Platform engineering is the discipline of designing and building toolchains and workflows that enable self-service capabilities for software engineering organizations in the cloud-native era.

Platform Engineering

Hello Everyone
I have a quick query, Can the platform engineers here help?
Does your company have a platform team? If so, do you follow the Platform as a Service model or operate on the Platform as a Product approach? If it's the latter, could you please share the motivation behind this choice, the vision you have, and how your team planned and executed this transition? I would greatly appreciate your guidance on this matter.
Thank you!

Hey Ipuvi…I am kinda curious what you define the difference as? :thinking_face:

I am not sure I have heard of “Platfom as a Service” but I have definitely used the idea of “Platform as a Product” delivering things “as a Service”.

yeah i think if you have a platform engineering team that’s working to create a platform as a service, and their platform’s goal is to enable software engineering teams with reduced barrier self service infrastructure and application delivery, then your platform team’s product is that very platform.

to me “platform as a service” is what platform engineering teams build - an internal PaaS. the phrase “platform as a product” feels more like a mindset shift that embraces the concept of a platform engineering team - where we establish that there’s a dedicated team with the responsibility to build the paas platform (or internal developer platform as it’s often referred to) as the primary output of their job function.

Absolutely <@U045ENPNJDV>, The concept of viewing a Platform as a Product indeed represents a significant mindset shift, but it encompasses more than just this fundamental aspect.
In *Platform as a Service*, various engineering teams such as Cloud, DevOps, System Engineering, and Security operate autonomously. Think of it like delegating tasks – when there's a need, like deploying resources or setting up a cloud component, we engage the specialised team responsible. It's like raising a ticket; they take care of the rest. They handle the work, address any queries we might have, and eventually close the ticket.
On the other hand, in *Platform as a Product*, the focus is on empowering our end-users and developers. Instead of delivering a service, we provide them with a self-serve platform or product. Users have more control over their actions, thanks to customization by our Platform teams. We determine what should be automated and what needs manual attention. This approach benefits both our Platform Engineering team and our users. For instance, when creating resources, our platform/product prompts users for configurations adds predefined settings when necessary, and efficiently gets everything set up. This streamlined process involves just a couple of clicks, and the automation takes care of the rest – minimising friction and enhancing the experience for everyone involved.
This is my understanding of *Platform as a Product* &amp; *Platform as a Service* however I'm open to your input in case I have missed out on any aspect.
<@U03JY9VRBK4> I hope this helps. Open to further discussion.