Platform engineering is a new buzzword in the DevOps world. Over the past few years, platform engineering has gained momentum, but interest has recently reached a new high. According to a Puppet Labs report, 51% of firms have implemented platform engineering or aim to do so within the next year. But what is platform engineering specifically, and how is it different from DevOps? We'll discuss the subtle differences between these two ideas below. We'll go through what DevOps and platform engineering are and how they differ. We'll also go over the advantages of platform engineering and offer some best practices for maximizing the potential of this developing field. Want to learn how to implement platform engineering or DevOps in your business? Get in touch today for the best DevOps consulting in Toronto! What is DevOps? Although DevOps is a vast issue, it typically refers to initiatives to boost the effectiveness and frequency of software releases. The DevOps discipline is characterized by a decrease in team silos and an increase in collaboration. Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), commonly referred to as DevOps, is a term used to describe a number of solutions that automate the process of transferring code from a local environment into a production environment. Tools for configuration management, incident management, and monitoring are very helpful in the DevOps process. According to David Sandilands, principal solutions architect for Puppet, "DevOps reflects more of a philosophy and a way of working." More of a shift left mentality is enabled by DevOps. As opposed to "guarding the gates," developers collaborate with operations. Groups may dramatically reduce build time by doing this, he claimed. This method, which replaces outdated waterfall development processes, enables engineers to rapidly and incrementally deploy new features. Automating the software life cycle and cutting down on the feedback loop are the two main objectives of DevOps. DevOps streamlines steps like build, release, configure, monitor, plan, design, and validate in order to ship applications more effectively. DevOps is frequently made possible by containerization and the microservices architecture. Get high-end DevOps services from the best DevOps consulting in Toronto. Get in touch today! What is Platform Engineering? What platform engineering means is to create an internal self-service platform that meets the demands of developer consumers. Although DevOps increased transparency and gave individual engineers access to sophisticated automation, it also left businesses with dispersed tooling and procedures, particularly at large corporations. For instance, engineers in different departments may not be aware of alternative infrastructure-as-code (IaC) setups that exist for the same functions inside the same firm. Not to mention, managing a developing DevOps pipeline entails additional duties related to ongoing updates and security. Platform engineering gives a central platform team additional authority over individual developers. The platform is often treated as a product by these teams. In order to achieve this, they assess the needs of developers across a company, implement internal self-service capabilities that are appropriate for the majority of users, and manage the platform. According to the 2023 State of DevOps Report, this self-service method often handles tasks like infrastructure operation, production application monitoring, infrastructure deployment, security and compliance, and production application monitoring. These initiatives may also involve other features, like as abstracting Kubernetes or managing secrets. Want to get platform engineering services for your business? Contact the best DevOps consulting in Toronto! Benefits of Platform Engineering Improve developer experience: Platform engineering can improve a developer's interaction with the systems they use to build and deliver software. A more positive developer experience may do a lot to boost spirits and foster a more productive engineering environment. Standardize DevOps practices: Organizations can start standardizing with reusable build processes and automated infrastructure by combining popular DevOps methodologies into a single platform. Through shared runtimes, observability techniques, and deployment procedures, this can bring an organization together. This can make it easier to implement DevOps methods within a business. Secure the DevOps pipeline: The connection between a developer and the systems they use to create and deliver software can be enhanced through platform engineering. A happier developer experience could go a long way toward raising morale and creating a more productive engineering environment. Develop DevOps best practices: By integrating well-known DevOps approaches into a single platform, organizations may begin standardizing with reusable build processes and automated infrastructure. This can unite a company through shared runtimes, observability approaches, and deployment procedures. This may make it simpler to apply DevOps techniques within an organization. Supply additional guardrails: Platform teams may also help with new tool purchase, policy development, and policy enforcement for software infrastructure. Additional safeguards can assist eliminate shadow IT and governance surrounding internal development, even though they might reduce customisation. It could be simpler to manage maintenance throughout a company if platform teams take care of it. Platform Engineering: Under the DevOps Umbrella Platform engineering does not, in my opinion, replace DevOps. Instead, because platform engineering takes DevOps procedures and makes them more reusable and self-service, I see it as falling under the DevOps umbrella. Both have many automated processes and similar end objectives. However, the two strategies differ in subtle ways that are consistent with current IT industry trends. With DevOps, the market was increasingly interested in delegating authority to individual engineers and enabling them to manage the complete software life cycle. The pendulum now appears to be swinging back toward a little more centralization and governance with platform engineering as sprawl and shadow IT emerge. Platform engineering is often more of a project for internal development. What are some best practices that IT departments should keep in mind to maximize the benefits of platform engineering? The platform should be treated like a product, as Hope Lynch, senior director of platform at Cloudbees, offered some excellent methods to think about. This entails listening to developer criticism, letting go of some control, and consistently keeping developer experience in mind. Conclusion In the context of software development and operations, platform engineering and DevOps are separate but closely connected ideas. Platform engineering adds to the DevOps tenets by developing a centralized, self-service platform to fulfill the needs of developer consumers, whereas DevOps emphasizes collaboration, automation, and optimizing the software lifecycle. Platform engineering improves the DevOps experience for developers, harmonizes DevOps procedures, safeguards the DevOps pipeline, creates best practices, and adds more governance and safety nets. IT teams should emphasize developer feedback, treat the platform like a product, and keep working to enhance the developer experience. Contact us the leading DevOps consulting companies in the region for the best DevOps consulting services in Toronto.