Platform Engineering

07 March 2025 - 9 mins read time

Platform Engineering

Platform engineering is the discipline of designing and building toolchains and workflows that enable self-service capabilities for software engineering organizations. By creating these internal developer platforms (IDPs), platform engineers improve developer experience and productivity.

Tooling Landscape

The platform engineering ecosystem consists of several interconnected planes that together create a comprehensive environment for developers and operations teams.

 graph TD;
    subgraph "Platform Engineering Tooling Landscape";
    A[Developer Control Plane] --- B[Integration & Delivery Plane];
    B --- C[Security Plane];
    C --- D[Monitoring & Logging Plane];
    D --- E[Resource Plane];
    E --- A;
    end
    
    style A fill:#f9d5e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style B fill:#eeeeee,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style C fill:#d5f9e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style D fill:#e5d5f9,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style E fill:#f9e5d5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px

Developer Control Plane

The Developer Control Plane provides tools and interfaces that developers directly interact with to manage their applications and services.

graph LR
    subgraph "Developer Control Plane"
    A[IDEs & Code Editors] --- B[CLI Tools]
    B --- C[Developer Portals]
    C --- D[API Gateways]
    D --- E[Service Catalogs]
    E --- F[Documentation Tools]
    F --- A
    end
    
    style A fill:#f9d5e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style B fill:#f9d5e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style C fill:#f9d5e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style D fill:#f9d5e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style E fill:#f9d5e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style F fill:#f9d5e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px

Key components include:

IDEs & Code Editors: Tools like VS Code, IntelliJ, and Eclipse that provide integrated development environments
CLI Tools: Command-line interfaces for interacting with platform services
Developer Portals: Web interfaces for visualizing and managing applications and infrastructure
API Gateways: Entry points for APIs that handle routing, authentication, and rate limiting
Service Catalogs: Directories of available services and APIs
Documentation Tools: Platforms for creating and maintaining technical documentation

Integration & Delivery Plane

The Integration & Delivery Plane focuses on automating the build, test, and deployment processes for applications.

graph TD
    subgraph "Integration & Delivery Plane"
    A[CI/CD Pipelines] --> B[Artifact Repositories]
    A --> C[Configuration Management]
    D[Image Registries] --> E[Deployment Tools]
    B --> E
    C --> E
    end
    
    style A fill:#eeeeee,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style B fill:#eeeeee,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style C fill:#eeeeee,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style D fill:#eeeeee,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style E fill:#eeeeee,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px

Key components include:

CI/CD Pipelines: Tools like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, and GitLab CI/CD that automate building, testing, and deploying code
Artifact Repositories: Storage for build artifacts such as JARs, WARs, and other packages
Configuration Management: Tools for managing application configurations across environments
Image Registries: Repositories for container images
Deployment Tools: Software for automating application deployments to various environments

Security Plane

The Security Plane provides tools and processes for securing applications and infrastructure throughout the development lifecycle.

graph TD
    subgraph "Security Plane"
    A[SAST] --- B[DAST]
    B --- C[Secret Management]
    C --- D[Identity & Access Management]
    D --- E[Compliance Tools]
    E --- F[Vulnerability Scanning]
    F --- A
    end
    
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    style B fill:#d5f9e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style C fill:#d5f9e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style D fill:#d5f9e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style E fill:#d5f9e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style F fill:#d5f9e5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px

Key components include:

Static Application Security Testing (SAST): Analyzes source code to identify security vulnerabilities
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST): Tests running applications to find security issues
Secret Management: Tools for securely storing and accessing credentials and other sensitive information
Identity & Access Management: Solutions for managing user identities and controlling access to resources
Compliance Tools: Software for ensuring adherence to regulatory requirements
Vulnerability Scanning: Tools that scan applications and infrastructure for known vulnerabilities

Monitoring & Logging Plane

The Monitoring & Logging Plane provides visibility into application performance and behavior.

graph TD
    subgraph "Monitoring & Logging Plane"
    A[APM Tools] --> B[Log Management]
    A --> C[Metrics Collection]
    B --> D[Alerting Systems]
    C --> D
    D --> E[Dashboards]
    end
    
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    style B fill:#e5d5f9,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style C fill:#e5d5f9,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style D fill:#e5d5f9,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style E fill:#e5d5f9,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px

