Platform Engineering Primer
Covering the full spectrum of building and operating internal platforms for developers. Touching on technology, strategy and real-world examples of how successful companies invest in platforms.
The subject of platform engineering is becoming more visible these days. Through my conversations with both current and potential clients, the majority of them struggle with organizational challenges, shaping the right team topologies and the pressing need to improve engineering efficiency. These aspects provide a solid foundation for delving into technology strategy, particularly concerning internal platforms.
The cloud-native technology landscape has matured to the point where we have all these building blocks available to us. From the technical perspective, we are now capable of building reliable infrastructure at scale, supporting developers with tools and platforms, and ensuring compliance and security at the right level. However, somehow companies still find it difficult to navigate in this space.
It’s been seven years since I started working in the platform engineering space to help companies find the optimal way in this ever-changing technology landscape. It involved enabling new technologies, building teams, improving ways of working and bringing standardization to their tech stack. Meanwhile, I experienced a lot of tough moments, making sub-optimal decisions which almost led to disaster in some cases, but somehow always staying on top of the surface. This gave me a unique perspective on this domain, especially in terms of understanding the pitfalls to avoid.
During that time, I worked with many brilliant minds, from whom I learned a lot. It would be a shame to keep this knowledge just for myself. It’s always been a goal to use technology to improve our lives without getting in the way of it. I believe this is finally possible with platform engineering.
This fall, I’m going to dedicate the time to structure the knowledge and share the complete spectrum of building and operating internal platforms for developers. I will touch on technology, strategy and real-world examples of how successful companies invest in platform engineering.
This will result in a series of articles, interviews with subject matter experts and potentially some podcasts. Stay tuned!