Guest: Billy Thompson (LinkedIn)
Company: Akamai (Twitter) 
Show: Let’s Talk

Platform engineering provides a structured approach to address the scaling issues faced by independent development teams, emphasizing platform standardization and the creation of more efficient environments. In this episode, Billy Thompson, Cloud Engineer Manager at Akamai, discusses the evolution of platform engineering, its impact on operational efficiency, and how it differs from DevOps. Thompson also highlights the cultural shift needed for adoption, the role of Kubernetes in fostering modularity, and the balance between its benefits—such as faster time to market—and its challenges, including increased complexity.

Introduction to Billy Thompson’s role at Akamai

• Speaking while at KubeCon, Thompson gives a detailed overview of his role and responsibilities at Akamai, highlighting the relevance of his work to the event.
• Thompson’s primary responsibility is overseeing the development and automation of one-click apps and clusters within Akamai’s marketplace, which involves complex cloud environments and scalability efforts.
• Additionally, Thompson mentions his active engagement with the Philly DevOps meetup, where he advocates for open-source solutions, fostering a community-oriented mindset toward development.

Exploring platform engineering and its distinct approach

• Thompson talks about how platform engineering differs from other methodologies. Thompson explains that platform engineering emerged as a way to resolve cultural and operational challenges in traditional DevOps, particularly for standardizing environments.
• Thompson details how scaling independent development teams introduces significant complexities, and platform engineering provides a “middle layer” to manage and coordinate these growing infrastructures.
• Thompson emphasizes the critical role of culture in adopting platform engineering practices, noting that success relies on clear communication and unified adoption across all teams.
• Thompson contrasts platform engineering with DevOps by explaining that while DevOps focuses on automation and collaboration, platform engineering is centered on creating a standardized ecosystem that mitigates scaling issues.

Kubernetes’ influence on platform engineering culture

• Thompson discusses the influence of Kubernetes on platform engineering, explaining that Kubernetes supports a culture of modularity, flexibility, and interoperability, making it an ideal platform for implementing the principles of platform engineering.
• Thompson highlights the versatility of Kubernetes, which allows developers to run applications on any cloud provider, and its wide ecosystem of tools that complement platform engineering efforts.
• Thompson suggests that cloud providers could ease the adoption of platform engineering by bundling tools in a way that simplifies deployment and overall management, especially for large-scale projects.
• Thompson underscores the importance of using open-source and vendor-agnostic tools, pointing out that while managing multiple third-party services can be challenging, it is key to maintaining flexibility and avoiding vendor lock-in.

Weighing the benefits and challenges of platform engineering

• Thompson talks about the key benefits and potential challenges that come with adopting a platform engineering approach listing benefits like faster time to market due to streamlined processes, improved operational efficiency through automation, and the reduction of technical debt by standardizing environments and workflows.
• Thompson elaborates on how platform engineering can create clear ownership of resources within development and operations teams, reducing the burden of managing infrastructure and enabling smoother collaboration between teams.
• However, Thompson also points out potential drawbacks, such as the increased complexity of the platform itself, the challenges of managing costs as scale grows, and potential security concerns that arise from integrating various tools.
• To address these issues, Thompson emphasizes the need for a culture of simplicity and standardization, advising organizations to prioritize long-term planning and avoid over-complicating their platforms.

Key advice for organizations considering platform engineering

• Thompson shares his advice for organizations that are evaluating whether platform engineering is right for them, saying that smaller companies should not rush into adopting platform engineering unless they are already experiencing challenges related to scaling or managing diverse development environments.
• For larger organizations, Thompson recommends considering platform engineering when they face issues with scaling their infrastructure, handling diverse technology stacks, or managing complexity across teams.
• Thompson stresses the importance of having a supportive culture in place before adopting platform engineering, warning companies not to rebrand existing DevOps practices without considering the unique goals of platform engineering.
• Thompson suggests that organizations review the platform engineering reference model, which provides in-depth guidance on best practices and terminology, to ensure they understand what platform engineering truly involves before committing.

This summary was written by Emily Nicholls.