Best of Platform Engineering — August 2024

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   Article

   ITNEXT·2y

   Internal Developer Platforms: A Real Thing or Just a Trend?

   Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs) are becoming increasingly popular as a way to streamline and manage developer operations. IDPs aim to provide a self-service platform for developers, often integrated with portals that act as interfaces for managing services. Key components include self-service capabilities, Kubernetes overviews, standard service catalogs, and CI/CD pipeline integrations. The post highlights the importance of understanding the cultural and technical shifts required to successfully implement an IDP, discussing its pros and cons and emphasizing a focus on both developers and other stakeholders.

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   Article

   Arcjet·2y

   Whatever happened to DevSecOps?

   The concept of DevSecOps aimed to integrate security throughout the development lifecycle, but it hasn't worked out as planned. The clash between development speed and security needs remains an issue. The future might resemble the rise of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), where dedicated security teams build tools and provide guidance, allowing developers to handle application-specific security details. This approach mirrors platform engineering with a security focus.

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   Article

   Spacelift·2y

   How to Build a Platform Engineering Team [Focus & Roles]

   Platform engineering is essential for managing the complex infrastructure of modern cloud-native architectures and microservices. Building a successful platform engineering team involves focusing on areas like Infrastructure as Code, continuous integration and delivery, and security. Key roles include platform engineers, site reliability engineers, cloud architects, and security engineers. Effective hiring strategies, including focused job descriptions and an efficient interview process, are crucial. Onboarding, goal setting, and continuous training help retain top talent and ensure team success.

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   Article

   The New Stack·2y

   How a DevOps Team Became a Platform Engineering Team

   Allianz Direct transformed its DevOps team into a platform engineering team to optimize technology, people, and processes across its organization. The transition involved overcoming initial anti-patterns, defining clear DevOps principles, controlling the backlog, and adopting a cloud-native stack. Key achievements included revamping the CI/CD pipeline with Argo CD, reducing vulnerabilities, shifting to continuous security, and implementing organizational-level service-level objectives (SLOs). This approach helped boost software delivery performance and foster a culture of closer collaboration and shared responsibility.

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