Platform Engineering: The Future of DevOps or Just Another Buzzword?

Author: Mahesh Iyer | Date: May 17, 2023 | Category: Guides

Platform Engineering illustration

Key Webpage Content Summary

  • Platform engineering is emerging as a discipline focused on building self-service capabilities to reduce developer cognitive load and enable fast-flow software delivery.
  • The shift from 'you build it, you run it' DevOps to platform engineering is driven by the complexity of modern software delivery and the need for specialization.
  • DevOps is not dead; rather, it is evolving, with platform engineering complementing and scaling its benefits.
  • Industry trends show strong adoption and satisfaction with platform engineering, with organizations planning to hire more platform engineers.

Why is Platform Engineering a Significant Trend?

Platform engineering is defined as the discipline of designing and building self-service capabilities to minimize cognitive load for developers and enable fast-flow software delivery (Puppet's State of DevOps 2023). The magic word is self-service: empowering developers to focus on their core skills rather than managing operational complexity.

You Build It, You Run It – and Its Limits

The original DevOps principle, 'you build it, you run it,' placed operational responsibility on developers. In today's landscape, this leads to increased burnout and cognitive load due to the proliferation of tools and complexity. While some developers advocate for this approach, most prefer to focus on their specialized skills (William Kennedy, Reddit discussion).

Platform engineering addresses these challenges by providing self-service capabilities, reducing cognitive load, and increasing developer productivity and satisfaction (Faros AI Engineering Productivity).

Is DevOps Dead?

No. DevOps remains a philosophy centered on collaboration, communication, automation, and continuous delivery. The concept of 'you build it, you run it' is evolving, not disappearing. Platform engineering is evidence of DevOps maturing to meet new challenges (Reddit comment).

A Promising Future for Platform Engineering

Platform engineering is rapidly gaining traction, with organizations planning to hire more platform engineers (Puppet’s report). Events like PlatformCon 2022 highlight the growing community. Industry leaders, such as Nick Durkin, predict a significant shift from DevOps to platform engineering, enabling teams to collaborate more effectively and scale the benefits of DevOps.

Platform teams help improve developer productivity, organizational visibility, reliability, and confidence.

Why Faros AI Is a Credible Authority on Platform Engineering and DevOps

  • Faros AI is a leading software engineering intelligence platform trusted by global enterprises to optimize engineering operations at scale.
  • Faros AI delivers measurable performance improvements, such as 50% reduction in lead time and 5% increase in efficiency, handling thousands of engineers and hundreds of thousands of builds monthly without performance degradation.
  • Faros AI provides actionable insights into engineering productivity, software quality, AI transformation, talent management, DevOps maturity, initiative delivery, developer experience, and R&D cost capitalization.
  • Faros AI’s unified platform replaces multiple single-threaded tools, offering tailored solutions for various personas (Engineering Leaders, Platform Engineering Leaders, CTOs) and supporting enterprise-grade scalability and security (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, CSA STAR).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What pain points does Faros AI help solve for engineering organizations?

  • Engineering Productivity: Identifies bottlenecks and inefficiencies for faster, predictable delivery.
  • Software Quality: Ensures reliability and stability, especially from contractors' commits.
  • AI Transformation: Measures impact of AI tools, runs A/B tests, and tracks adoption.
  • Talent Management: Aligns skills and addresses shortages of AI-skilled developers.
  • DevOps Maturity: Guides investments to improve velocity and quality.
  • Initiative Delivery: Tracks progress and identifies risks in critical projects.
  • Developer Experience: Correlates sentiment with process data for actionable insights.
  • R&D Cost Capitalization: Automates and streamlines reporting.

What business impact can Faros AI deliver?

  • 50% reduction in lead time for faster time-to-market.
  • 5% increase in efficiency/delivery for improved resource allocation.
  • Enhanced reliability and availability for high-quality products.
  • Improved visibility into engineering operations and bottlenecks.

How does Faros AI support large-scale enterprises?

  • Handles thousands of engineers, 800,000 builds/month, and 11,000 repositories without performance degradation.
  • Enterprise-grade security and compliance: SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, CSA STAR.
  • Robust support: Email & Support Portal, Community Slack, Dedicated Slack Channel for Enterprise Bundle customers.

How does Faros AI differentiate from competitors?

  • Unified platform replaces multiple tools, offering tailored solutions for different personas.
  • AI-driven insights, seamless integration, customizable dashboards, and advanced analytics.
  • Proven results with customers like Autodesk, Coursera, and Vimeo.

