4 solutions offered by platform engineering 

The demand for efficiency, consistency, and security has never been greater.

The role of platform engineering has become indispensable in driving innovation and efficiency. Establishing internal developer portals (IDPs) highlights the transformative potential of platform engineering, as these portals provide a centralized gateway to essential tools and resources that streamline workflows and enhance productivity. Through effective implementation, IDPs not only empower developers with self-service capabilities but also lay the groundwork for sustainable growth and technological agility.

As organizations embrace digital transformation, IDPs emerge as critical catalysts, transforming how development teams access the tools and resources they need to innovate.

By offering a seamless, self-service environment that aligns with the agile and DevOps methodologies, IDPs not only simplify processes but also empower developers to focus on what they do best—creating value through code. Here are four solutions offered by platform engineering.

1. Establishing internal developer portals (IDPs) 

Internal developer portals have emerged as a pivotal component for streamlining processes, enhancing productivity, and enabling efficient self-service among developers.  

By providing a centralized gateway to tools, environments, and resources, IDPs are not merely platforms but catalysts for transforming how software development teams operate. 

Why create internal developer portals? 

The rationale for establishing IDPs is firmly rooted in the need for efficiency and standardization in software development environments. Traditional development processes often grapple with fragmented tools and inefficient workflows, leading to wasted time and resources.  

By consolidating these elements into a coherent portal, IDPs solve multiple challenges: 

• Efficiency: IDPs automate repetitive tasks such as environment setup, server configuration, and deployment processes. By streamlining these activities, developers can focus more on coding and less on logistics, significantly improving development velocity and time-to-market. 

• Standardization: They foster a uniform approach across teams by providing standardized templates and workflows. This consistency reduces errors and ensures that best practices are adhered to organization wide. 

• Self-service empowerment: Developers gain the autonomy to manage their development environments, reducing dependency on operations teams and speeding up the deployment process. This self-sufficiency is critical in modern agile and DevOps cultures where rapid iteration and deployment are necessary. 

How to establish an effective internal developer portal

Creating a robust internal developer portal involves a series of strategic steps that ensure the platform aligns with organizational needs and developer workflows: 

• Assessment and planning: Begin with a thorough assessment of the current development processes and identify bottlenecks that an IDP could address. This might involve surveying developers to gather insights on pain points and desired functionalities. 

• Defining capabilities: Determine the core functionalities your IDP will offer. This could include CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure provisioning, a service catalog, and security compliance features. The platform should cater to diverse needs while remaining intuitive and efficient. 

• Tool and technology selection: Choose the underlying technologies that will support your IDP. Opt for tools that integrate seamlessly with existing systems and promote scalability. Open-source frameworks like Backstage.io or cloud-native solutions could be considered for their extensibility and community support. 

• Design with the developer experience in mind: User experience for developers should be a top priority. The IDP should be intuitive, reducing the learning curve and facilitating adoption. This means employing clean interfaces, comprehensive documentation, and responsive support mechanisms. 

IDPs are not just about simplifying development tasks; they are about transforming organizational culture and practices.

By establishing an IDP, companies can ensure that developers have the tools they need to innovate, respond to change swiftly, and maintain high standards in software delivery. This support empowers developers to focus on what they do best—writing code and delivering business value. 

In summary, the strategic implementation of IDPs is a crucial step in a company’s digital transformation journey, offering scalability, efficiency, and enhanced developer experience. As development environments grow increasingly complex, the role of IDPs in providing clear pathways to resources and tools becomes indispensable. 

2. Automating workflows 

In the realm of platform engineering, the automation of workflows stands as a cornerstone for enhancing operational efficiency, reducing manual overhead, and accelerating the digital transformation journey.  

By automating repetitive and labor-intensive tasks, organizations can unlock new levels of productivity and reliability, enabling teams to focus on innovation and strategic priorities. 

The importance of automating workflows 

Automation in platform engineering involves the integration of various tools and technologies to streamline processes, thereby freeing developers from mundane, manual tasks that can impede productivity: 

• Reduction of manual efforts: By automating workflows, teams can eliminate repetitive tasks that are prone to human error, such as manual code deployments, environment setups, and routine maintenance processes. This not only reduces the risks associated with manual intervention but also enhances accuracy. 

• Efficiency gains: Automated workflows enable rapid execution of software development tasks such as testing, integration, and deployment, reducing the time and resources needed to bring software products to market. This leads to shorter development cycles and promotes more frequent releases. 

• Consistency across processes: Through automation, organizations can enforce consistent practices across development and operational environments. This consistency minimizes discrepancies and standardizes outputs, ensuring high-quality deliverables. 

Implementing automation in software pipelines 

Implementing workflow automation involves strategic planning, tool selection, and careful orchestration to ensure seamless integration into existing processes: 

• Identifying automation opportunities: Begin by mapping out the current workflows and identifying areas that are repetitive and time-consuming, such as deployment processes, testing phases, and data migration tasks. 

• Tool selection and integration: Choose automation tools that align with organizational goals and technology stacks. Tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, Ansible, Terraform, and Kubernetes are widely used for orchestrating workflows, managing configurations, and deploying applications across environments. 

