As we accelerate ahead of Industry 4.0, digital transformation reshapes businesses at an unprecedented level. Today, organizations face high pressures to deliver software faster, more reliably, and at scale.
The growing complexities of the cloud environment and heightened 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 parallel with other operations.
Platform engineering has emerged to address these challenges. It is based upon integrating product names as an internal developer’s platform designed to streamline the software development process.
According to a research by Gartner, “45% of large software engineering organizations were already utilizing platform engineering platforms in 2022, and the number is expected to rise by 80% by 2026.”.
This article will explain platform engineering and its benefits and see how it boosts the entire software development cycle.
What is Platform Engineering?
With ever-increasing functionalities, cloud environments are becoming more complex every day. Developing new tools and software isn’t easy now. Sometimes, software development-related complexities, the underlying infrastructure that must be managed, and routine tasks become hard to tackle.
Platform engineering focuses on designing, developing, and optimizing Internal Developers Platforms (IDPs).
IDPs work as an added layer and bridge the gap between developers and underlying infrastructure. Adopting an IDP enables workflow standardizations, self-services in software development, and improved observability in development.
With all these workflow enhancements, developers can work in more automated environments. By enabling automation at every level, the internal data platforms streamline the software development lifecycle (SDCL) while adhering to the governance and compliance standards.
Core Concepts of Platform Engineering
As cloud computing, microservices, and containerization grew, organizations opted for more advanced platforms to manage their complexities. An engineering platform in software development creates a cohesive and efficient development environment that enhances productivity while maintaining operational stability.
Here are some of the 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, cloud complexities become an added burden.
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IDPs act as added layers in the development process, simplifying operations and enabling teams to leverage existing development technologies. It is an ecosystem that empowers developers by providing tools and automation and autonomously managing the end-to-end lifecycle, from development to deployment.
Some of the most demanded IDPs are:
- Qovery
- Platform.sh
- Backstage by Spotify
- Humanitec
- Coherence
However, if not implemented strategically, IDPs can introduce further complexities downstream.
2. Self-Service
One of platform engineering’s most powerful features is its capability to empower developers through self-service. This means developers can work independently, provision, manage, and deploy applications without relying on operations teams. It empowers the workflow, enabling 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 error while ensuring scalability and consistency across 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. So, both organizations and development teams automatically follow compliance best practices.
5. Security & Governance
As security and governance are core concerns 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 complexities and ensuring compliance and quality.
Why is Platform Engineering Important to Adapt?
Platform engineering has gained importance due to the growing complexity of software and cloud-based development environments. Managing multiple development environments, multifaceted cloud environments, and diverse technology loads obstructs developers.
To avoid this, internal development platforms streamline the process by creating scalable, reusable platforms to automate tasks and simplify processes.
An IDP allows developers to stay ahead and be more productive at high-value tasks rather than tackling underlying infrastructure. Moreover, platform engineering enables security measures in the development process, diminishing risks and ensuring compliance.
Benefits of Platform Engineering
Internal development platforms offer several critical benefits that boost the overall software development process.
- Accelerates Development Process: The cross-functional and automated collaborative environment leads to faster time-to-market and rationalized development costs.
- Improves Developer Experience: Platform engineering offers self-service capabilities, enabling developers to be efficient and creative and focus on innovation instead of infrastructural complexities.
- Enhances Scalability: Engineering platforms empower organizations to scale their applications and infrastructure to meet growing demands.
- Establishes Governance: Platform engineering promotes governance, which is critical for all industries. It ensures that all activities are compliant and aligned with best practices.
Is Platform Engineering the Future of Software Development?
As businesses transform digitally, platform engineering provides a unified infrastructure to empower the build, test, and deployment processes. Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to more efficient internal platform services in the future.
Moreover, early adoption will provide a competitive advantage for seamless software development workflows.
For more resources on software development, cloud computing, and AI, visit Unite.ai.
