Best of Platform Engineering — July 2025

1. 1
   Article

   Faun·44w

   The Platform Engineer Starter Kit

   Platform engineering teams build and operate Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs) that serve as self-service infrastructure for development teams. They focus on developer experience by creating golden paths, abstracting complexity, providing reusable building blocks, and measuring success through developer happiness and velocity. Unlike traditional ops roles, platform engineers act as product managers for internal tools, designing feedback loops and working closely with SREs while maintaining the balance between abstraction and flexibility.

   21
2. 2
   Article

   HashiCorp·44w

   AI is making developers faster, but at a cost

   Google's 2024 DORA report reveals that AI coding tools increase code review speed by 3.1% and quality by 3.4%, but cause a 7.2% reduction in delivery stability. The instability stems from AI's limited understanding of broader system context, reinforcement of outdated patterns, and security vulnerabilities like hardcoded secrets. Organizations can mitigate these issues through platform engineering practices including secure infrastructure modules, centralized secrets management, unified visibility systems, and golden images with pre-approved workflows.

   21

   4
3. 3
   Video

   YouTube·44w

   Devops is Dying

   DevOps engineer job postings and salaries are declining, but this reflects the evolution of DevOps skills being absorbed into specialized roles like platform engineering, SRE, and cloud engineering. The core DevOps skills remain highly valuable and in-demand, but companies now prefer hands-on experience and real-world projects over certifications. Engineers who can demonstrate production-grade automation, infrastructure as code, and deployment skills across various specialized roles will have the best career opportunities.

   17

   3
4. 4
   Article

   Faun·41w

   How We Built Our First Golden Path: A Platform Engineering Story

   A practical guide to building the first golden path in platform engineering, focusing on creating a streamlined backend service deployment process. The story emphasizes starting with developer journeys rather than tools, treating the platform as a product with feedback loops, and scaling through trust rather than mandates. Key lessons include choosing principles before technology, building one perfect path before scaling, and maintaining simplicity while gathering continuous feedback from development teams.

   11