Platform Engineering for Architects: Crafting modern platforms as a product

Design and build Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs) with future-oriented design strategies, using the Platform as a Product mindset

Key Features:

- Learn how to design platforms that create value and drive user adoption

- Benefit from expert techniques for shifting to a product-centric mindset as an architect and platform team

- Implement best practices to understand platform complexity, manage technical debt, and ensure its evolution

- Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Book Description:

The rapid pace of technological advancements, the shortage of IT talent, and the complexity of modern systems highlight the need for structured guidance in building resilient, user-centric platforms for cloud-native environments. This book empowers platform engineers and architects to implement value-driven internal development platforms.

You'll learn how to identify end users, understand their challenges, and define the purpose of a platform, with a focus on self-service solutions for modern cloud-native software development, delivery, and operations. The book incorporates real-world examples of building platforms within and for the cloud, leveraging the power of Kubernetes. You'll learn how adopting a product mindset for architecting and building platforms helps foster successful platform engineering teams. This emphasizes early end-user involvement and provides a framework that gives you the flexibility to easily adapt and extend for future use cases. The book also offers insights into building a sustainable platform without accumulating technical debt.

By the end of this book, you'll be able to drive the design, definition, and implementation of platform capabilities as a product that aligns with your organizational requirements and strategy.

What You Will Learn:

- Make informed decisions based on your organization's platform needs

- Identify missing platform capabilities and technical debt

- Develop a critical user journey through your platform capabilities

- Define the purpose, principles, and key performance indicators (KPIs) for your platform

- Utilize relevant data points for making data-driven product decisions

- Implement your own platform reference and target architectures

Who this book is for:

This book is for platform architects and solutions architects seeking to enhance their skills in designing and building a platform as a product. It also offers valuable insights for decision-makers, platform engineers, and DevOps professionals. While familiarity with cloud-native concepts, CI/CD, and Kubernetes is beneficial, the book builds on these topics to address self-service, cost management, and technical debt. It's particularly suited to experts tackling the challenge of integrating diverse domains to create effective internal developer platforms with top-notch operational readiness.

Table of Contents

- Platform Engineering and the Art of Crafting Platforms

- Understanding Platform Architecture to Build Platform as a Product

- Building the Foundation for Supporting Platform Capabilities

- Architecting the Platform Core - Kubernetes as a Unified Layer

- Integration, Delivery, and Deployment - Automation is Ubiquitous

- Build for Developers and Their Self-Service

- Building Secure and Compliant Products

- Cost Management and Best Practices

- Choosing Technical Debt to Unbreak Platforms

- Crafting Platform Products for the Future