Platform engineering is a discipline that aims to increase the productivity of software engineering teams by designing, building…

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Platform engineering requires continuous maintenance of complex Kubernetes-based systems integrating multiple OSS projects. Expect 2-5 major upgrades, 43-52 minor upgrades, and 276-327 patches annually across dependencies. Key challenges include tracking upstream changes, controlling the supply chain through dedicated registries, managing Kubernetes API deprecations, handling Helm chart upgrades with immutable properties, avoiding bundled database dependencies in favor of operators like CloudnativePG, and implementing runtime validation through automated integration tests and monitoring. Automation, custom platform operators, and robust testing are essential for long-term maintainability.

Platform engineering maintenance pitfalls and smart strategies to stay ahead

Catching Up With Software Upstream Changes

Maintaining Applications With Persistent Data