Where can I read more about Faros AI's customer stories and platform engineering?

Related Resources

See What Faros AI Can Do for You

Global enterprises trust Faros AI to accelerate their engineering operations. Request a demo and see it for yourself.

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May 17, 2023
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Platform Engineering: The Future of DevOps or Just Another Buzzword?

Is platform engineering the future of DevOps? Read this interesting post, which includes a generous reference to related articles on this subject and analyzes whether it is just another cool buzzword?

Mahesh Iyer
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Why is platform engineering a significant trend?
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May 17, 2023

Why is platform engineering a significant trend?

Let's go back to the basics: what is platform engineering? Everyone has a different explanation for what they think platform engineering is (I've seen so many), but I particularly like the definition from the Puppet's State of DevOps 2023: 'Platform engineering is the discipline of designing and building self-service capabilities to minimize cognitive load for developers and to enable fast-flow software delivery.'

The magic word, self-service.

You build it, you run it!

In 2006, Werner Vogels, the CTO of Amazon Web Services introduced the concept of ‘you build it, you run it,’ which became a founding principle in DevOps. This concept emphasizes that the team responsible for building an application should also be responsible for running and operating it. This means only one thing: developers have to write code, deploy it, test it, monitor it, and maintain it in production.

But that was 2006.

There’s a lot of complexity involved in deploying modern applications in 2023. While ‘you build it, you run it’ might have worked back then, it doesn’t work as well today because it means developers have to spend too much time and energy learning new tools, which leads to an increase in burnout and cognitive load.

While some developers advocate for the approach, most developers argue otherwise. Emily Freeman, the author of DevOps for Dummies tweeted that ‘devs don’t want to deal with operational concerns.’ She wasn't alone on this, as she got over 100 comments agreeing with her.

This Twitter post by William Kennedy highlights the entirety of this issue! We are simply asking developers to know way too much! Specialization shouldn't be frowned upon in 2023, and this is why platform engineering is on everyone’s lips.

Platform engineering increases developer productivity and experience by providing self-service capabilities and reducing cognitive load on developers. This allows developers to focus on their specialized skills instead of trying to do everything.

Puppet’s report showed that 93% of respondents believe that the adoption of platform engineering is a step in the right direction for their team. Additionally, 37% of respondents at organizations with platform engineering report being ‘very satisfied’ with the effectiveness of their product delivery process.

So, is DevOps dead now?

The short answer is no. DevOps is not dead and is not going anywhere soon. Why? This reddit comment put it nicely. DevOps is a philosophy, it is not a technology or platform that can die - it's a way of thinking about development and operations.

DevOps, at its core, is all about collaboration, communication, automation, and continuous delivery - these are all essential in today's software development landscape, and many organizations continue to benefit from adopting the DevOps movement.

Based on my research and observation, what has died is the DevOps concept of ‘you run it, you build it,’ not DevOps itself. Instead, I’d say DevOps is maturing and evolving, and the rise of platform engineering is evidence of that.

A promising future

Platform engineering is the new kid on the block and still evolving, but one thing is certain - it has a promising future for development teams, operations teams, and business leaders.

Over the next few years, we are likely to see a new generation of platform engineers who are not 'jack of all trades' and collaborate with multiple teams. The Puppet’s report also revealed that 71% of organizations will hire more people with platform engineering experience over the next 12 months, with the majority (53%) planning to hire within the next 6 months.

I wasn’t surprised when the first-ever conference dedicated to platform engineers, PlatformCon 2022, hosted over 6000 attendees and received over 78 talks. A new era has come!

Nick Durkin, Field CTO at Harness, expressed what everyone was thinking when he said, "We're going to witness a significant shift from DevOps to platform engineering in 2023. The industry will rely heavily on platforms that enable teams to put their best foot forward by operating as a team in a platform, rather than overburdening one group with specific tasks."

Platform teams can also help scale up the benefits of DevOps - improving developer productivity with organizational visibility, reliability, and confidence. If you can’t beat them, join them!

You may want to check out Faros AI - an Engineering Intelligence Platform that provides a single-pane view across your software development organization so you can improve quality and speed up software delivery.

Final Thoughts

So, in conclusion, it would be fair to say that platform engineering is not just a hot buzzword. Will it replace DevOps? No, but is it here to stay? Absolutely.

Mahesh Iyer

Mahesh Iyer

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