What Is Platform Engineering?

Platform engineering is an engineering discipline that optimizes software delivery and lifecycle management by building and operating an internal developer platform (IDP). Platform engineering simplifies developer interactions with infrastructure by standardizing processes and automating tasks, boosting both efficiency and delivery speed. Gartner has listed platform engineering as one of the top 10 strategic technology trends in 2023 and 2024, and predicts that by 2026, 80% of large software engineering organizations will establish platform teams to provide developers with reusable services, components, and tools. Platform engineering brings the following benefits to enterprises:

• Enhanced developer experience: Platform engineering provides self-service tools that simplify infrastructure configurations, application deployment, and management processes. This lets developers focus more on service logic development rather than underlying infrastructure management.
• Accelerated software delivery: By providing pre-defined environments, automated processes, and reusable components, platform engineering can significantly accelerate the software delivery and bring products to market faster.
• Improved operations efficiency: Platform engineering reduces manual operations and human errors, improves operations efficiency, and cuts operational costs through automated and standardized processes.
• Strengthened security compliance: Platform engineering integrates security policies and compliance checks to ensure that applications and infrastructure comply with security standards and regulatory requirements.
• Promoting innovation: Platform engineering provides developers with more flexible and convenient development environments, encouraging them to try new technologies and methods.