Enabling digital transformation with a platform engineering approach

Moore's Law observes that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles every two years. Similarly, technology is advancing at an exponential rate. 
In 2021-22, we witnessed the emergence of Generative AI, which brought artificial intelligence to the masses. Many now regard it as the next industrial revolution. New technologies will emerge even faster in the next six years.

Many existing technologies, like cloud computing, development tools, and marketing tools, will leverage the power of Generative AI to enable numerous advancements.

What does this have to do with platform engineering?

Businesses have long struggled with evolving technology because they can only afford to invest in some new advancements, yet they want to stay competitive. This is where platform engineering comes in, enabling businesses to navigate this next technological revolution.

Demystifying projects, products, and platforms

Let's first demystify a few terms, project, product, and platform, as they can easily be confused.

Although this approach is gaining traction in the tech industry, it often needs clarification from product and project engineering. While these disciplines are interrelated, they differ in characteristics and application areas.

Projects involve planning, execution, and management, including developing project plans, managing budgets, and coordinating human resources. They require project management, cross-functional collaboration, and risk management.

Any product or platform can be divided into several projects, each with a specific goal that may evolve during execution. A key aspect of any project is that it is temporary, has unique deliverables, and requires resources.

Products are goods or services created with the core objective of selling to customers. They are customer-centric and have a lifecycle that includes development, launch, growth, maturity, and eventual decline. A product may consist of one or more projects, each with specific deliverables and timelines contributing to the product's lifecycle and features.

Platforms are more complex, providing an ecosystem such as infrastructure, environments, or tools that can be used to create products or services.

Platforms may offer scale or interoperability and grow in value through network effects, where multiple platforms can come together to generate value (e.g., app stores).

To understand platform engineering, think of tech platforms as railway stations. A railway station serves as a base for trains to transport passengers from one place to another. It's a platform with standards for building coaches and engines and a marketplace for vendors.

Similarly, tech platforms enable businesses to operate frictionlessly, helping other projects succeed by providing a robust infrastructure. Platform engineering is a discipline that helps build a robust and flexible technological foundation.

The role of platforms in business transformation

Here's a hypothetical scenario: Let's say an organization comes up with a great new idea after spending months selecting the right team, allocating budgets, and developing a product.

Midway through development, they realize the customer needs have shifted! This is a significant pitfall of executing a transformation project with a fixed project-focused mindset.

To innovate quickly, they need something robust and adaptable.

Platform engineering enables organizations to navigate such dynamic markets and ecosystems. It fosters digital transformation journeys across organizations and helps them stay relevant by building robust, adaptable technology and developing ecosystems.

How do platforms do this? They provide a scalable and adaptable foundation that allows companies to pivot quickly in response to shifting market demands and technological advancements. This adaptability streamlines operations and ensures resources are used effectively, reducing the time and cost associated with traditional project-based methods.

Platform engineering enables seamless integration of various technologies and efficient deployment and management of engineering tools, allowing rapid development, testing, and iterative, innovative solutions. By facilitating collaboration and cross-team workflows, platform engineering ensures accelerated adoption of new and innovative technologies like Generative AI. 

A strategic approach to platform engineering 

However, for the platform engineering approach to be successful, companies need a strategic approach. Having architected systems for over 15 years, I've had the opportunity to create both products and platforms. 

Every transformation project I've been part of starts strong and continues on the right path until someone decides we must launch soon. At this point, the approach towards platform thinking gets abandoned, and choices are made that turn the platform into a project!

In our experience, platforms fail because:

The team doesn't fully understand what a platform is.
or
The team starts well but is pressured to take shortcuts, ultimately delivering a project instead.
or
There's an attempt to create something the organization is not ready to adopt.

Here are a few ways you can ensure a successful platform engineering approach!

If you are struggling with your platform engineering initiatives, you could launch a 'Platform Year' in which you collaborate internally and externally to achieve your goals in a sustainable manner. This would help units and organizations pool resources, share innovations, and accelerate progress.

This would help you launch new platforms or features consistently focused on platform engineering. As the platforms are built, this becomes a self-sustainable cycle in which the platforms themselves enable further development and advancements.

Another strategy could be setting up a Platform Engineering Hub designed to help businesses develop, deploy, manage, and evolve platforms. This hub would be more than just a technological framework; it would combine tools, methodologies, and community-driven initiatives that help businesses manage their platforms' lifecycle—from inception to obsolescence.

When creating such hubs, you must leverage innovation cycles to introduce new technologies and phase out outdated ones. You must also establish clear guidelines to understand and manage the tools, peaks, and limitations of the platforms and underlying technology. Lastly, such hubs can also drive EOL (end-of-life) strategies. 

Platform engineering: A future-forward approach

We foresee that by 2025, platform engineering will be a key driver of business growth in an increasingly fast-paced and competitive digital landscape. As technology evolves, the platform engineering approach will help build ecosystems that swiftly respond to changing market demands.

It will enable business organizations to pivot quickly, reducing project costs and ensuring sustained growth. Establishing a 'Lifecycle Platform Engineering Hub' will be crucial for driving innovation, collaboration, and resource optimization.

We hope that we were successful in introducing you to platform engineering and convincing you to embrace the shift. This is just one way to enable you to pivot quickly while reducing costs and driving sustained innovations.