#81: I love backends (platform backends)

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I love backends (platform backends)

If you're reading this, then it’s a safe bet you're pretty interested, and fairly familiar with platform engineering already.

It’s time for a phrase you’ve probably heard me say a thousand times already - we’re in the stage now where it’s not just about “doing platform engineering, it’s about doing platform engineering right.” And that means properly understanding platform backends.

Over the last year, there has been a deluge of “platforms” that can only be described as a frontend layer. Teams just take their current CI/CD pipeline and slap a portal on top of it, and celebrate that they’re doing platform engineering now.

This might work for small teams of a few dozen developers, but once you get into the real weeds of platform engineering. This ain’t enough.

True ROI in platform engineering comes from standardization & automation.

The backend is where the logic to make that possible gets built. It is what lets your platform execute advanced and complicated requests, without breaking anything or needing a JIRA ticket and a dozen slack messages to get done. And how you build your backend is key to deciding whether your platform delivers the ROI that the last 3 years of platform hype have promised.

What are you waiting for? Enter the backend.