An outlook about DevOps and Platform Engineering in 2025

in this set i dare to give an outlook about what 2025 could bring for the realms of DevOps and Platform Engineering. The talk was held at Sitic Sharing on 29th of January 2025 (https://sitic.org/platform-engineering-zwischen-standardisierung-und-flexibilitaet-im-zeitalter-von-ki/)

Transcript

1. Platform engineering and Devops 2025 Jan Moser Lead Consultant @ NFQ Solutions
2. NFQ Technologies | Scaling Business → Native Swiss, mostly living in Asia the last 7 years → 25 years in the software industry → ISAQB certified instructor and certified Azure Solution Architecture and Cybersecurity expert → Member of the DevopsDays Zurich organization committee → Enthusiast for all kinds tech, software (-architecture and -development), Devops, Thought-leadership and much more About me
3. 01 Retrospective 2024
4. NFQ Technologies | Scaling Business The (R)evolution of Devops and Platform Engineering went on 2024 with ongoing shift-left practices and the rise of Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs) Devops and Platform Engineering 2024 Dev|Ops -> Devops The Devops mindset in Switzerland is on the rise, with 88% of the companies starting to embrace or having embraced Devops Practices (as stated by the Swiss state of Devops 2024) Team autonomy grows with an overall of 85% of developers stating that they are allowed to deploy all or some services to either Prod or Non-Prod environments. (as stated by the Swiss state of Devops 2024) Platforms are on the rise More and more companies start to transit from pure Devops to Platform Engineering and the use of internal developer platforms. AI has entered the game …and is here to stay. More and more platform products leverage AI models to improve your development and deployment workflows and observability
5. 02 Outlook for 2025
6. NFQ Technologies | Scaling Business → With the rise of AI models and improved accuracy, they will conquer most aspects of a software development and operations lifecycle → Prevent shadow IT by evaluating and communicating clear guidelines and rules about the usage of AI models and tools (they will use them anyway) → Those AI tools all are CO-, not AUTO-Pilots… the good old CCC (Command, Control, Correct) is valid more than ever → They can provide valuable insights and boost your productivity by several % → But beware of Snake-oil Salesmen! AI is here to stay
7. NFQ Technologies | Scaling Business → Direct provisioning and accessing infrastructure by developers will decrease as it leads to dangerous, suboptimal or cost ineffective deployments → Access will be granted via Vending Machine Pattern Systems such as IDPs → Alternatively, developers describe the required capabilities of their systems directly in code → Tools such as Winglang, Radius or .NET Aspire are examples here Developers will lose access to infrastructure
8. NFQ Technologies | Scaling Business → To professionally setup and operate a platform you need a dedicated team. → Platforms make bad side projects or hackathon artefacts → A badly maintained platform is worse than none at all → Most platform frameworks at the moment are more of a rough skeleton which you need to customize and tailor to your needs Platforms make bad pet projects
9. NFQ Technologies | Scaling Business → In 2025 platform products with a set of ready-made integrations and connectors will increase, whereas the significance of basic frameworks such as backstage will decrease → These products will shift the focus more from building and customizing an IDP framework such as backstage yourself to configure the integrations and connectors that suit my infrastructure and operations setup → These platforms offer out of the box a good overview for developers and platform engineers to navigate and monitor their environment. → Prominent products here are Vmware Tanzu, Zuhlke Platform Plane, Redhat Developer Hub or Port Integration > DYI
10. NFQ Technologies | Scaling Business → Systems should be engineered for Pareto efficiency → They should be win-win rather than win-lose environments. → This requires a close collaboration and open communication between involved stakeholders (architects, developers, platform engineers, operation teams etc.) rather than segregated silos → Compromises and acceptance of “sub-optimal” details for the greater good are important factors of such systems Win - Win over Win - Lose
11. NFQ Technologies | Scaling Business → Devops and platform engineering both require a close and aligned collaboration of several stakeholder groups → Conway’s law states that: Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure. → So to successfully implement a Devops or Platform engineering strategy, you need to evaluate and potentially adapt your whole organisation. Organizational Change
12. NFQ Technologies | Scaling Business The software Lifecycle (Devops) IDEATION PLANNING IMPLEMENTATION DEPLOYMENT OPERATIONS Devops
13. NFQ Technologies | Scaling Business → Despite the rise of platform engineering Devops is alive more than ever → Many SME start to embrace Devops practices now without the platform overhead for now → It is easier to capture the Devops mindset and techniques than to build a fully fledged IDP → Though many Devops engineers would maybe rather be called platform engineers ;) Devops is not dead…
14. NFQ Technologies | Scaling Business → In 2025, the use platform engineering, through the rise of integrative platform software, will increase → Developers will be more involved in the whole software lifecycle, but have less direct access to infrastructure resources → AI models are here to stay. Acknowledge this and prepare guidelines to prevent shadow IT → Strive for a Win-Win situation where no party gains benefits on the cost of others. → The above points require besides technical also changes in organization, collaboration and mindset. Just a tool is not enough! Summary
15. Q&A
16. NFQ Technologies | Scaling Business NFQ Solutions https://nfq-solutions.de/ The Swiss Devops report https://www.vshn.ch/en/devops-report-2024/ Devops Topologies https://web.devopstopologies.com/ Platform Plane https://www.platformplane.com/ Tanzu https://www.vmware.com/products/app-platform/tanzu Redhat Developer Hub https://developers.redhat.com/rhdh/overview Port https://www.getport.io/ Winglang https://www.winglang.io/ Radius https://radapp.io/ .NET Aspire https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/aspire/get-started/aspire-overview Links Links Links
17. SCALING BUSINESS SCALING BUSINESS