What is Platform Engineering?
Platform engineering is a specialized field of software engineering that focuses on developing and maintaining the infrastructure and systems that other applications or services run on. It involves creating, configuring, and managing platform technologies like servers, containers, and cloud resources. This branch of engineering strives to ensure that these systems are scalable, robust, and have high performance, enabling software developers to build, test, and deploy their applications efficiently.
What do Platform Engineers do?
Platform engineering works by designing, implementing, and managing various platform technologies that cater to the specific needs of software applications. Engineers in this field employ various practices, including automation, virtualization, and containerization, as well as managing databases, networking, security, and scalability issues. Using platform engineering, organizations can standardize their infrastructure, simplify the application development process, enhance operational efficiency, and reduce issues related to deployment and maintenance. Moreover, platform engineering aids in the creation of self-service options for software developers to eliminate any potential bottlenecks and speed up development cycles.
Use Cases for Platform Engineering
Platform Engineering finds its use in numerous areas, including:
Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Platform engineers utilize IaC to efficiently manage and provision computing resources and reduce human error during setup.
DevOps and CI/CD pipelines: By implementing pipelines, platform engineers enable smoother and quicker deployments, integrating the efforts of developers and operations teams.
Cloud Migration: Platform engineers play a significant role in migrating legacy systems to the cloud, ensuring scalability, security, and performance optimization.
Microservices Architecture: In the realm of microservices, platform engineering helps handle issues related to service orchestration, automated deployments, networking, and data sharing.
Container Management: Platform engineers work with technologies like Docker and Kubernetes to create scalable and manageable containerized applications.