• Orchestrating seamless workflows: Leverage orchestration platforms to manage these automated processes. Automation orchestrators knit together various tools and stages in the workflow, providing a holistic view and control over the development and deployment pipelines. 

Best practices for effective workflow automation 

To maximize the benefits of automation in platform engineering, organizations should adhere to several best practices: 

• Start small and scale gradually: Begin automating simple, well-understood processes to gain early wins and then progressively build more complex automation capabilities. 

• Maintain flexibility: Ensure that automation tools and scripts are adaptable and scalable, capable of evolving alongside changing needs and technologies. 

• Monitor and optimize: Implement monitoring tools to track the performance of automated workflows. Gather data to identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies and refine processes continually. 

• Security and compliance: Integrate security checks and compliance verifications into automated workflows. The use of automated vulnerability scanners and compliance reporting can bolster security and ensure adherence to regulations. 

Automating workflows in platform engineering is critical for achieving operational excellence and accelerating delivery lifecycles. By leveraging automation, organizations can enhance efficiency, improve consistency, and respond swiftly to market changes.  

The journey towards full automation requires careful planning and execution, but the rewards—ranging from increased productivity to reduced operational risks—make it an essential step in the path toward digital transformation. As exemplified by the financial institution’s experience, automation not only optimizes existing processes but lays a strong foundation for future innovation. 

3. Enhancing collaboration 

Enhancing collaboration between development and operations teams—often referred to as DevOps—is vital for improving productivity and delivering reliable software at speed. Platform engineering plays a crucial role in breaking down silos and fostering a synergistic environment where these teams can work together seamlessly. 

Importance of collaboration between development and operations 

Collaboration between development and operations teams is not merely a trend but a necessity in modern software production. Here’s why it’s important: 

• Shared objectives: Both teams work towards a common goal of delivering high-quality software efficiently. By aligning team objectives, organizations can ensure that everyone is on the same page, reducing friction and improving cohesion. 

• Improved productivity: Collaborative environments facilitate better communication and understanding. When teams work closely, they can quickly identify and resolve bottlenecks, leading to smoother workflows and increased efficiency. 

• Risk mitigation: Through joint ownership of processes, development and operations teams can identify potential risks earlier in the lifecycle, enabling proactive mitigation. This cooperation helps in maintaining system stability and reliability. 

Facilitating collaboration through DevOps practices and tools 

The adoption of DevOps is pivotal for fostering collaboration between development and operations teams. Here’s how DevOps practices and tools can help: 

• Cultural shift: Successful DevOps implementation begins with a cultural shift that emphasizes collaboration, open communication, and mutual trust. Encouraging a culture where both teams share knowledge and responsibilities is foundational. 

• Automation and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD): Implementing CI/CD pipelines automates the code integration and deployment processes, reducing manual hand-offs and delays. This automation ensures that both teams can deliver new features and fixes rapidly and reliably. 

• Integrated toolchains: Using tools like Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, and Git enables continuous integration and deployment. These tools help standardize environments and streamline workflows, enabling seamless collaboration. 

Best practices for enhancing collaboration 

To create a collaborative environment between development and operations teams, organizations should follow these best practices: 

• Foster a DevOps culture: Encourage a culture of collaboration by organizing joint team-building activities, shared learning sessions, and promoting open communication channels. 

• Regular cross-functional meetings: Schedule regular meetings where development and operations teams can discuss ongoing projects, share feedback, and synchronize efforts to ensure alignment. 

• Embrace continuous feedback: Implement feedback loops using monitoring and logging tools that provide insights into system performance. Both teams should use this data to refine processes, improve systems, and enhance collaboration. 

• Define clear roles and responsibilities: Establish clear roles and responsibilities to ensure accountability while nurturing flexibility in collaboration. Both teams should understand their contributions towards achieving shared goals. 

Enhancing collaboration between development and operations teams is a critical dimension of platform engineering that drives productivity and product reliability. By leveraging DevOps practices and tools, organizations can build a collaborative ecosystem that not only improves software delivery but also aligns teams with business objectives.  

The success of the online retailer illustrates that by fostering a culture of collaboration, implementing the right tools, and promoting continuous integration, companies can realize significant enhancements in their software development lifecycle. As platform engineering evolves, the synergy between teams will become increasingly crucial for sustaining competitive advantage in an ever-competitive market. 

4. Security measures to ensure scalability and resilience

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, building scalable and secure platforms is a fundamental requirement for organizations aiming to support growth while protecting sensitive data.  

Platform engineering plays a pivotal role in establishing the infrastructure and practices necessary to ensure that digital systems can expand seamlessly and remain secure against potential threats. 

Building scalable platforms 

Scalability is the ability of a platform to handle an increasing amount of work, or its potential to be enlarged to accommodate that growth: 

• Designing for growth: Scalability must be woven into the architecture from the ground up. This involves selecting modular technologies and designing systems that can grow horizontally (adding more nodes) rather than vertically (increasing the power of existing nodes). Using cloud services like AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure allows organizations to scale resources dynamically according to demand. 

