Anshul KicharaAs reported by Gartner, 58% of IT leaders consider developer experience extremely crucial for their organization’s success[i]. Thus, making it a top concern for the C-Suite executives.
But, what does developer experience mean?
Developer experience is developers’ overall efficiency while using the tools, processes, and environment to build software.
Traditionally, developers spend significant time dealing with infrastructure complexities.
This slows development cycles and contributes to a poor developer experience (DevEx). To address this challenge, organizations are increasingly turning to platform engineering.
Platform engineers act as the infrastructure backbone for development teams. They build Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs), which empower developers through self-service capabilities.
In this blog, let us learn more about platform engineering, what it entails, and how your organization can approach platform engineering.
*[Good Read: Unraveling the Spectrum of Cloud Services ]
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*## Exploring the Relationship Between Platform Engineering and IDPs
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Platform engineering is an approach to developing and managing the platforms that facilitate efficient software development and delivery. This discipline encompasses tasks such as infrastructure management, tooling, and automation, and creating Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs) to streamline developer workflows.
At their core, IDPs aim to address the challenges and inefficiencies developers often face when building and deploying software. These challenges may include time-consuming tasks such as server provisioning, environment configuration, and managing dependencies.
IDPs automate and standardize these processes, so that developers can focus more on writing code and less on managing infrastructure.
These platforms act as a single toolbox for developers where they can build, deploy, manage, and monitor their applications.
Here’s a diagram that visualizes the role of IDPs in the development lifecycle.
**5 Key Features of a Well-Designed Internet Developer Platform
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For development teams, choosing the right IDP for the deployment process is imperative.
A well-designed IDP can significantly boost developer productivity, streamline workflows, and ultimately accelerate software delivery.
But what features define an effective IDP?
Let’s explore the five key characteristics that empower developers and drive development success:
1. Self-service Provisioning and Infrastructure Management
An IDP can offer a self-service portal where developers can choose server configurations, operating systems, and databases with a few clicks. It empowers developers to provision resources (servers, databases) and manage their infrastructure needs on-demand without relying on IT or platform engineers. This eliminates delays and bottlenecks in the development process.
2. Version Control and Code Management Tools
An IDP can integrate with popular version control systems like Git or Subversion, allowing developers to manage code repositories directly within the platform. Here developers to track changes, collaborate on code, and revert to previous versions whenever required. This promotes code quality, facilitates teamwork, and simplifies troubleshooting.
3. Automated Testing and Deployment Pipelines
IDPs can integrate with continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) tools, allowing developers to define automated pipelines that execute tests and deploy code upon code changes. Furthermore, developers can automate repetitive tasks like running unit tests, integration tests, and deploying code to production environments. This frees up developer time, reduces the risk of errors, and ensures consistent and reliable deployments.
4. Monitoring and Logging Tools
An IDP can integrate with monitoring tools that track application metrics, server logs, and resource utilization, allowing developers to visualize and analyze data for performance optimization. Provides developers with real-time insights into application performance, infrastructure health, and potential issues. This enables proactive troubleshooting, faster debugging, and improved application uptime.
5. Security and Compliance Integrations
A well-designed IDP can integrate with security scanning tools, secret management solutions, and access control systems, allowing developers to secure code, manage sensitive information, and enforce access policies. Developers can implement security best practices and adhere to compliance regulations throughout the development lifecycle. This ensures secure applications, mitigates security risks, and helps organizations meet regulatory requirements.
*You can check more info about: Basics Of Platform Engineering & Internal Developer Platforms.
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