Posts Tagged ‘PlatformEngineering’
[DevoxxUK2025] Platform Engineering: Shaping the Future of Software Delivery
Paula Kennedy, co-founder and COO of Cintaso, delivered a compelling lightning talk at DevoxxUK2025, tracing the evolution of platform engineering and its impact on software delivery. Drawing from over a decade of experience, Paula explored how platforms have shifted from siloed operations to force multipliers for developer productivity. Referencing the journey from DevOps to PaaS to Kubernetes, she highlighted current trends like inner sourcing and offered practical strategies for assessing platform maturity. Her narrative, infused with lessons from the past and present, underscored the importance of a user-centered approach to avoid the pitfalls of hype and ensure platforms drive innovation.
The Evolution of Platforms
Paula began by framing platforms as foundations that elevate development, drawing on Gregor Hohpe’s analogy of a Volkswagen chassis enabling diverse car models. She recounted her career, starting in 2002 at Acturus, a SaaS provider with rigid silos between developers and operations. The DevOps movement, sparked in 2009, sought to bridge these divides, but its “you build it, you run it” mantra often overwhelmed teams. The rise of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), exemplified by Cloud Foundry, simplified infrastructure management, allowing developers to focus on code. However, Paula noted, the complexity of Kubernetes led organizations to build custom internal platforms, sometimes losing sight of the original value proposition.
Current Trends and Challenges
Today, platform engineering is at a crossroads, with Gartner predicting that by 2026, 80% of large organizations will have dedicated teams. Paula highlighted principles like self-service APIs, internal developer portals (e.g., Backstage), and golden paths that guide developers to best practices. She emphasized treating platforms as products, applying product management practices to align with user needs. However, the 2024 DORA report reveals challenges: while platforms boost organizational performance, they often fail to improve software reliability or delivery throughput. Paula attributed this to automation complacency and “platform complacency,” where trust in internal platforms leads to reduced scrutiny, urging teams to prioritize observability and guardrails.
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[DevoxxUK2024] Devoxx UK Introduces: Aspiring Speakers 2024, Short Talks
The Aspiring Speakers 2024 session at DevoxxUK2024, organized in collaboration with the London Java Community, showcased five emerging talents sharing fresh perspectives on technology and leadership. Rajani Rao explores serverless architectures, Yemurai Rabvukwa bridges chemistry and cybersecurity, Farhath Razzaque delves into AI-driven productivity, Manogna Machiraju tackles imposter syndrome in leadership, and Leena Mooneeram offers strategies for platform team synergy. Each 10-minute talk delivers actionable insights, reflecting the diversity and innovation within the tech community. This session highlights the power of new voices in shaping the future of software development.
Serverless Revolution with Rajani Rao
Rajani Rao, a principal technologist at Viva and founder of the Women Coding Community, presents a compelling case for serverless computing. Using a restaurant analogy—contrasting home cooking (traditional computing) with dining out (serverless)—Rajani illustrates how serverless eliminates infrastructure management, enhances scalability, and optimizes costs. She shares a real-world example of porting a REST API from Windows EC2 instances to AWS Lambda, handling 6 billion monthly requests. This shift, completed in a day, resolved issues like CPU overload and patching failures, freeing the team from maintenance burdens. The result was not only operational efficiency but also a monetized service, boosting revenue and team morale. Rajani advocates starting small with serverless to unlock creativity and improve developer well-being.
Chemistry Meets Cybersecurity with Yemurai Rabvukwa
Yemurai Rabvukwa, a cybersecurity engineer and TikTok content creator under STEM Bab, draws parallels between chemistry and cybersecurity. Her squiggly career path—from studying chemistry in China to pivoting to tech during a COVID-disrupted study abroad—highlights transferable skills like analytical thinking and problem-solving. Yemurai identifies three intersections: pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and energy. In pharmaceuticals, both fields use a prevent-detect-respond framework to safeguard systems and ensure quality. The 2017 WannaCry attack on the NHS underscores a multidisciplinary approach in healthcare, involving stakeholders to restore services. In energy, geopolitical risks and ransomware target renewable sectors, emphasizing cybersecurity’s critical role. Yemurai’s journey inspires leveraging diverse backgrounds to tackle complex tech challenges.
AI-Powered Productivity with Farhath Razzaque
Farhath Razzaque, a freelance full-stack engineer and AI enthusiast, explores how generative AI can transform developer productivity. Quoting DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, Farhath emphasizes AI’s potential to accelerate innovation. He outlines five levels of AI adoption: zero-shot prompting for quick error resolution, AI apps like Cursor IDE for streamlined coding, prompt engineering for precise outputs, agentic workflows for collaborative AI agents, and custom solutions using frameworks like LangChain. Farhath highlights open-source tools like NoAI Browser and MakeReal, which rival commercial offerings at lower costs. By automating repetitive tasks and leveraging domain expertise, developers can achieve 10x productivity gains, preparing for an AI-driven future.
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome with Manogna Machiraju
Manogna Machiraju, head of engineering at Domestic & General, shares a candid exploration of imposter syndrome in leadership roles. Drawing from her 2017 promotion to engineering manager, Manogna recounts overworking to prove her worth, only to face project failure and team burnout. This prompted reflection on her role’s expectations, realizing she wasn’t meant to code but to enable her team. She advocates building clarity before acting, appreciating team efforts, and embracing tolerable imperfection. Manogna also addresses the challenge of not being the expert in senior roles, encouraging curiosity and authenticity over faking expertise. Her principle—leaning into discomfort with determination—offers a roadmap for navigating leadership doubts.
Platform Happiness with Leena Mooneeram
Leena Mooneeram, a platform engineer at Chainalysis, presents a developer’s guide to platform happiness, emphasizing mutual engagement between engineers and platform teams. Viewing platforms as products, Leena suggests three actions: be an early adopter to shape tools and build relationships, contribute by fixing documentation or small bugs, and question considerately with context and urgency details. These steps enhance platform robustness and reduce friction. For instance, early adopters provide critical feedback, while contributions like PRs for typos streamline workflows. Leena’s mutual engagement model fosters collaboration, ensuring platforms empower engineers to build software joyfully and efficiently.