step increases reliability and high availability. It is more about building scalable and reliable software systems.
The Top 4 Advantages of Platform Engineering
One of the questions that arise is whether the engineers of the platform would have done better work if they were embedded in the primary product team. Here are four valid reasons why you must adopt platform engineering.
1. Promoting focus and specialization
Developers should just focus on their development skills. Modern infrastructure and distributed deployment systems are very highly specialized systems. Developers do not need to be experts in these areas, and they may often find them confusing.
Platform teams keep developers productive by allowing them to focus on building new software. The platform engineer team would consist of experts specialized in topics relevant to such as IaC and PaaS solutions. As each person will be specialized in their skill, development, and infrastructure will speed up.
2. Speed up Development
Internal platforms help accelerate development. Automated processes and self-service infrastructure keep developers productive so that they can always advance on the product features that the business prioritizes.
When a feature is ready, the development team independently sets up a test environment to verify changes. The platform runs some automated tests and proceeds to release the feature into production while letting developers switch to the next task. Thus, it helps reduce time to market while ensuring quality.
3. Improving Developer Experience
Platform engineer's work is to increase DevEx through a governed self-service infrastructure if developers use infrastructure provisioning to validate their applications.
In that case, they can do so easily via the self-service mechanisms provided by the platform team, so they need not bother about any other input from the platform team to test their applications. This results in shorter time to market and faster deployment cycles as less time is spent verifying new features.
4. Guaranteeing Tools And Processes Frequently Develop
Your development processes grow as your product matures. Of course, no one wants a wild jumble of rogue tools cluttering things up, so the platform team has to strike that delicate balance, earn trust, and keep everything in line. You might implement a new storage system, need more end-to-end testing features, or comply with a different regulatory standard.
It ensures that your toolchain is developed in parallel. Without it, you are left to make ad hoc workflow adjustments that are often poorly documented and hard to maintain.
Besides, the developer never seems to have enough time to make the necessary adjustments. This allows clumsy elements to persist as inefficient practices long after they have been recognized as bottlenecks. With access to a platform engineer team, developers can air their frustrations without holding back product release schedules.
Best Practices for Platform Engineering Adoption
So, what are some of the best practices to make an enterprise's internal DevOps platform very effective? Here are some areas where platform engineer teams should concentrate their processes. These practices can help develop DevOps principles within the firm.
1. Be Open to Feedback
When it comes to platform engineering and development, both should work as partners. Platform engineers should actively seek out as much feedback as they can from developers to improve their experience and ensure that the right tools are in place.
2. Focus on Uplifting Developer Experience
The internal developers are to be treated as clients whose experience should be easier. Platform teams should cut down on impediments and work with the introduction of new features into existing workflows where possible.
3. Don't Control Everything
There should be some flexibility because it is not appropriate to constrain the standard adoption of tools. Of course, no one wants a wild jumble of rogue tools cluttering things up. So, the platform team has to strike that delicate balance and keep everything in line.
To sum up
Platform engineering is a key part of software development. It helps manage and boost productivity in unexpected ways.
Learning these practices lets an organization deploy software faster and scale efficiently, keeping the whole process refreshingly agile whether building a new platform or optimizing an existing one, an organization investing in engineering of platform will reap benefits in the long run.
Consider taking a DevOps Course if you want to advance your software development and infrastructure management career. A DevOps Certification Course can give you the skills to implement modern practices. Start today and enter the fast-changing world of technology.
