This multi-disciplinary approach to software development improves productivity and culture, and improves the bottom line.

An emerging discipline of software development is something that is referred to as platform engineering. This multi-disciplinary approach seeks to improve a company’s bottom line by improving productivity and work environment.

At the same time, it also aims to streamline the time-to-market for new application developments, optimizing operations and improving efficiencies across many areas — including management, deployment, development and maintenance.

By integrating platform engineering into the software development process a company can identify potential pain points that development teams are experiencing, and then work to mitigate these by providing capabilities and tools that are both common and reusable.

What is Platform Engineering Used for?

Software development teams face many challenges in their day-to-day life. They’re often tasked with large projects that the organization relies on dearly.

As a result, a lot is expected of software teams, with a lot of pressure put on them to deliver products that are high quality, and that are done so quickly and reliably.

What platform engineering seeks to do is allow software development teams to build then maintain platforms that are efficient, robust and, perhaps most importantly, scalable so that the organization gets what it needs when it needs it.

A major aspect of platform engineering is accelerating delivery of applications by taking advantage of self-service and automation capabilities.

Benefits of Platform Engineering

So much of business today is about creating an amazing experience for users. From a tech perspective, this often refers to end users of an application.

Platform engineering, meanwhile, is focused on creating an amazing experience for software developers so that they’re able to improve the products they create, while also making the process more efficient. Through this process, organizations can reduce the complexity of their software development operations by removing friction that exists.

Quicker Development Cycle

Without platform engineering, most processes aren’t automated. Nearly every aspect of software development relies on manual processes, which take up a lot of time and also are very prone to errors.

Platform engineering, meanwhile, seeks to automate as many processes as possible, allowing developers to ship the code they create quicker and more efficiently. New software releases can be done with self-service platforms, allowing development cycles to speed up significantly.

Enhanced Overall Product Development

Platform engineering enables organizations of all sizes to develop as they need without having to learn complex languages, codes and skills that typically only very advanced developers possess. Code can be essentially shipped to all environments in just a click or two, without having to worry about any underlying complexities of it.

Products that are developed are much more refined as a result, which creates better value for customers and also a happier development team.

Scalability through Automation

When more tasks are automated, it’s easier for organizations to scale up. That’s because developers’ time that was once reserved for multiple manual tasks is now freed up to allow them to focus on bigger and better projects.

With tasks being very easy to create, remove, update and replicate thanks to automation, it’s easier than ever to grow the business’ software development operations.

Establishment of Standard Processes

Platform engineering also establishes standard processes for the organization. These written processes are essentially blueprints that employees can follow that ensure cohesiveness and consistency in every aspect of software development.

The Role of a Platform Engineer

Platform engineers leverage cloud-based software and tools to enable development teams to work reliably, efficiently and safely. This can involve creating custom tools for the organization and writing complex code.

However, their main duties typically focus on configuring existing tools, or those provided by third parties, to personalize the basic infrastructure and make it more suitable to your team’s needs.

A major job of platform engineers is to work directly with development teams and management, educating them on what the best practices are for the platforms they’ll be using. They also provide the knowledge and tools that development teams need to improve their operations.

The overarching goal of a platform engineer is to ensure that code makes its way through the production cycle as quickly as possible, and in a way that relieves stress on the development team. That’s why the relationship between platform engineers, management and the dev team is so crucial.

Some other duties of a platform engineer include —

• Creating and building the platform: It’s the job of a platform engineer to create the platforms that the dev ops teams use on a day-to-day basis.
• Managing upgrades to the platform: Any time platform upgrades are required, those duties fall to platform engineers.
• Monitoring the platform for issues, metrics and downtime: Platform engineers are, not surprisingly, hyper-focused on the platform itself, ensuring that it’s performing up to standards at all times.

Limitations of Platform Engineering

While there are numerous benefits of platform engineering, it does have some limitations, including —

• Getting internal buy-in: In many ways, platform engineering will implement some significant changes in the software development process, and some current employees could be resistant to change. For platform engineering to be successful, you must get significant internal buy-in about the process.
• Initial complexity: Platform engineering requires a significant upfront investment, especially from a technical standpoint. Engineers must put in a lot of hours to actually create and configure the programs and processes necessary, and that often results in complexity at first.
• Software limitations: Sometimes, your existing infrastructure may not be completely compatible with the new platforms that are created. This could cause minor headaches or major issues.
• Dedication of staff: Staff members need to be fully dedicated to the platform engineering process. This includes not just the general buy-in at the beginning discussed above, but ongoing dedication to adhering to its principles and consistently working to maintain and improve it over time.

Does Your Business Need a Platform Engineering Team?

Not all organizations require a dedicated platform engineering team, but many can benefit from what they can provide.

Generally speaking, companies that have larger development teams, with at least 20 developers, should at least consider adding a platform engineering team to the mix. But, whether your organization should consider platform engineering doesn’t just lie in how large your dev team is.

Instead, ask yourself whether software delivery is currently slow, outdated and inefficient. Do you think it’s costing you too much money and could benefit from streamlined operations? Are developers’ time tied up in manual tasks, which prevents them from spending more time on the critical tasks that are linked directly to your business’ operations?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it might be a good time to integrate platform engineering into your operations.

The dedicated team will support your existing software development teams by making their jobs more efficient through the use of automated tools and services provided in safe, reliable environments.

Techmate can help supplement your IT team, enabling your in-house employees to work on mission-critical projects. We can also provide fully-dedicated IT teams to handle specific projects for you.

To learn more, contact us today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is platform engineering?

Platform engineering is a rising automation solution that can quicken the delivery of applications and the rate at which they generate business value. It upgrades developer experience and production by furnishing self-service capacity with automated infrastructure procedures.

What is platform engineering vs DevOps?

Platform engineering and DevOps are connected but have different operations. Platform engineering makes and administers infrastructure and technology that leads to software development. DevOps enhances the effectiveness and innovation of development and operations personnel through the software development lifecycle.

What is the role of a platform engineer?

The role of a platform engineer is to construct and sustain an internal developer platform (IDP) to serve software delivery systems consistently. They also work with developers and other stakeholders to establish secure, optimized infrastructure. They plan, build up, test, and deploy system platforms for applications. A platform engineer is crucial in ensuring the reliability and efficiency of systems, and their contributions will directly impact operations.

How does a platform engineer compare to a software engineer?

Both functions demand a profound comprehension of technology and the ability to resolve interlinking challenges.