Platform engineering is a discipline that’s designed to improve software developer productivity, application cycle time, and speed to market by providing common, reusable tools and capabilities via an internal developer platform. The platform creates a bridge between developers and infrastructure, speeding complex tasks that would normally be challenging, and perhaps even impossible, for individual developers to manage independently.
Platform engineering is also the practice of building and maintaining an internal developer platform that provides a set of tools and services to help development teams build, test, and deploy software more efficiently, explains Brett Smith, a distinguished software developer with analytics software and services firm SAS, in an online interview. “Ideally, the platform is self-service, freeing the team to focus on updates and improvements.”
Platform engineering advocates the continuous application of practices that provide an improved, more productive developer experience by delivering tools and capabilities to standardize the software development process and make it more efficient, says Faruk Muratovic, engineering leader at Deloitte Consulting, in an online interview.
A core platform engineering component is a cloud-native services catalog that allows development teams to seamlessly provision infrastructure, configure pipelines, and integrate DevOps tooling, Muratovic says. “With platform engineering, development teams are empowered to create a development environment that optimizes performance and drives successful deployment.”
A Helping Hand
Platform engineering significantly improves development team productivity by streamlining workflows, automating tasks, and removing infrastructure-related obstacles, observes Vinod Chavan, cloud platform engineering services leader at IBM Consulting. “By reducing manual effort in deploying and managing applications, developers can focus on writing code and innovating rather than managing infrastructure,” he notes in an email interview.
Process automation and standardization minimizes human error and enhances consistency and speed across the development lifecycle, Muratovic says. Additionally, by providing self-service development models, platform engineering significantly reduces dependency on traditional IT services teams since it allows full-stack product pods to deploy and manage their own environments, he adds.
Embedded monitoring, security, and compliance policies ensure that enterprise policies are followed without adding overhead, Muratovic says. “Platform engineering also supports Infrastructure as a Code (IaC) capabilities, which provide development teams with pre-configured networking, storage, compute, and CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery) pipelines.”
An often-overlooked platform engineering benefit is regular tool updates, Smith notes.
Enterprise Benefits
Platform engineering gives enterprises the structure and automation needed to scale efficiently while lowering costs and strengthening operational resilience, Chavan says. “By eliminating inefficiencies and reducing manual labor, it optimizes resource usage and enables business growth without unnecessary complexity or costs.” He adds that by providing a stable environment that can support the seamless integration of advanced tools, platform engineering can also play a key role in helping organizations leverage AI and other emerging technologies.
Platform engineering can reduce operational friction, increase monitoring ability, and enhance flexibility when deploying workloads into hybrid cloud environments. “Overhead costs can be reduced by automating repetitive, manual tasks, and access controls and compliance protocols can be standardized,” Muratovic says.
By taking advantage of reusable platform services, such as API gateways, monitoring, orchestration, and shared authentication, platform engineering can also build a strong foundation for application and systems scalability. “Additionally, organizations that develop product-oriented and cloud-first models can pre-define reference architectures and develop best practices to encourage adoption and enhance system reliability and security,” Muratovic says.
A centralized and structured platform also helps organizations strengthen security and compliance by providing better visibility into infrastructure, applications and workflows, Chavan says. “With real-time monitoring and automated governance, businesses can quickly detect risks, address security issues before they escalate, and stay up to date with evolving compliance regulations.”
Potential Pitfalls
When building a platform, a common pitfall is creating a system that’s too complex and doesn’t address the specific problems facing development and operations teams, Chavan says. Additionally, failing to build strong governance and oversight can also lead to control issues, which can lead to security or compliance problems.
Muratovic warns against over-engineering and failing to align with developer culture. “Over-engineering is simply creating systems that are too complex for the problems they were intended to solve, which increases maintenance costs and slows productivity — both of which can erode value,” he says. “Also, if the shift to platform engineering isn’t aligned with developer needs, developers may become resistant to the effort, which can significantly delay adoption.”
Another pitfall is overly rigid implementation. “It’s crucial to find a balance between standardization across the enterprise and providing too many choices for developers,” Muratovic says. “Too much rigidity and developers won’t like the experience; too much flexibility leads to chaos and inefficiency.”
Final Thoughts
Platform engineering isn’t just about the technology, Chavan observes. It’s also about creating a collaborative and continuously improving work culture. “By equipping developers and operators with the right tools and well-designed processes, organizations can streamline workflows and increase space for innovation.”
Platform engineering isn’t simply about technology; its value lies in creating a development operating model that empowers developers while aligning with business needs, Muratovic says. He believes that the discipline will constantly evolve as needs and goals change, so it’s crucial to create a culture of openness and collaboration between platform engineers, operations teams, and developers.
Muratovic notes that by focusing on the developer experience — particularly self-service, automation, governance, compliance, and security — platform engineering can provide organizations with a flexible, scalable, resilient ecosystem that fuels the agility and innovation that drives sustained growth.
“Platform engineering is how you herd the cats, eliminate the unicorns, and eradicate the chaos from your software supply chain,” Smith concludes.