DevOps & Platform Engineering - What's The Difference? With Dave Williams
Mar 13, 2024
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Dave Williams, an expert in platform engineering, discusses the evolution of the field beyond DevOps. He emphasizes the crucial mindset shift needed for this transition, moving from automation-centric practices to a more product-oriented approach. Williams highlights the enhanced collaboration and automation that platform engineering brings, focusing on the creation of seamless environments that improve scalability and governance. Tune in to discover how these changes can significantly elevate the software engineering experience!
Platform engineering moves beyond DevOps by enabling self-service access to tools, enhancing workflow efficiency and innovation for engineering teams.
Successful transition to platform engineering requires a combination of operations, software engineering, and product development skills to streamline processes and automate best practices.
Deep dives
Understanding the Shift from DevOps to Platform Engineering
The transition from DevOps to platform engineering is characterized by a shift in mindset, focusing on building products that meet the needs of software engineering teams. In the DevOps approach, teams often acted as blockers for one another, attempting to automate various infrastructure processes without clear communication. In contrast, platform engineering emphasizes a self-service model where teams can access tools and resources independently, akin to an e-commerce experience. This approach enables a smoother workflow and more efficient project development, allowing engineers to prototype and iterate without excessive reliance on other teams.
Key Skill Set Differences and Automation in Platform Engineering
Practitioners transitioning to platform engineering will require a nuanced skillset that combines operations knowledge with software engineering and product development capabilities. As automation becomes central, the goal is to encode best practices into accessible tools that align with organizational security and compliance requirements. The integration of these competencies aims to eliminate ad hoc processes prevalent in traditional DevOps, leading to a more streamlined and scalable infrastructure workflow. This shift will facilitate faster innovation for engineering teams by offering them ready-to-use solutions that reduce cognitive load.
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Transitioning from DevOps to Platform Engineering: A Mindset Shift
In this week's episode, Chris Hill gets Dave Williams to go deeper into how platform engineering is moving one step beyond DevOps. Listen in as they discuss the skill sets, principles, and mindset needed to enable this evolution in the field.
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