Key components include:

Application Performance Monitoring (APM): Tools that track and diagnose application performance
Log Management: Solutions for collecting, parsing, and analyzing log data
Metrics Collection: Systems for gathering and storing performance metrics
Alerting Systems: Tools that notify teams of issues and anomalies
Dashboards: Visual interfaces for monitoring system health and performance

Resource Plane

The Resource Plane manages the infrastructure and resources that applications run on.

graph TD
    subgraph "Resource Plane"
    A[Infrastructure as Code] --> B[Cloud Services]
    A --> C[Container Orchestration]
    A --> D[Service Mesh]
    B --> E[Storage Solutions]
    C --> F[Database Services]
    end
    
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    style B fill:#f9e5d5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style C fill:#f9e5d5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
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    style E fill:#f9e5d5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
    style F fill:#f9e5d5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px

Key components include:

Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Tools like Terraform and Pulumi for defining infrastructure in code
Cloud Services: Platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP that provide computing resources
Container Orchestration: Systems like Kubernetes for managing containerized applications
Service Mesh: Solutions for managing service-to-service communication
Storage Solutions: Services for storing data
Database Services: Managed database solutions

Platform Engineering Tools Landscape

The platform engineering tools landscape continues to evolve as new tools and methodologies emerge. Below is a comprehensive view of current popular tools by category:

graph TD
    subgraph "Platform Engineering Tools Landscape"
    A[Developer Tools] --> A1[GitHub/GitLab]
    A --> A2[VS Code/IntelliJ]
    A --> A3[Backstage]
    
    B[CI/CD Tools] --> B1[Jenkins/CircleCI]
    B --> B2[GitHub Actions]
    B --> B3[ArgoCD/Flux]
    
    C[Infrastructure] --> C1[Terraform/Pulumi]
    C --> C2[Kubernetes]
    C --> C3[Crossplane]
    
    D[Security] --> D1[SonarQube]
    D --> D2[Vault]
    D --> D3[Snyk/Trivy]
    
    E[Monitoring] --> E1[Prometheus]
    E --> E2[Grafana]
    E --> E3[Datadog/New Relic]
    end

Maturity Model

The Platform Engineering Maturity Model helps organizations assess their current capabilities and plan for growth.

graph LR
    subgraph "Platform Engineering Maturity Model"
    A[Initial] --> B[Managed]
    B --> C[Defined]
    C --> D[Measured]
    D --> E[Optimizing]
    end
    
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    style C fill:#ffffb3,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px
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    style E fill:#b3d9ff,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px

Level 1: Initial

Ad-hoc processes
Manual deployments
Limited automation
Siloed teams
Minimal self-service capabilities

Level 2: Managed

Basic CI/CD pipelines established
Some deployment automation
Preliminary developer self-service
Beginning cloud adoption
Basic monitoring in place

Level 3: Defined

Standardized CI/CD processes
Infrastructure as Code adoption
Developer portals for self-service
Established cloud strategy
Comprehensive monitoring and alerting

Level 4: Measured

Metrics-driven development
Automated security scanning
Full self-service capabilities
Multi-cloud strategy
Advanced observability

Level 5: Optimizing

Continuous optimization of platform
Predictive analysis for resources
Complete developer autonomy
Cloud-agnostic architecture
AI-powered operations

References

Internal Developer Platform on AWS Cloud

AWS provides numerous services that can be used to build a comprehensive internal developer platform.

graph TD
    subgraph "AWS IDP Components"
    A[AWS CodePipeline] --> B[AWS CodeBuild]
    B --> C[AWS CodeDeploy]
    A --> D[AWS ECR]
    D --> E[AWS EKS/ECS]
    F[AWS CloudFormation] --> E
    G[AWS IAM] --> A
    G --> E
    H[AWS CloudWatch] --> I[AWS X-Ray]
    end

Key AWS services for platform engineering:

AWS CodeStar: Unified interface for managing software development activities
AWS CodePipeline/CodeBuild/CodeDeploy: CI/CD services
AWS ECR: Container registry
AWS EKS/ECS: Kubernetes service/Container service
AWS CloudFormation/CDK: Infrastructure as Code
AWS IAM: Identity and access management
AWS CloudWatch/X-Ray: Monitoring and observability

