[KCD UK] Platform Orchestrators: The missing middle of Internal Developer Platforms?

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@danielbryantuk Platform Orchestrators: The Missing Middle of Internal Developer Platforms? Daniel Bryant | Platform Engineer | Head of Product Marketing @ Syntasso @danielbryantuk

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@danielbryantuk How do you build a platform? ● Top-down, application developer-focused ○ “The Backstage service catalog is fantastic, but the support for day 2 ops… not so muchˮ ● Bottom-up, operations/infrastructure-focused ○ “The Terraform workflow is fantastic, but infrastructure abstractions leak through to developers HCL, K8s, etc)ˮ ● Middle-out, platform engineering-focused ○ X-as-a-service, process automation, fleet management ○ “Platform as a productˮ approach

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@danielbryantuk @danielbryantuk (he/him) linktr.ee/danielbryantuk

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@danielbryantuk Previously at

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@danielbryantuk From Kubernetes to PaaS to… err, whatʼs next? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUpYEhaUJnM

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@danielbryantuk

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@danielbryantuk What even is a platform? 🤔

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@danielbryantuk What is a platform, anyway? 🚉 A digital platform is a foundation of self-service APIs, tools, services, knowledge and support which are arranged as a compelling internal product. Autonomous delivery teams can make use of the platform to deliver product features at a higher pace, with reduced coordination. Evan Bottcher martinfowler.com/articles/talk-about-platforms.html

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@danielbryantuk Gartner: What is platform engineering? “Platform engineering improves developer experience and productivity by providing self-service capabilities with automated infrastructure operations. It is trending because of its promise to optimise the developer experience and accelerate product teamsʼ delivery of customer value.ˮ https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/what-is-platform-engineering

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@danielbryantuk Platform engineering expectations gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-11-28-gartner-hype-cycle-shows-ai-practices-and-platform-engineering-will-reach-mainstream-adoption-in-software-engineering-in-two-to-five-years

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@danielbryantuk Platform engineering expectations linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:7199307746356199424

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@danielbryantuk Platform challenges

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@danielbryantuk The “whyˮ of platforms 🚉

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@danielbryantuk Current software engineering challenges You want to overcome the following challenges: ● Slow: Developers are blocked, waiting on tickets and other teams ● Risky: Critical business processes are inconsistently applied ● Inefficient: Tech sprawl leads to tech debt and operational overhead 50% of respondents are capable of deploying less than “between once per week and once per month” Accelerate State of DevOps 2023 42% of developers say they can’t release code to production without risking failures Harness State of the DecEx 2024 Overall, 59% of IT pros are frustrated by the time spent on routine infrastructure activities and 84% agreed that they “could bring more value to their organization if they spent less time on routine tasks” HorizonIQ Report 2020

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@danielbryantuk

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@danielbryantuk What are the goals of your platform? ● Go faster: Platform teams need to provide “everything as a serviceˮ to help rapidly and sustainably deliver value to end-users ● Decrease risk: Teams need to automate manual processes in reusable components ● Increase efficiency: You need to manage and scale your digital platform and resources as a fleet

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@danielbryantuk The “howˮ of platforms 🚉

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@danielbryantuk Top down, app developer-focused rollout “Backstage is my platform. Developers go here to spin up a new application, deploy it, and view metricsˮ ✅ Fantastic developer experience (and service catalog) ✅ Highly customisable ❌ Often a facade that calls a series of infrastructure APIs ❌ Day 2 (automation) aspects of the portal and plugins can be challenging

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@danielbryantuk “Terraform is my platform. I can orchestrate all of my infrastructure via HCL and cron jobs, and the GitOps pipelines automatically deploy applicationsˮ ✅ Everything-as-code ✅ Highly automatable ❌ Infrastructure abstractions leak outwards towards developers ❌ At scale, the diversity of tech can be challenging to automate/orchestrate Bottom up, operations-focused rollout

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@danielbryantuk The missing middle? 🏗

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@danielbryantuk https://thenewstack.io/crossplane-what-most-people-get-wrong-and-how-to-get-it-right/ https://cnoe.io/ https://platformengineering.org/platform-tooling https://www.kratix.io/

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@danielbryantuk syntasso.io/post/platform-engineering-orchestrating-applications-platforms-and-infrastructure

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@danielbryantuk syntasso.io/post/platform-engineering-orchestrating-applications-platforms-and-infrastructure

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@danielbryantuk Making it happen 🚉

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@danielbryantuk Platforms: Abstract thinking ● APIs, domains, SOLID/CUPID ○ Just as important for platforms ○ Think information hiding ○ Build for progressive disclosure ● Design for UI, CLI, & API ○ Meet devs where they are at ○ Optimise for automation syntasso.io/post/when-backstage-met-terraform-a nd-platform-orchestrators-webinar-recap

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@danielbryantuk Business requirements change, user expectations expand, APIs are at the core of sustainable platforms ● Open Application Model (OAM) / Score ● Kratix and Promises ● KubeBuilder ● Crossplane ● Massdriver ● … More user focused More implementation focused Platform abstractions (and APIs)

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@danielbryantuk Tech "stacks" are emerging ● The “BACKˮ stack: Backstage, Argo, Crossplane, Kyverno ● CNOE Framework: Cloud Native Operation Excellence ● Kubefirst ● DIY All the other CNCF tech++ ● … More opinionated Less opinionated Platform automation (tech)

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@danielbryantuk This can be overwhelming…

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@danielbryantuk Example: Kratix

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@danielbryantuk Promises, promises…

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@danielbryantuk

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@danielbryantuk Build it, and they will come Solve problems, and they will come

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@danielbryantuk Product focus thoughtworks.com/en-gb/insights/looking-glass/platforms-as-products

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@danielbryantuk Product focus thoughtworks.com/en-gb/insights/looking-glass/platforms-as-products

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@danielbryantuk What gets measured, gets managed ● Establish goals and measurements ● Leading indicators ○ Adoption rates ○ Onboarding times ○ Time to nth PR ● Lagging indicators ○ App retention rate ○ Incidents/near misses mitigated ○ ROI (time saved)

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@danielbryantuk Wrapping up 🎉

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@danielbryantuk Conclusion ● 🏗 Build your platform intentionally ● 🚉 Watch out for the missing middle: “platform orchestratorsˮ ● 👀 Struggling with scaling day 2 operations with your portal? ● 👀 Infrastructure abstractions leaking to developers? ● 🎯 Focus on “platform as a productˮ

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@danielbryantuk Thank you! @danielbryantuk syntasso.io/post/platform-engineering-orchestrating-applications-platforms-and-infrastructure docs.kratix.io/main/quick-start speakerdeck.com/danielbryantuk slideshare.net/dbryant_uk/presentations