Abby Bangser, a Principal Engineer at Syntasso and former SRE, shares her expertise on the evolving landscape of platform engineering. She emphasizes the importance of concrete definitions and maturity models in navigating this transition. Abby cautions against confusing developer portals with fully functional platforms and discusses the need for customizable, self-service solutions to enhance developer experiences. The conversation also highlights the socio-technical dynamics of platform engineering and the significance of aligning technology with organizational goals.
Platform engineering requires a nuanced understanding of both technology and socio-technical factors to create effective internal solutions.
Developing maturity models is essential for organizations to evaluate their platform engineering capabilities and guide future technology investments.
Deep dives
Understanding Platform Engineering
Platform engineering focuses on creating internal software solutions tailored to enhance the user experience within organizations. It emphasizes the socio-technical aspects of software engineering, recognizing that successful implementations depend on understanding both the technology and the surrounding environment. Developers should assess their unique needs carefully to avoid falling into the pitfalls of technology hype, which can lead to ineffective solutions. By concentrating on what the organization aims to achieve and how software development practices have performed historically, teams can make informed choices about technology investments.
The Role of Platform Engineers
Platform engineers are crucial as they develop the infrastructure and tools necessary for application developers to efficiently deliver their products. The mission of organizations like Centasso is to improve the experiences of platform engineers, ensuring they have the resources and support needed to facilitate smooth application deployment. The conversation highlights how effective platform engineering enhances the overall development process, as poor experiences for platform engineers can negatively impact the final user experience. By prioritizing a positive developer experience, organizations position themselves to achieve better outcomes for the end-users.
Navigating Trends and Maturity in Platform Engineering
Trends in platform engineering are evolving, prompting discussions about best practices, such as developing maturity models that define success on various levels. These models can inform organizations about their stage of development, helping them understand what capabilities are necessary based on their size and growth trajectory. The differentiation between infrastructure solutions, such as APIs versus tools like Terraform and Helm, illustrates the importance of streamlining processes while prioritizing the needs of developers. Ultimately, successful platform design must integrate user-friendly interfaces, like developer portals, with solid backend infrastructure to ensure a seamless user experience.
Platform engineering is replacing SRE and DevOps. Jokes aside, knowing the path to better platforms is key. Abby Bangser is the right person to tell us how to achieve greater maturity in this aspect of software operations.
She's previously held SRE roles and currently works as Principal Engineer at Syntasso, the company behind the popular Kratix platform framework.
Abby highlighted the need for concrete definitions and maturity models in platform engineering trends, cautioning against equating developer portals with fully functional platforms.
We also dived into the need to understand your socio-technical landscape with an emphasis on the value of frameworks and method-based approaches.