When Terraform Met Backstage: Fireside Chat on Good Platform Abstractions Abby Bangser Principal Engineer Daniel Bryant Product Marketing Seve Kim Product Manager, Backstage

tl;dr ● People are talking about three layers of platforms: ○ Application choreography (portals, UI, and UX) ○ Platform orchestration (API and lifecycle) ○ Infrastructure composition (IaC, scripts, and APIs) ● There are best practices for integrating Backstage and Terraform ○ Abstractions, APIs, and plugins are the key ● The future of internal developer platforms is bright! ○ But don’t be like a moth to the (technology) flame

Our panelists for today! Abby Bangser Principal Engineer @ Syntasso Daniel Bryant, Product Marketing @ Syntasso Seve Kim Product Manager @ Backstage

Setting the scene

Platform engineering and the Gartner Hype Cycle ● By 2026, 80% of large software engineering organizations will establish platform engineering teams ○ Gartner Top 10 Strategic Tech Trends 2024 ● Treat your platform as a product ○ Delivering value through customer focus ○ Thoughtworks Insights ● What about the platform architecture?

We’re starting to hear of failures and challenges

Our pitch on the “three layers of platforms” syntasso.io/post/platform-engineering-orchestrating-applications-platforms-and-infrastructure gartner.com/en/articles/what-is-platform-engineering

Let’s gather around the fire

What are the key abstractions for building an internal developer platform (and portal)? Comfortable? Let’s begin…

What are the biggest benefits and challenges with using Backstage? Comfortable? Let’s begin…

What are the biggest benefits and challenges with using Terraform? Comfortable? Let’s begin…

How should teams integrate their portal with infrastructure (as code) management? Comfortable? Let’s begin…

Case studies and interesting stories Comfortable? Let’s begin…

Wrap up

Thank you! & Additional information Many thanks to Seve for joining us today! Platform Engineering: Orchestrating Applications, Platforms, and Infrastructure (bit.ly/3UNxQei ) How to Take the First Step Towards Self Serve Internal Developer Platforms (bit.ly/4bLMzMD ) Platform Orchestrators: The Missing Middle of Internal Developer Platforms? (bit.ly/3URBoML )