How Platform Engineering Helps Meet C-Suite Expectations

Digital transformation and application modernization increasingly means building a cloud-native application hosted by a public cloud provider like AWS, Azure, GCP or one of the many other providers. In many organizations the tools and automation needed to support design, build, test and deployment of applications are being built as an internal developer platform using the principles of platform engineering. My colleague Bhargav Bhikkaji has helped define what is included in platform engineering via a post last week, in this post I will describe how it helps meet C-Suite expectations.?

Generally speaking, we would expect the CIO, and the leaders of the development, operations and infrastructure teams to be directly affected by the introduction of platform engineering at a firm. But it actually goes much further and affects all aspects of the firm as I describe here.

First, let us reiterate what the CIO expects from the platform. Increased developer productivity due to standardization of architecture, open system components, and cloud services enabling the automation of many activities. CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and blue-green deployment shortens the release cycle, bringing applications to market faster. Scalability and redundancy inherent in well-designed cloud-native applications means that customer expectations of performance and reliability are met. By encapsulating infrastructure and operations activities into the platform and hiding details from developers, it reduces cognitive overload from having to learn so many new areas, and makes it easier to hire.

The inherent underlying security configuration and the handling of patching, network security and identity and access management by the cloud provider reduces risk in the eyes of the CISO. The platform engineering approach standardizes and freezes the selection and configuration of open source components, security and monitoring tools as well as cloud services. Using ‘architecture-as-code’, application templates and ‘infrastructure-as-code’ this means that the info security risk posed by misconfiguration or unsafe components are minimized. The platform can also help identify dependencies on specific components, prompt for CVEs/bugs published and even offer suggestions for fixing these.?

Firms that use their cloud-native applications in order to deliver value to their customers, such as e-commerce sites, or mobile app-based services, have Chief Revenue Officers who depend on the rapid delivery of features, blazing fast performance under load and high rates of uptime to ensure they are meeting sales targets. The rapid development cycle times enabled by CI/CD pipelines significantly reduce time-to-market. The use of scalable cloud services deployed in multiple availability zones, or propelled to the edge as needed means that consumers get the experience they expect.

The move to the cloud adds challenges as well as opportunities for the CFO. Opportunities to move fractured legacy finance applications into SaaS, or compose new business processes using APIs. The move from capital expenditures that serve for several years to the variable and unpredictable monthly billing of the pay-as-you-go cloud model is a challenge. By enforcing architectural choices that control cost and enabling quick build and tear-down of development and test resources, the platform helps keep costs under control. In addition, confidence in the scalability enforced by the architecture-as-code means that production resources can be kept lean until demand forces scale out.

Finally, the CEO of the firm is looking for a firm, stable foundation on which to perform quick tactical pivots to match the ever changing business environment. By investing in a platform that abstracts away commoditized details and enables teams to concentrate on what they do best, the firm ensures that business goals are met and exceeded.?

Platform Engineering is designed to meet the needs of the development and engineering teams. However, it has wide implications across the firm, setting it up for success no matter whether the modernized applications are used for internal business processes or for the firm's customers.?

#devops #platformengineering #cloudnative #csuite #digital