In today's fast-changing digital world, businesses are constantly under pressure to come up with new ideas, make their operations more efficient, and stay ahead of their competitors. It's more than often scenarios where companies are growing rapidly, and they're dealing with a complicated labyrinth of technology-related needs and problems. It's a situation where every choice you make is very important, and getting the right help can be the difference between being successful and getting stuck. This is exactly where a Platform Engineering team's knowledge and support become super valuable.
Platform Engineering garnered attention in Gartner's 2022 Hype Cycle for Emerging Tech and organized its first event, PlatformCon 2022, attracting more than 7,000 online attendees.
A significant aspect of the platform engineering journey focuses on making it easier for developers to grasp concepts related to infrastructure, SRE, and DevOps roles. Importantly, this support is provided without the assumption that developers must navigate this complex terrain on their own, thus reducing the cognitive load on engineering teams. Platform engineering represents the next step in the evolution of development practices. Similar to DevOps, it empowers developers with self-service tools, facilitating efficient innovation while minimizing unnecessary roadblocks and time to market for new features.
The Evolution of DevOps
DevOps, the seamless integration of development and operations practices, is the driving force behind collaboration, automation, and a determined pursuit of excellence. Think of it as having a toolbox filled with cutting-edge tools that simplify deployment, management, and monitoring through clever automation and user-friendly visualization.
Let's explore this transformation through a real-world example: Imagine a popular e-commerce platform. In its early stages, this platform faced issues with slow releases, frequent outages, and manual operations. These challenges not only impacted the customer experience but also slowed down the platform's growth.
Then came the DevOps revolution.
A dedicated DevOps team emerged, armed with automation tools and a commitment to collaboration. They automated the deployment process, allowing new features and updates to roll out smoothly. Monitoring dashboards were introduced, providing real-time insights into system performance. The result? Reduced downtime and a significantly more reliable platform.
But the evolution doesn't stop there. Enter Platform Engineering — a DevOps evolution in itself.
Organizations recognized the need for a shared platform that would enhance the developer experience. In our e-commerce example, while the DevOps team had already automated certain deployment processes and introduced basic monitoring, the Platform Engineering team took it a step further. They built a robust foundation that offered self-service capabilities to developers within the operational context.
Now, developers can quickly provision resources and test new features, accelerating innovation. The tools, processes, and best practices from DevOps were transformed into tailored, reusable assets that various engineering teams across the organization could leverage. The platform is standardized, enabling teams to maintain the highest levels of reliability and consistency.
In this real-world scenario, DevOps and Platform Engineering came together to elevate the e-commerce platform's performance, making it more reliable and fostering innovation. It's a testament to the power of these practices in today's digital landscape.
The synergy between DevOps practices and Platform Engineering can elevate your organization's performance, rendering it more reliable and fostering a culture of innovation.
Indicators to Determine When It's Time for a Platform Engineering Team
In the dynamic progression of your business, there are moments when the need for a Platform Engineering team becomes apparent. These moments often coincide with specific indicators:
Rapid Growth and Scaling
As your business experiences exponential growth, the demands on your technology stack and infrastructure increase exponentially as well. It's not uncommon to encounter operational bottlenecks, decreased system stability, and long development cycles. This is where a dedicated Platform Engineering team can step in, taking charge of designing, constructing, and maintaining the infrastructure and tools essential to support your business's rapid expansion.
Complex Microservices Architecture
In today's tech landscape, the adoption of microservices architectures has become commonplace. However, managing these intricate systems can quickly become a big challenge. This is precisely where the expertise of a Platform Engineering team shines. They specialize in designing, implementing, and maintaining microservices infrastructure, ensuring the seamless and secure operation of your services.
Increasing Security and Compliance Needs
Ensuring security and following rules is crucial, especially for businesses dealing with sensitive data or in highly regulated industries. A Platform Engineering team can be your dedicated guardian in this area. They focus on strong security and meeting compliance standards, reducing the risk of data breaches and costly fines for regulatory non-compliance.
Automation and Efficiency
Efficiency is crucial for a successful business. If your current DevOps methods seem manual and prone to mistakes, it's an indicator that changes are necessary. In this context, when a Platform Engineering team introduces automation and simplifies processes, it can make a significant difference. This shift leads to quicker deployments, less time wasted due to system outages, and substantial cost reductions.
Improved Developer Productivity
Your developers are the ones who generate innovation in your organization. A Platform Engineering team empowers them by offering self-service infrastructure setup, consistent development environments, and tools that speed up development cycles. This empowerment enables your developers to focus their energy on creating features and delivering value to your customers.
Enhanced Monitoring and Observability
Having real-time information about how your system is doing and performing is important. A Platform Engineering team can put in place advanced tools and systems for monitoring and observing your system. These tools give you practical information that helps you make decisions based on data and allows you to address problems before they become serious.
Mind the platform execution gap
As stated in Martin Fowler's article, to succeed with a platform strategy, organizations must nurture essential capabilities. Platforms should be treated as products, engage with users, ensure reliability, and maintain a healthy team environment. A well-executed platform strategy holds the potential to cut costs and enable product development teams to concentrate on innovation.
Developer productivity platforms are increasingly recognized as a way to manage the cognitive load of engineering teams and decrease the time to market for new features. However, there are baseline capabilities that organizations need to cultivate to successfully execute a platform strategy. The platform team needs to think of the platform as a software product, needing dialog with its users, attention to reliable operations, and a healthy team environment.
Source: https://martinfowler.com/articles/platform-prerequisites.html
Conclusion
In the middle of the rapid changes in the world, recognizing the opportune time to introduce a Platform Engineering team to your organization can be a pivotal decision. This choice can drive your business to new heights of success. As you observe these key indicators aligning with your organization's evolving needs, the value of embracing a Platform Engineering team becomes increasingly evident, boosting your journey toward innovation and greater efficiency.
And you don't have to navigate this journey on your own. You can rely on NearForm to support you at every stage of your Platform Engineering journey, from initial planning to implementation and beyond. This strategic move enhances your current operations and positions your business for sustained success in today's highly competitive digital world. Together, we can help your organization thrive in this fast-paced digital age.
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