As we accelerate ahead of Industry 4.0, digital transformation is reshaping businesses at an unprecedented level. Today, organizations face high pressure to deliver software faster, more reliably and at scale.
The growing complexity of the cloud environment and increased demand for frictionless customer experiences have further complicated software development. Since delivering a seamless customer experience is an organization’s top priority, continuous software development runs in parallel with other activities.
Platform engineering emerged to address these challenges. It is based on integrating product names as an internal developer platform designed to streamline the software development process.
According to a Gartner study: “45% of large software engineering organizations were already using platform engineering platforms in 2022, and this number is expected to increase by 80% by 2026.”.
This article explains platform engineering and its benefits and shows how it boosts the entire software development cycle.
What is platform technology?
With ever-increasing functionalities, cloud environments are becoming more complex every day. Developing new tools and software is not easy these days. Sometimes the complexities associated with software development, the underlying infrastructure to be managed, and routine tasks become difficult to tackle.
Platform engineering focuses on the design, development and optimization of Internal Developers Platforms (IDPs).
IDPs work as an additional layer, bridging the gap between developers and the underlying infrastructure. Adopting an IDP enables workflow standardizations, self-service in software development, and improved development observation.
All of these workflow improvements allow developers to work in more automated environments. By enabling automation at every level, internal data platforms streamline the software development lifecycle (SDCL) while adhering to governance and compliance standards.
Core concepts of platform engineering
As cloud computing, microservices and containerization grew, organizations turned to more advanced platforms to manage their complexities. A software development engineering platform creates a cohesive and efficient development environment that increases productivity while maintaining operational stability.
Here are some core concepts of platform engineering:
1. Internal Developer Platform (IDP)
Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs) are designed to help organizations optimize their development processes. As development processes become more iterative, the complexities of the cloud become an additional burden.
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IDPs act as additional layers in the development process, simplifying operations and enabling teams to leverage existing development technologies. It is an ecosystem that enables developers to provide tools and automation and autonomously manage the end-to-end lifecycle, from development to deployment.
Some of the most in-demand IDPs include:
- Qovery
- Platform.sh
- Backstage of Spotify
- Humanitec
- Coherence
However, if not implemented strategically, IDPs can introduce further complexity further down the chain.
2. Self-service
One of the most powerful features of platform engineering is the ability to empower developers through self-service. This means developers can work independently and provision, manage and deploy applications without being dependent on operational teams. It enables workflow, allowing developers to iterate and deploy efficiently.
3. Workflow automation
Automation is another reason to adopt an engineering platform. It automates routine tasks and reduces human errors, while ensuring scalability and consistency throughout the development lifecycle.
4. Standardization
Engineering platforms promote end-to-end standardization of best practices across the development workflow. They usually have built-in quality standards to meet compliance requirements. Both organizations and development teams automatically follow compliance best practices.
5. Security and governance
Because security and governance are core issues in any SDLC, integrating a robust engineering platform ensures robust governance to minimize vulnerabilities and risks.
6. Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Platform engineering enables development teams to provision and manage infrastructure resources in repeatable and automated ways. It also promotes version control for easier management and collaboration and faster time to market.
At its core, it manages the development process more efficiently by reducing development complexity and ensuring compliance and quality.
Why is platform technology important to adapt?
Platform engineering has gained importance due to the growing complexity of software and cloud-based development environments. Managing multiple development environments, multi-faceted cloud environments, and varying technology loads hinders developers.
To avoid this, in-house development platforms streamline the process by creating scalable, reusable platforms to automate tasks and simplify processes.
With an IDP, developers can stay ahead and be more productive on high-value tasks instead of addressing the underlying infrastructure. Additionally, platform engineering enables security measures in the development process, reducing risk and ensuring compliance.
Advantages of platform technology
In-house development platforms provide several crucial benefits that boost the overall software development process.
- Speeds up the development process: The cross-functional and automated collaboration environment leads to faster time-to-market and rationalized development costs.
- Improves the developer experience: Platform engineering offers self-service capabilities, allowing developers to be efficient, creative and focus on innovation rather than infrastructure complexities.
- Improves scalability: Engineering platforms enable organizations to scale their applications and infrastructure to meet growing demand.
- Establishes board: Platform engineering promotes governance, which is critical for all industries. It ensures that all activities are compliant and in line with best practices.
Is platform engineering the future of software development?
As companies digitally transform, platform engineering provides a unified infrastructure to enable the build, test and deployment processes. Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to more efficient internal platform services in the future.
Furthermore, early adoption will provide a competitive advantage for seamless software development workflows.
To learn more about software development, cloud computing and AI, visit Unite.ai.
