Remember When DevOps Was the Cool ?
Once upon a time, every tech company wanted to “go DevOps.”
Pipelines were automated, infra became code, and life was good... for a while.
Then came microservices, multi cloud, compliance, and too many YAML files.
Suddenly, your “simple CI/CD pipeline” became a Frankenstein of Jenkins jobs, GitHub Actions, and Terraform scripts, maintained by a handful of burned-out engineers.
Sound familiar? 😅
That’s when Platform Engineering walked in and said:
“Hey, let’s stop reinventing the wheel every sprint.”
A true platform engineering team doesn’t just automate pipelines, it designs experiences that make developers unstoppable.
What Exactly Is Platform Engineering?
In simple terms, Platform Engineering is DevOps for DevOps.
It’s the discipline of building internal developer platforms (IDPs). self-service layers that let developers ship software faster without bothering ops teams.
Developers: “I just want to deploy my app!”
Ops: “Please don’t break prod again.”
Platform Team: “Here’s a safe, automated button to do that.” !!!!
It’s the “golden path” for software delivery. Opinionated, Reusable, and Developer friendly yet flexible workflow that lets developers go from “idea ➜ running app ➜ monitored service” safely and efficiently.
The Golden Path
┌────────────────────┐
│ Developer writes │
│ application │
└─────────┬──────────┘
│
▼
┌────────────────────┐
│ Scaffold project │
│ via IDP (e.g., │
│ Backstage template)│
└─────────┬──────────┘
│
▼
┌────────────────────┐
│ CI/CD pipeline │
│ auto-created using │
│ golden configs │
└─────────┬──────────┘
│
▼
┌────────────────────┐
│ Security & Policy │
│ checks enforced │
│ (no bypass!) │
└─────────┬──────────┘
│
▼
┌────────────────────┐
│ Deploy to staging │
│ via GitOps/ArgoCD │
└─────────┬──────────┘
│
▼
┌────────────────────┐
│ Automated tests & │
│ observability hook│
└─────────┬──────────┘
│
▼
┌────────────────────┐
│ Promote to prod │
│ (one-click deploy)│
└─────────┬──────────┘
│
▼
┌────────────────────┐
│ Platform provides │
│ live dashboards, │
│ logs & alerts │
└────────────────────┘
What Makes This Flow “Golden”?
- Reusable Templates: No one writes infra from scratch.
- Guardrails Over Gates: Developers move fast, but safely.
- Zero To Production: No waiting for ops tickets — everything is self-service.
- Observability Baked In: You deploy and instantly get metrics, logs, traces.
It’s not about locking developers in, it’s about unlocking productivity without sacrificing stability.
“Deploying a new microservice at my company used to take 3 days.
Now it takes 30 minutes with the golden path from Git repo creation to production metrics dashboard.”
- A happy developer, somewhere in a Platform led org
Real World Analogy
Imagine a restaurant kitchen :
The developers are chefs creating new dishes (apps).
The DevOps team ensures the stove, fridge, and oven work fine.
The Platform engineers build the entire kitchen system : gas lines, safety switches, smart inventory, automatic cleaning.
Now, every chef can cook without worrying about infrastructure chaos.
That’s what platform engineering does for your org.
What Makes a Great Platform?
A great internal platform is:
- Self-service – Developers can deploy, monitor, and rollback easily.
- Standardized – One way to build and ship apps (less chaos).
- Secure by design – Compliance and guardrails baked in.
- Observable – Everything monitored, nothing hidden.
- Developer-centric – Built with developers, not for them.
Popular Tools in Platform Engineering
The tools aren’t the platform, the experience is.
| Category | Tools You Might Already Use |
|---|---|
| CI/CD | GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, Jenkins |
| Infrastructure | Terraform, Crossplane, Pulumi |
| Containers & Clusters | Kubernetes, Nomad, OpenShift |
| Developer Portals | Backstage, Port, Cortex |
| Secrets & Config | Vault, Doppler, External Secrets |
| Observability | Grafana, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry |
Example: How Spotify Made It Famous
Spotify popularized the idea through Backstage, their internal developer portal.
Developers could:
- Spin up microservices instantly.
- Get real time service ownership insights.
- Access all documentation in one place.
It worked so well that Spotify open-sourced Backstage, and it’s now the de facto starting point for many platform teams globally.
https://backstage.spotify.com/
Why Platform Engineering Is Exploding in 2025
Developer productivity is a board-level metric now.
AI + Platform Engineering are merging: “self-healing pipelines.”
FinOps meets DevOps: platforms optimize both speed and cost.
Security & compliance automation are no longer optional.
In short, platform engineering is the glue between innovation and stability.
My Favorite Framework: The “3-Layer Model”
Everything the platform team builds should enhance the Developer Experience Layer, that’s your “north star metric.”
┌────────────────────────────┐
│ Developer Experience Layer | ← Backstage, IDP Portal
├────────────────────────────┤
│ Platform Services Layer | ← CI/CD, IaC, Monitoring, Security
├────────────────────────────┤
│ Infrastructure Layer | ← Cloud, Kubernetes, Networking
└────────────────────────────┘
The Next Big Step: AI-Powered Platforms
- Imagine An AI assistant that creates CI/CD pipelines automatically.
- ChatOps where developers type “/deploy to staging” and it just happens.
- LLMs that understand your logs and fix the issue before your pager goes off.
We’re entering the era of Agentic Platforms where AI not only assists but executes actions safely.
How to Start Platform Engineering in Your Org
- - Interview your developers – understand pain points.
- - Start small – build one golden path (e.g., deploy Node.js app to K8s).
- - Measure – track deploy frequency, MTTR, developer satisfaction.
- - Automate responsibly – don’t replace ops with bots, empower them.
- - Document everything – internal docs are part of the platform.
DevOps Is Not Dead but It’s Evolving
- Platform engineering is DevOps 2.0, not its replacement.
- DevOps broke silos.
- Platform engineering builds bridges.
If your developers spend more time configuring YAML than writing code,
your company doesn’t need more DevOps, it needs Platform Engineering.
If You Liked This Post...
Follow me on Dev.to
for more posts on DevOps + AI + Platform Engineering.
Comment with your biggest developer experience pain point, I might turn it into my next blog!
Share this post if you believe in building platforms that you developer friends love.😀😀😀
Top comments (0)