1、VIEWPOINTIn the DevSecOps era,firms need to free their coders from onerous infrastructure tasks that were once the remit of operations.Platform engineering assists through a self-help portal that increases innovation and reduces burnout.PLATFORM ENGINEERING:HOW TO MODERNIZE ENGINEERING CULTUREExtern

2、al Document 2023 Infosys LimitedTechnology firms are in a tough spot,with rising job cuts and tightening budgets.Meta fired 10,000 workers in March,on top of the companys 11,000 job cuts last November.Even in this climate,expert coders are in short supply,and many are suffering from burnout.The shif

3、t to DevSecOps(short for development,security,and operations)has improved organizations efficiency and speed,but increased coders workload.They now do more coding,security,deployment,monitoring,and infrastructure provisioning.Senior developers often bear the brunt of this shift.Figure 1.The typical

4、components of an internal development platform Source:InfosysDevelopers need a self-service,automated platform that provides easy software integration and deploymentPlatform orchestrator Version control Continuous integration Continuous delivery Infrastructure provisioning Container registry Observa

5、bilityInternaldeveloperportalMaintain platformas a productDevelopersSelf serviceInternal developer platformPlatform engineersPlatform engineering catalyzes digital transformation Enter platform engineering.This is a complement to,and not a replacement for,DevOps,and has trickled down from organizati

6、ons such as Google,Airbnb,and Spotify.Here,a dedicated platform engineering team builds an internal development platform that supports the engineering life cycle and provides continuous integration/deployment/testing as a service(Figure 1).The platform provides developers with a suite of tools,inclu

7、ding codebases,testing scripts,frameworks,and maintenance software,to meet aggressive SLAs.It minimizes cognitive load,freeing teams to focus on core product development,such as understanding business and domain requirements.According to Puppets 2023 State of Platform Engineering survey,94%of respon

8、dents agree that platform engineering helps their organizations realize the benefits of DevOps.They admitted improvements in system reliability(60%agree),greater productivity and efficiency(59%),and better workflow standards(57%).Around 30%of respondents said that platform engineering serves the ent

9、ire organization,making it a catalyst for enterprise-wide engineering cultural transformation.This is even more attractive for smaller organizations that lack resources to build expert DevOps and site reliability engineering(SRE)teams.Generative AI tools such as Codex and ChatGPT are valuable resour

10、ces,but more should be done to help those on the frontlines of product development.Tooling sprawl is a growing problem as developers choose their own tools.DevOps teams spend big on third-party software and cloud services,and executives do not track costs.Cloud financial management goes along way,bu

11、t it is not enough.Developers need an effective way to manage product and engineering complexity.They need a self-service,automated platform that provides easy software integration and deployment.This platform should curate the best technologies for each project and abstract the underlying complexit

12、y to meet stringent service level agreements(SLAs).External Document 2023 Infosys LimitedExternal Document 2023 Infosys LimitedWhy platform engineering is the need of the hourBut its not just burnout and tool sprawl that are driving the transformation.In the age of cloud-native,multicloud,container-

13、orchestration,and software-defined networking,knowing what to build,deploy,and maintain has become an art.Internal development platforms that provide tooling for Kubernetes abstraction are crucial to deal with these challenges.Platform engineering teams and internal development platforms also drive

14、the adoption of better standards,such as those developed by OpenTelemetry(for observability),OpenAPI(for describing and documenting APIs),and Software Package Data Exchange(SPDX)for software bills of materials.These platforms enforce quality by setting guardrails for developer self-service.The rise

15、of software and engineering trends such as DataOps,MLOps,and data mesh architecture,which all rely on self-service,shift-left security,and everything-as-code,has forced firms to use platform engineering best practices and internal development platforms,even if they dont know it is platform engineeri

16、ng that they are actually doing.Gartner predicts that by 2026,80%of software engineering organizations will establish“platform teams as internal providers of reusable services,components and tools for application delivery.”When platform engineering workswellGartner named platform engineering as a to

17、p tech trend for 2023 and included it in its hype cycle.However,as with all innovations,platform engineering may become a golden cage,rather than a well-trodden golden path(or“paved road”)to supplement and guide the core engineering team.Platform engineering should provide an intuitive and easy deve

18、loper experience,not one that forces them to change their workflow.Many organizations have created a static portal of open source and vendor tooling,which they mistakenly believe is an internal developer platform.This portal does not follow important platform principles such as“standardization by de

19、sign.”Other teams finesse a similar trick,calling something platform engineering when what theyve really built is a user interface with service catalog capabilities.These portals dont get to the core of underlying issues such as application configuration and infrastructure orchestration.Hard won ins

20、ights from the trenches of platform engineering show that forcing a poor platform on developers will be met with malicious compliance:Every time the platform fails the team,theyll blame the platform and the team building it.This will end up fracturing DevOps teams,rather than the harmony needed in c

21、rucial moments of a big project.Without proper effort,platform engineering can become a golden cage,rather than a paved road to guide and supplement the core engineering teamGood platform engineering,just like adopting DevOps,requires dedication and perseverance.It needs a good balance between simpl

22、icity and flexibility,and a change management approach that reduces big bang effort with micro improvements.This is the approach we are taking at Infosys as we move to become an AI-first organization.So how can firms do platform engineering well and ensure this tech trend delivers on its promises?In

23、ternal development platforms can be built from bothopen-source and commercial tools.Some tools are matureand already in use,whereas others are new and yet toestablish themselves.There are hundreds to choose from,so platform engineering teams need senior softwarearchitects with considerable domain kn

