If you are looking to find a way to meet the challenges of your business that allows for a more scalable software infrastructure at a lower cost, then you should look into platform engineering!

Platform engineering is a little-known discipline that Gartner has identified as one of the key trends for 2023. Nonetheless, it is a critical solution as businesses increasingly migrate to the cloud. It seeks to improve software development and delivery by streamlining and optimizing the process of planning and implementing tool chains such as continuous integration (CI) pipelines and test environment deployment.

Discover what platform engineering is, how it works, and how it can profit your business or organization in this article.

What Exactly is Platform Engineering?

Platform engineering is the design, evolution, and governance of various technical platforms. It provides a set of services and tools that allow developers to efficiently and cost-effectively build, deploy, and manage applications and services. What is its mission? To create a strong, flexible, and automated IT infrastructure competent in supporting a wide range of applications and services.

The engineers in charge of building these infrastructures aim to provide a high level of availability, scalability, and resilience in order to absorb the increasing traffic and data flows. Platform engineering teams and development and operations (DevOps) teams frequently collaborate to provide tools and services designed to shorten development cycles, improve application quality, and enable continuous deployment.

How Does Platform Engineering Operate?

Platform engineering teams are typically in charge of the design, implementation, and management of technical platforms that support an organization’s applications and services. To accomplish this, they make certain to:

Develop and maintain platform infrastructure by managing server, storage, network, and other component installation and configuration.
Automate the deployment, configuration management, and system monitoring processes.
Platform security, identity and access management, certificate management, security audits, and so forth.
Technical assistance to the development and operations teams in the resolution of platform-related issues.
Monitor performance metrics, identify bottlenecks, and make improvements to improve platform performance.
Monitor resource utilization trends and forecast future needs to manage platform capacity.

Benefits of Platform Engineering

Platform engineering can provide several benefits to organizations, including:

Increased efficiency: By creating a platform that streamlines processes and allows for greater automation, platform engineering can help organizations and businesses to be more efficient in their operations.
Faster time-to-market: A well-designed platform can make it easier and faster to develop and deploy new products and services. Reducing development time and enabling faster iteration can help organizations stay ahead of the competition.
Scalability: Platforms can be designed to scale easily and efficiently, allowing organizations to handle increased demand and grow their businesses without adding significant costs.
Improved reliability: A well-built platform can be more reliable and stable than traditional software systems. With a platform, organizations can ensure that their products and services are always available and functioning properly.
Increased innovation: Platform engineering can enable innovation by providing a foundation for experimentation and the creation of new products and services. By fostering innovation, organizations can stay ahead of the competition and continue to grow.
Reduced costs: By creating a platform that is reusable and easily adaptable, organizations can reduce development costs and improve their bottom line.

Wrapping it Up

Platform engineering is a critical aspect of building and scaling a successful business in today’s digital age. By creating a robust and flexible platform that can sustain your organization’s current and future needs, you can enable your team to innovate, iterate, and deliver value to your customers at an accelerated pace.

From designing and developing a scalable architecture to implementing effective DevOps processes, platform engineering requires a strategic approach and a deep understanding of your business objectives. By investing in platform engineering with Thoughtworks, you can confirm that your business is well-positioned to compete and thrive in today’s hyper-competitive business landscape.

So, whether you’re a startup looking to establish your presence in the market or an established enterprise looking to modernize your technology stack, Thoughtworks can help you achieve your objectives and take your business to the next level. Don’t wait – start exploring the world of platform engineering today and unlock the full potential of your organization!