Internal Developer Platform on Google Cloud

Google Cloud Platform provides a rich set of services for building internal developer platforms.

graph TD
    subgraph "GCP IDP Components"
    A[Cloud Source Repositories] --> B[Cloud Build]
    B --> C[Cloud Deploy]
    B --> D[Container Registry]
    D --> E[GKE]
    F[Deployment Manager] --> E
    G[Cloud IAM] --> A
    G --> E
    H[Cloud Monitoring] --> I[Cloud Trace]
    end

Key GCP services for platform engineering:

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE): Managed Kubernetes service
Cloud Build: CI/CD service
Artifact Registry: Repository for container images and packages
Cloud Deploy: Managed continuous delivery service
Cloud Monitoring/Logging: Observability services
Identity and Access Management (IAM): Access control
Cloud Source Repositories: Git repositories

Internal Developer Platform on Azure Cloud

Microsoft Azure provides comprehensive services for building internal developer platforms.

graph TD
    subgraph "Azure IDP Components"
    A[Azure DevOps/GitHub] --> B[Azure Pipelines]
    B --> C[Azure Container Registry]
    C --> D[Azure Kubernetes Service]
    E[Azure Resource Manager] --> D
    F[Azure Active Directory] --> A
    F --> D
    G[Azure Monitor] --> H[Application Insights]
    end

Key Azure services for platform engineering:

Azure DevOps/GitHub: Development and collaboration tools
Azure Pipelines: CI/CD service
Azure Container Registry: Repository for container images
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Managed Kubernetes service
Azure Resource Manager: Infrastructure as Code
Azure Active Directory: Identity and access management
Azure Monitor/Application Insights: Monitoring and observability

Internal Developer Platform on OpenShift

Red Hat OpenShift provides a comprehensive platform for building and managing containerized applications.

graph TD
    subgraph "OpenShift IDP Components"
    A[OpenShift Pipelines] --> B[OpenShift Registry]
    B --> C[OpenShift Container Platform]
    D[OpenShift GitOps] --> C
    E[Red Hat SSO] --> A
    E --> C
    F[Prometheus] --> G[Grafana]
    end

Key OpenShift components for platform engineering:

OpenShift Container Platform: Enterprise Kubernetes platform
OpenShift Pipelines: CI/CD based on Tekton
OpenShift Registry: Integrated container registry
OpenShift GitOps: GitOps with ArgoCD
Red Hat SSO: Identity and access management
Prometheus/Grafana: Monitoring and observability
OpenShift Service Mesh: Based on Istio for service-to-service communication

Internal Developer Platform on Multi-Cloud

A multi-cloud approach provides flexibility and prevents vendor lock-in, but requires additional tools for consistency.

graph TD
    subgraph "Multi-Cloud IDP"
    A[GitLab/GitHub] --> B[Tekton/Jenkins X]
    B --> C[Harbor]
    C --> D[Kubernetes]
    E[Terraform] --> D
    F[Keycloak] --> A
    F --> D
    G[Prometheus] --> H[Grafana]
    I[Crossplane] --> J[Multiple Cloud Providers]
    end

Key components for multi-cloud platform engineering:

Kubernetes: Container orchestration across clouds
Crossplane: Control plane for multi-cloud resource management
Terraform: Infrastructure as Code for multiple cloud providers
GitLab/GitHub: Source code management
Tekton/Jenkins X: Cloud-native CI/CD
Harbor: Multi-tenant container registry
Keycloak: Identity and access management
Prometheus/Grafana: Monitoring and observability
Istio/Linkerd: Service mesh for multi-cluster communication

Conclusion

Platform engineering is evolving rapidly as organizations seek to improve developer productivity and operational efficiency. By implementing comprehensive internal developer platforms with tools for CI/CD, security, monitoring, and infrastructure management, companies can accelerate their software delivery while maintaining quality and security.

A successful platform engineering initiative requires:

A clear understanding of developer needs
Standardized processes and workflows
Robust self-service capabilities
Strong security integration
Comprehensive observability
A culture of continuous improvement

By following these principles and leveraging the appropriate tools for your environment, you can build an internal developer platform that enhances productivity and drives business value.