• Load balancing and resource allocation: Implement load balancing to distribute traffic efficiently across servers, enhancing performance and ensuring that no single server is overwhelmed. Through effective resource allocation, platforms can manage workloads more efficiently, reducing latency and improving user experience. 

• Microservices architecture: Adopting a microservices architecture allows different services to be developed, deployed, and scaled independently. This enhances the overall flexibility and scalability of the platform, enabling teams to respond to demand changes quickly without affecting the entire system. 

Ensuring security 

As platforms scale, the need to protect sensitive data becomes even more pressing. Security measures must be comprehensive and proactive: 

• Robust security frameworks: Implement robust security frameworks that include encryption protocols, access controls, and regular audits. By securing both data at rest and in transit, organizations can protect against unauthorized access and data breaches. 

• Identity and access management (IAM): Use IAM solutions to enforce fine-grained access controls. This ensures that users have access only to the resources they need to perform their tasks, minimizing the risk of insider threats. 

• Continuous monitoring and threat detection: Utilize advanced monitoring tools to continuously assess the platform for vulnerabilities and potential threats. Solutions like intrusion detection systems (IDS) and security information and event management (SIEM) tools help in timely identification and response to security incidents. 

Best practices for building scalable and secure platforms 

To effectively build scalable and secure platforms, certain best practices should be embraced: 

• Architect with scalability in mind: Begin with a clear plan that incorporates scalability into the architecture. Consider future growth prospects and choose flexible technologies that can accommodate expansion without major rework. 

• Incorporate security from the start: Security should not be an afterthought. Embed security measures into the platform’s fundamental design and ensure continuous review and adaptation to emerging threats. 

• Leverage automation: Use automation for deploying updates and security patches. Automated CI/CD pipelines can enhance both scalability and security by ensuring consistent and rapid deployment with fewer manual errors. 

• Regularly review and update: Conduct regular assessments to identify potential scalability and security gaps. Incorporate feedback loops to adapt technological and procedural improvements continuously. 

Building scalable and secure platforms is an integral challenge that organizations must address to thrive in today’s digital world. By leveraging platform engineering principles, businesses can create robust architectures that not only cater to growing demands but also protect vital data from evolving threats.  

The healthcare company example demonstrates that with the right strategy, organizations can successfully balance the demands of scalability and security, fostering sustainable growth and trustworthiness in their digital initiatives. 

Platform engineering success framework  

To effectively implement platform engineering, here’s a framework you might find useful:  

1. Begin by clearly defining your goals and understanding the problems your Internal Developer Portal (IDP) should solve.  

2. Examine your current software development processes to spot areas where standardizing and automating can quickly pay off.  

3. Simplify your toolset to create a unified technology foundation that aligns development, security, and operations teams on shared tools and processes, promoting better teamwork. 

4. Next, assemble a cross-functional team from development, operations, and security to ensure the platform meets everyone’s needs.  

5. Encourage collaboration from the start to avoid obstacles that hinder progress and provide training and support to help staff adapt and continuously improve.  

6. Focus on reducing developer stress, boosting speed and system reliability, and offering preapproved tools to minimize fragmentation. If these issues aren’t crucial for your organization, platform adoption might not succeed. 

7. Establish clear metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the impact of platform engineering on productivity, quality, and speed to market.  

8. Regular monitoring and data-driven improvements can help you refine the platform to ensure it is robust, efficient, and ready for growth. 

9.  Implement effective practices such as DevSecOps, automated testing, and infrastructure as code to overcome challenges and prepare for future expansion. 

Platform engineering requirement checklist 2025 

Make sure your platform engineering solution meets your unique needs. Use this checklist to confirm that your chosen solution includes all necessary components. 

• Compatible integration with prominent CI/CD tools. 

• Automates repetitive developer tasks, including building, testing, deploying, and reviewing code. 

• High scalability and performance, featuring auto-scaling, load balancing, and efficient resource management. 

• Complies with data security and privacy standards to protect sensitive information. 

• Supports critical security features like Multi-factor Authentication (MFA), Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), and API Authorization. 

• Functionality for capturing, tracking, and managing user feedback and bug reports effectively. 

• Includes strong version control and API management to maintain the codebase and handle APIs. 

• Integrates seamlessly with leading Identity and Access Management (IAM) tools. 

• Works with top infrastructure management tools. 

• Provides excellent developer experience through an intuitive interface, comprehensive documentation, and productivity-enhancing features. 

• Comprehensive activity tracking and performance metrics, along with detailed logging and monitoring. 

• Produces customizable and detailed reports, offering insights into application performance, user actions, and error analysis. 

• Facilitates easy and smooth application deployment using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and configuration management. 

• Offers robust service orchestration capabilities to automate and manage complex workflows efficiently. 

Establishing an Internal Developer Portal, coupled with the strategic implementation of automated workflows and enhanced collaboration, paves the way for organizational success. By leveraging platform engineering best practices, businesses can ensure scalability and robust security, supporting growth and building trust.

As you embark on this transformative journey, remember that the right framework and checklist can dramatically elevate your platform engineering efforts, setting a strong foundation for future innovation and sustainable excellence.

Learn more about Calibo here.