The New Stack Podcast

How Heroku Is ‘Re-Platforming’ Its Platform

Apr 24, 2025

Betty Junod, the CMO and SVP at Heroku, shares insights on Heroku's ambitious re-platforming efforts. She discusses the shift to Kubernetes and open-source engagement, including becoming a platinum member of the CNCF. Heroku's new features like Cloud Native Buildpacks allow developers to create container images more efficiently. Additionally, Betty highlights innovations aimed at supporting data scientists and the impact of AI and 'vibe coding' on developer productivity. This transformation aligns Heroku with contemporary cloud-native needs.

18:01

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Episode guests

Betty Junod

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Heroku's re-platforming initiative, termed 'Fir', embraces Kubernetes and open source standards to modernize its PaaS offerings.

The introduction of tools like Jupyter Notebooks and managed AI integrations aims to enhance the developer experience and democratize app creation.

Deep dives

Heroku's Platform as a Service Model

Heroku operates as a unified platform as a service (PaaS) that simplifies the development, deployment, and management of applications. This integrated experience allows developers to focus on building apps without being bogged down by the complexities of infrastructure management. By automating lifecycle management and orchestrating various infrastructure components—such as pipelines and application monitoring—Heroku enables swift application deployment and scaling. Initially supporting Ruby on Rails, Heroku now caters to multiple programming languages, actively enhancing its capabilities to better serve developers.

Intro

3min

Heroku's Evolution and Open Source Commitment

6min

Heroku's Replatforming and New Features Announcement

2min

Adapting to AI: Innovations in Platform Development

4min

Transforming Development: The Rise of Vibe Coding and AI Tools

3min

Heroku has been undergoing a major transformation, re-platforming its entire Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering over the past year and a half. This ambitious effort, dubbed “Fir,” will soon reach general availability. According to Betty Junod, CMO and SVP at Heroku (owned by Salesforce), the overhaul includes a shift to Kubernetes and OCI standards, reinforcing Heroku’s commitment to open source.

The platform now features Heroku Cloud Native Buildpacks, which let developers create container images without Dockerfiles. Originally built on Ruby on Rails and predating Docker and AWS, Heroku now supports eight programming languages. The company has also deepened its open source engagement by becoming a platinum member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), contributing to projects like OpenTelemetry. Additionally, Heroku has open sourced its Twelve-Factor Apps methodology, inviting the community to help modernize it to address evolving needs such as secrets management and workload identity. This signals a broader effort to align Heroku’s future with the cloud native ecosystem.

Learn more from The New Stack about Heroku's approach to Platform-as-a-Service:

Return to PaaS: Building the Platform of Our Dreams

Heroku Moved Twelve-Factor Apps to Open Source. What’s Next?

How Heroku Is Positioned To Help Ops Engineers in the GenAI Era

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