DevOps has firmly established itself as the premiere software development methodology focused on automation, collaboration, and rapid releases. Now, a new rising approach called “platform engineering” promises to build on DevOps foundations to further optimize cloud native application delivery.
Platform engineering centers around building self-service developer platforms covering the entire software lifecycle. This enables delivery teams to draw from an internal toolbox of reusable workflows, infrastructure configurations, and managed services. In a sense, it fulfills the long-held DevOps dream of “you build it, you run it” at scale.
So does this mean platform engineering renders DevOps obsolete? Or do the two methodologies harmoniously work together driving modern digital transformation? Examining their key contrasts and synergies offers valuable perspective.
How platform engineering differs from DevOps
At first glance, platform engineering seems quite similar to DevOps. After all, it heavily incorporates DevOps culture, processes and tooling. However, three factors distinguish it as the next stage of evolution:
1. Consolidated focus around an Internal Developer Platform
Rather than focus on team culture, platform engineering zooms in on constructing a centralized Internal Developer Platform (IDP). This IDP operationalizes workflows, configurations, and standards for reuse across the delivery lifecycle.
Think of it this way – DevOps normalized automation on a team-level while platform engineering packages that for enterprise-wide leverage.
2. Self-service capabilities for all, not just “operators”
Relatedly, platform engineering democratizes DevOps automation benefits beyond just developers and IT operators. Now, all contributors from product managers to quality engineers can tap into the IDP for self-service needs.
By abstracting complex infrastructure logic and configurations, platform teams empower wider business users through the IDP interfaces.
3. Specialized role of platform builder
Finally, a new distinct role of “platform engineer” emerges dedicated solely to designing, extending and supporting the IDP. Freed from direct application feature work, platform builders focus fully on providing the best shared developer services for their ecosystem.
So in summary, platform engineering takes proven DevOps success patterns to be industrialized through an internal platform for greater scale and accessibility.
Platform engineering massively amplifies DevOps impact
Far from rendering DevOps obsolete, platform engineering unlocks exponential value growth from DevOps foundations in five key ways:
1. 100X faster time-to-market for new initiatives
Platform teams encapsulate weeks or months of infrastructure setup, configuration and approval processes into one-click environments, built on reusable blueprints. This means new microservices can launch instantly instead of waiting months.
2. Greater experimentation velocity for product teams
By abstracting underlying complexity, the self-service model grants product owners more autonomy over testing assumptions. When provisioning resources takes minutes rather minutes or days, more ideas get tested with less friction.
3. Higher reliability from leveraging proven solutions
Central platforms enable enforcing standardized patterns and solutions for security, monitoring, testing etc. rather than fragmented team-level variations. This raises overall system resilience.
4. Enhanced economies of scale
Consolidating shared services, infrastructure, data layers on an IDP unlocks tremendous optimization and cost savings as complexity moves to the platform layer.
5. Multiplied productivity across the delivery chain
Finally, by connecting seamless workflows across disparate tools, platform engineering massively amplifies output for developers, operators and adjacent roles alike.
In essence, platform engineering crosses the chasm from DevOps enhancing team outcomes to turbocharging organizational objectives around velocity and scalability.
Striking the right balance is key
Of course, despite its strengths, taken too far platform engineering risks disempowering teams through overstandardization. Finding the right equilibrium between centralized self-service and localized decision authority represents an ongoing balancing act.
But when well executed with empathy for user needs, platform engineering strikes gold in optimizing software delivery streams. Forward-looking technology leaders recognize how platforms will increasingly compete directly through engineering effectiveness. In that landscape, platform engineering provides the vehicle to accelerate innovating ahead of the pack.
The bottom line is platform engineering takes nothing away from DevOps except to help it fully realize its transformational potential. Together, they provide the means to achieve unprecedented software delivery outcomes in the cloud era. Rather than displacement, expect to see soaring synergistic value between complementary platform and DevOps capabilities harmoniously applied for maximum business impact.
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