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What is a platform?

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October 08, 2025

What is a platform?

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Posedio PRO

October 08, 2025
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  1. Do it RIGHT. What is a platform? 2 A platform

    engineer, asking themselves the question
  2. Do it RIGHT. Hello 4 • Damjan, CTO of Posedio

    • Interested in Kubernetes, Cloud Native, and Platform Engineering • Will attempt to define a platform
  3. Do it RIGHT. Why define a platform? 5 • Started

    my career as a Software Developer • Worked as a DevOps engineer on one of the largest OLTP systems in AT • Worked as a Platform Engineer on a large Developer Platform • Worked as a Platform Engineer on a Data Platform • Worked on establishing an SRE team
  4. Do it RIGHT. Why define a platform? 6 • Started

    my career as a Software Developer • Worked as a DevOps engineer on one of the largest OLTP systems in AT • Worked as a Platform Engineer on a large Developer Platform • Worked as a Platform Engineer on a Data Platform • Worked on establishing an SRE team
  5. Do it RIGHT. Why define a platform? 7 • Still

    trying to get Developers, Platform Engineers and Managers to agree on a single, useful definition!
  6. Do it RIGHT. What is a platform 8 • You

    won’t know till you’ve built it! • Once you’ve built it, what you have built becomes the platform
  7. Do it RIGHT. What is a platform 9 • You

    won’t know till you’ve built it! • Once you’ve built it, what you have built becomes the platform • A platform is what a platform does! o A platform is defined by its goals
  8. Do it RIGHT. More features, less outages 10 • Move

    fast – increase developer productivity • Don’t fail often – stabilise the system • BUT: Usually, changes cause outages
  9. Do it RIGHT. Goal 1: Increase productivity 11 • A

    platform can only increase productivity for companies of a certain size • Small companies usually suffer a productivity net loss with platforms! • This is because platforms add complexity, and because the math is weird – more on this later Yes and no…
  10. Do it RIGHT. Goal 2: Stability 16 • SRE &

    Kubernetes track their roots to the same company – coincidence? • Platforms offer standardisation: o On a tech stack o On a way of doing things (Golden Path) o On the rules of the game • Understand the software AND the environment in which it runs • Embed SREs into dev teams AND let them build platforms! SRE to the rescue
  11. Do it RIGHT. Goal 3: Compliance 18 • Stop people

    from doing the wrong thing • Make the wrong thing difficult enough so that at least it doesn’t happen by accident
  12. Do it RIGHT. Goal 4: Transparency 20 • For a

    start-up “chaos” is a feature – experiment, make many small bets and double-down on what works • For an enterprise, life revolves around budget cycles, planning committees and annual roadmaps • You usually ”sell” platforms by specifying what technology you will use • But at best a platform can answer what technology is actually used!
  13. Do it RIGHT. Recap 21 Seems like platforms offer standardisation

    at the cost of flexibility – same as other software!
  14. Do it RIGHT. How does the math work out? 22

    Less flexibility == less productivity, right?
  15. Do it RIGHT. LLN – The law of large numbers

    (as a metaphor) 23 What makes a developer less productive makes a company more productive
  16. Do it RIGHT. So where does the productivity come from

    24 • Faster onboarding • Less boilerplate & standard solutions • Pre-approved processes • Lateral movements between projects (due to standardised stack) • Lindy's law – the longer something exists, the longer its remaining life expectancy • Open-source support • In short, the productivity comes from improving or reducing interactions between people, but only works if you have many people working on the system
  17. Do it RIGHT. What is a platform 25 • I

    can only tell you about the doors I have opened • A tool that increases team productivity, standardisation, compliance and stability at the expense of flexibility o A platform lives and dies by the 80/20 rule! The bad news
  18. Do it RIGHT. What is a platform 26 • You

    decide what a platform is! • Prioritise, set a goal for your company • Build a platform J • Measure, ask for feedback from the users • Improve! The good news