Cloud-native architectures have become overly complicated today, requiring extensive infrastructure management and monitoring - a complexity that has often led to inconsistencies, especially where manual efforts come into play. As a result, there's always a continuous demand for new techniques to achieve faster software delivery while reducing the burden on developers and enhancing their experience. Furthermore, developers often need to learn and get acquainted with numerous tools and technologies, including Git for version control, DataDog for monitoring applications, Jenkins for continuous integration, and Jira for project management. This wide range of tools adds to the burden on developers and causes delays in getting them fully onboarded.
DevOps has been revolutionary and highly effective and having spent most of my career in environments that have embraced DevOps principles, I’ve seen its benefits very closely. However, this approach is not perfect. There always has been room for improvement and a need to address the gaps that DevOps possesses.
One approach that I’ve been closely observing is platform engineering. It is showing great promise since it provides solutions to most of the problems that DevOps struggle to address. As per Gartner’s research, by 2026, 80% of large software engineering organizations will establish platform engineering teams and internal developer platforms (IDP) to offer reusable services, components, and tools that help with application delivery. Let's explore what platform engineering is and why it looks so promising.
What is platform engineering?
Platform engineering is about building and operating self-service IDPs that accelerate software delivery while reducing cognitive load for development teams. Unlike traditional approaches where developers must navigate a complex collection of tools and processes, platform engineering creates a streamlined path to production through abstraction, automation, and self-service capabilities.
An IDP has two main benefits: Firstly, it minimizes the effort required for development teams to use multiple disparate tools. Secondly, it creates a searchable catalog of all software assets within the organization. This allows teams to discover and reuse existing APIs, libraries, SDKs, and even front-end features, thereby avoiding duplicate development efforts.
To me, the IDP is a well-organized toolkit for developers that provides everything they need in one place, with clear instructions and guidelines that ensure speed and security. This internal developer platform doesn't restrict creativity. Rather, it eliminates the struggle of infrastructure management and configuration, allowing developers to focus on their core tasks.
What are the core principles of platform engineering?
Platform engineering is a wider concept than just tools and automation. It demands a change in mindset, too. Easy-to-use self-service options, standardized environments, and automation of repetitive tasks make developer life easy. However, to make this change happen, it's important to understand the core principles of platform engineering.
- Developer self-service: Empower teams to provision resources and deploy applications without being dependent on other teams.
- Abstraction of complexity: Hide the underlying intricacies of infrastructure through well-designed interfaces.
- Standardization: Provide consistent environments, workflows, and practices across the organization.
- Automation: Eliminate manual processes to reduce errors and increase efficiency.
- Developer experience: Design all platform components with the developer's needs and workflow in mind.
- Searchable catalog of software assets: Maintain a discoverable inventory of reusable software components for better collaboration and to prevent redundancy.
Why is platform engineering gaining momentum?
If you're wondering whether platform engineering is 'the next big thing,' you may miss the point. It certainly isn't about the future hype. From what I see, it is about addressing the current chaos and finding better, faster, and more sustainable ways of developing safer software. Here's why there is a growing momentum around platform engineering.
- Increased adoption of cloud-native technologies
- Need for faster software delivery cycles
- Growing complexity of infrastructure management
- Renewed focus on developer productivity and satisfaction
- Limitations of traditional DevOps approaches
Key components of a platform engineering approach
Platform engineering is not a monolithic entity. Its interconnected capabilities are carefully orchestrated for a better overall experience coupled with speed and security. So, what does this "platform engineering" actually look like under the hood?
- Self-service infrastructure: Platform engineering enables developers to provision resources independently through intuitive interfaces, APIs, or infrastructure-as-code templates. Instead of submitting tickets and waiting for operations teams to provision resources, developers can get what they need when they need it—all within predefined.
- Standardized toolchains: Rather than allowing each team to select and configure their own tools—creating a maintenance nightmare—platform engineering provides curated, pre-configured toolchains that work seamlessly together. These toolchains cover the entire software lifecycle, from development environments to monitoring and observability.
- Comprehensive automation: Automation is central to platform engineering, covering everything from environment provisioning to testing, security scanning, and deployment. This automation reduces manual errors, increases consistency, and accelerates delivery pipelines.
- APIs and abstraction layers: Well-designed APIs hide the complexity of underlying infrastructure and services and present developers with simple, intuitive interfaces. This allows teams to focus on their apps without needing to understand every detail of the platforms they run on.
- Developer-centric design: Unlike traditional infrastructure tools designed primarily for operations teams, platform engineering puts developers at the center of the design process. Every component is built with developer workflows and pain points in mind.
- Golden paths: Platform engineering often includes ‘golden paths.’ These are clear and well-documented workflows that help developers with common tasks like creating a new service, setting up continuous integration, or deploying to production. Golden paths offer enough flexibility for teams to work well while ensuring that the organization’s standards are met.
Platform engineering in the real world
Implementing platform engineering requires careful planning, including the need for cultural shifts and initial investment. Finding the right balance between standardization and flexibility is crucial for each unique organizational context. Using Agentic AI in integrated developer platforms has great potential for the future. It can lead to more automation and better support for developers. Picture AI that can optimize workflows, predict and fix problems, and provide tailored assistance to developers. Agentic AI could allow for natural language interactions for self-service and better manage resources. This change will create adaptive platforms that help developers concentrate on innovation by greatly improving automation and support throughout the development process.
How to prepare for the platform engineering future
If your organization is considering the platform engineering approach, you need to firstly assess the biggest pain points. These pain points can be anything from delays in project delivery, communication gaps, or productivity killers – repetitive tasks. Identify the areas of developer friction and inefficient processes and visualize how the platform engineering approach can effectively address these challenges. Start with small, manageable projects and focus on delivering immediate value through improved tools or streamlined workflows. As you get better, build momentum by sharing positive outcomes, collecting feedback, and gradually expanding the platform's capabilities to meet broader organizational needs.
I'd love to hear your side too. What are your biggest challenges in managing your development environment? How do you see platform engineering potentially impacting your organization? Additionally, what aspects of platform engineering do you find most compelling or concerning?
If you need to discuss how Opcito can help you kickstart your platform engineering project, contact us and we can take this discussion forward. Stay connected with us through our blog and social media channels for more insights on emerging technologies and approaches that are reshaping the software development landscape.