24、owledge fordecision making.The platform must be considered as a product,withdevelopers as the customer.The best platforms are builtiteratively by the platform team,based on feedbackfrom developers.As we discuss in our paper,Product-centric value delivery:a new strategy,shifting to aproduct-focused o

25、rganization implies a stable platformengineering team to support long-term operations.The ideal development platform for one companymay not be right for another,and even within thesame company,different development teams will havedifferent requirements.Therefore,the platform topologyshould balance c

26、entral co-ordination with flexibility andautonomy for developers to choose what they need tobuild their application.The platform shouldnt overlyrestrict engineering organizations(or units)in terms ofthe technologies,tooling,methodology(e.g.,GitOps vsClickOps)or interfaces(CLI vs UI vs API)they want

27、to use.A good internal development platform reduces theamount of backlog coupling i.e.,diminishes the number ofdependencies across the work queues of multiple teams.Specifically,it should provide self-service capabilitiesacross provisioning,configuration,management,andoperations.External Document 20

28、23 Infosys LimitedGetting developers to use new tools is difficult,even if theproduct is excellent.This requires evangelism,consulting,and metrics to show developers the benefits.A dedicatedknowledge base that suggests which tools andtechnologies are mandatory,along with those that aredefault but ca

29、n be overridden,can also help.It also meansstarting small and building slowly over time,using the micro-is-the-the-mega approach to change management.Firms should harvest already-proven solutions from application teams and try joint ventures to create and test capabilities with the teams that will u

30、se them.External Document 2023 Infosys LimitedIntegrated platform focusedon improving developerproductivity and minimizingdisruptionModular,composable platformwith plug-n-play featuresEnable quick hydrationof reference architecture;codify best practices astemplates and codeSingle commercial interfac

31、eacross partner productsUI/ExperienceWeb app developmentMobile app developmentUX no codeBusiness layerAPIMicroservicesBatchesIntegrationDataDatamodernizationOpen-sourcedatabase adoptionData privacyData workbenchSecurity and observabilityAuthentication and authorizationCloud securityLogging,monitorin

32、g,tracingDevSecOpsBuildSecureTestDeployInfrastructureHybrid cloud management and orchestration Infrastructure as codeTestingFunctionalPerformanceAccessibilityDeploymentContainerizationPaaS-ifcationServerlessIntelligenceAI servicesManagement/GovernanceLive engineeringTechnical debtReliabilityLegacyDi

33、scovery&assessmentReverse engineeringTechnology migrationFull life cycleFull stackFigure 2.Technology stack of Infosyss LEADSource:InfosysInfosyss LEAD platformInfosyss Live Enterprise Application Development(LEAD)platform brings advanced capabilities.It offers a range of features across five modern

34、ization patterns,including cloud native development,cloud modernization,database modernization,legacy modernization,and DevSecOps adoption.Features span the complete technology stack and help development teams across architecture,development,testing,SRE,and deployment(Figure 2).External Document 202

35、3 Infosys LimitedLEAD abstracts the complexity of underlying technology to boost developer productivity.The platform helps coders unlock information from legacy systems,simplifies their decision making,all while reducing teams dependence on niche skills.It can save up to 40%of developers effort in d

36、eveloping customer-centric products,and enables up to 25%faster time-to-value.Going further,deep insights into all types of technical debt provide high quality code from the genesis of coding projects.The platform also integrates with Agile ALM tools for customer insights that improve sprint velocit

37、y,release predictability,and product quality.A US-based investment management company used LEAD to transform its legacy applications to cloud-native microservice based applications.The platform accelerated time to market by 25%through standardization and enforcement of cloud-native best practices;bu

38、ilt-in end-to-end observability and automated provisioning of application environments;and code quality/security scanning as part of CI-CD pipelines.Evolving DevOps toward a better engineering futurePlatform engineering is an emerging discipline,and it is what happens when DevOps engineers pull down

39、 the siloes and talk about the issues in their organizations.Its the next Platform engineering is the next phase of DevSecOps,a conduit rather than a replacementphase of DevSecOps,a conduit rather than a replacement.Firms that adopt this team topology create products faster and become more innovativ

40、e,spurring top line growth.According to the State of DevOps 2023 report,platform engineering directly correlates with DevOps evolution:48%of highly evolved DevOps teams(as measured by four metrics deployment frequency,change lead time,mean time to recover,and change failure rate)use internal platfor

41、ms.Mid-level DevOps teams only use platform engineering 25%of the time,and low-evolution DevOps teams just 8%.“Highly evolved firms make heavier use of internal platforms for their engineers,enabling developers to access authentication(62%),container orchestration(60%),and service-to-service authent

42、ication(53%),tracing and observability(49%),and logging request(47%)services via self-service,”says the report.Its early days for platform engineering,and there is much value to be unlocked from its growth and adoption.External Document 2023 Infosys LimitedExternal Document 2023 Infosys LimitedAutho

43、rs Gokbora UranSenior Principal,STG,InfosysAshim BhuyanSenior Principal,STG,InfosysHarry Keir HughesInfosys Knowledge InstituteAbout Infosys Knowledge InstituteThe Infosys Knowledge Institute helps industry leaders develop a deeper understanding of business and technology trends through compelling t

44、hought leadership.Our researchers and subject matter experts provide a fact base that aids decision making on critical business and technology issues.To view our research,visit Infosys Knowledge Institute at or email us at .2023 Infosys Limited,Bengaluru,India.All Rights Reserved.Infosys believes th

45、e information in this document is accurate as of its publication date;such information is subject to change without notice.Infosys acknowledges the proprietary rights of other companies to the trademarks,product names and such other intellectual property rights mentioned in this document.Except as e

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