Customised internal platforms without building from scratch

The age-old software debate of "build vs buy" isn't going away anytime soon because there are very real tradeoffs companies need to evaluate. Subscription costs vs employee costs. Risk of being beholden to a 3rd party backlog vs being unable (or unwilling) to keep pace with the need for new features. The security implications of on-premise deployments vs cloud hosted solutions. This is particularly challenging when it comes to internal tooling since this is often a business cost centre yet crucial to the effectiveness and security of the organisation.

Open source software (OSS) often strikes the perfect balance. Organisations are able to build using OSS to reduce their maintenance cost and increase their flexibility while always having the option to invest in maintainer led projects that can offload even more build costs over time.

In the case of internal developer platforms (IDPs), there is a potent combination of Backstage portals, Kratix platform orchestration, and Crossplane infrastructure orchestration which can enable almost any organisation to get started owning their own OSS solution with a manageable level of maintenance and support. This talk will describe the current IDP landscape both OSS and proprietary and demonstrate how the proposed OSS solution not only stands up to the challenges of proprietary solutions but out performs them.

Transcript

1. Customised internal platforms without building from scratch Abby Bangser abby@syntasso.io | @a_bangser | hachyderm.io/@abangser
2. Most tech organisations are in a constant state of migration. Many of those migrations have a loooooooong tail
3. Compute, Software Languages, CI servers, Service Sizes Even internal
4. Yet we continue to be sold on the next "silver bullet" solution
5. Yet we continue to be sold on the next "silver bullet" solution
6. My concern isn't with new. It isn't even with "silver bullets".
7. Yet we continue to be sold on the next "silver bullet" solution Yup, that's me! 😅
8. My concern isn't with new. It isn't even with "silver bullet". My concern is with quick starts that don't account for a long tail.
9. So to be clear… We should crave new. We should strive for better. We should design revolutionary improvements.
10. So let's talk about revolutionary. Let's talk CNCF Maturity Model.
11. The model lays out platform levels and aspects
12. Aspects move independently. And only based on company needs.
13. But it also lays out a north star
14. We find the average team lands about here
15. And these ideas are revolutionary Moving from code templates to API driven interfaces
16. And these ideas are revolutionary Enabling anyone to extend the platform (safely)
17. And these ideas are revolutionary FleetOps enabling "Day 2" operability and extensibility
18. So of course we all want to be here
19. But platform engineers are tired. Maintenance is taking up large parts of days and weeks.
20. What does a maintenance ditch look like? Version 2.1 Version 2.1 Version 2.0 Version 0.9
21. To reach these (attainable, yet) revolutionary improvements, we need evolutionary steps out of the maintenance ditch.
22. Implementation The common facade pattern can be applied
23. Implementation Users interact with an API A P I
24. Implementation An API unlocks evolutionary improvements A P I
25. But how can our tools support a facade?
26. 4. And of course, organise and maintain it 1. An API definition 2. A running API server 3. Business logic implementation Facade technical requirements:
27. What if we packaged this? What if platform APIs were as bootstrapped as web APIs?
29. Demo time!
30. Implementation An API unleashes BOTH sides A P I Business Logic
31. When building platforms… Don't give up on revolution, But also don't forget the long tail ➔ Before you start building for day 0, make sure you can support day 2 ➔ Find ways to introduce new patterns without a rewrite ➔ Decouple implementation from user experience ➔ Keep in mind that every tool has its lifespan, how do you keep ownership of your key business value
32. Key tools in this demo (and contact me for a VM to try this yourself!)
33. Thank you Abby Bangser abby@syntasso.io | @a_bangser | hachyderm.io/@abangser Share your migration challenges and learn more about Kratix and platform-as-a-Product on slack! These slides!