You Have a Platform. You Just Built It By Accident. #

Think Platform Engineering is just for 'Big Tech'? Nope.

If your code gets from Git to a server where people use it, you have a platform. That's it, right there. You just built it by accident.

The real question isn’t “platform or no platform.”

The question is: will you treat it like a serious product? Or let it turn into a fragile mess that everyone is scared to touch?

What a “Platform” Actually Is #

Let's be clear. A platform isn't just fancy tools.

• It's the system you use to ship code.
  • Your code (GitHub/GitLab/etc.)
  • Your processes (CI/CD)
  • The stuff that keeps it running and secure (IaC, observability, etc.)
• It's the set of rules everyone follows (or should be following):
  • How do you start a new service?
  • How do you test it?
  • How do you launch it?
  • How do you fix it (or roll it back)?
  • How do you see if it's broken?
  • How do you upgrade its dependencies?

So, the only question: Is your platform built on purpose, or is it just... whatever?

Assess Your Platform: Accidental or Intentional? #

Lots of teams think 'platform' is some big project for big tech companies. That's wrong. If you ship code, you have one.

The problem? It's an accidental platform. It's held together with digital duct tape and "that one person" who knows all the secrets. (We all know that person.)

Signs You're Running an Accidental Platform #

Does any of this sound a little too familiar?

• The "Tech Janitor" Backlog: Are your best devs always stuck fixing broken pipelines or doing 'chores' instead of building features that pay the bills?

  • Business Cost: Your most expensive engineers are wasting time on low-value work, not new ideas. Your speed goes way down. That costs a lot.

• The New Hire Payroll Burn: Does it take a new dev weeks to get their laptop working and push one tiny change?

  • Business Cost: You are paying a full salary for weeks of nothing. That's thousands of dollars poof gone before they write one good line of code.

• "The Expert" Bottleneck: Does everything stop if one specific person isn't there? ("Just ask Alex, he knows the script.") What happens when Alex is on vacation?

  • Business Cost: You don't have a team. You have one person holding everything up. When Alex gets sick or (worse) quits, your whole system stops. That's a huge risk, right there.

• "Snowflake" Services: Does every team do things their own special way? Is everyone just copy-pasting code and making a maintenance nightmare?

  • Business Cost: This mess is impossible to manage or secure. When a big security flaw (like Log4j) happens, you can't even find all the broken stuff, let alone fix it.

• The "Aftermath" Security Review: Does security only check things after the code is all done? Is someone (slowly) approving PRs by hand?

  • Business Cost: This makes you choose: be slow (and wait) or be risky (and skip it). It's a "human stop sign" that just makes everyone want to find a workaround.

• Everyone Needs to Be an Expert... in Everything: Do your devs need to be experts in their code, AND also Kubernetes, networking, and security just to do their job?

  • Business Cost: This is how you get burnout. You're frying their brains. They get slow, make simple (but expensive) mistakes, and then they quit.

If several of these sound familiar, congratulations. You're running an accidental platform.

What an Intentional Platform Feels Like #

This isn't a dream. This is what a "Platform As A Product" mindset gets you.

• Deploying on Friday is Boring: Your team trusts the system (automated rollbacks, good tests). Pushing to prod isn't a big panic.
• New Hires Ship Code on Day 1: Onboarding isn't a two-week setup mess. It's "Here's the portal. Go."
• Security is a Co-pilot, Not a Cop: Security isn't a "Stop Sign" at the end. It's built in from the start with good, safe templates.
• Developers Have Less Brain-Fry: They don't need to be experts in everything. They just focus on the code. That's it.

It's a Product, So It Needs a Product Team #

This isn't just a tech problem. It's a team problem. Stop treating your platform like a 'cost center' or just another ticket queue.

Treat your platform like a real product.

This means you need a Platform Team that acts like a product team.

• Their Customers: Your internal developers.
• Their Product: The Internal Developer Platform (IDP).
• Their Mission: Make developers less frustrated and ship code faster.
• Their Method: They talk to their 'customers' (devs), find the biggest problems, and build easy, self-service 'paved roads' to fix them.
• Their Goal: Is not just 'closing tickets'. Their goal is to make life easier and improve metrics (like DORA).

This stops your platform from being a mess and turns it into a real business advantage.

How to Start: Assess Before You Build #

Most platform projects fail. Why? Because teams just start building. They add tools without knowing what the real problems are.

You have to check your setup first. Find the biggest things slowing you down.

1. Find Your Real Problems (and Costs) #

Before you build anything, you need a clear picture.

• How long does it take a new dev to be useful?
• How much time do devs waste on platform maintenance vs. building features?
• How much 'secret' work is caused by your shaky platform?
• How much friction (and complaining) is there in your current setup?

You need to find these numbers. This helps you prove why you need to invest time and money. It's not just "devs are complaining."

2. Start with Rules, Not Tools #

The best fixes often don't cost money. They are about agreement.

• Define what 'good' looks like. (e.g., "A new service is ready in 10 minutes.")
• Create good feedback loops. Listen to your devs.
• Start small. Show value. Then get more people to use it.

This systematic approach requires specialized expertise in platform assessment and measurement—something. Most SMBs with engineering teams don't have bandwidth to develop internally.

3. Don't Build What You Can Buy (Especially if you're an SMB) #

After you assess, you'll see gaps. Your first thought, as an engineer, will be "I can build that!"

Don't. Stop right there.

Unless your company's main product is a developer platform, you have no business building one from scratch. Are you nuts? That's a full-time job for an entire team.

For startups and SMBs, "build vs. buy" is a simple question.

• Building is slow, expensive, and a massive distraction. The maintenance never ends. It's ego, mon ami.
• Buying an off-the-shelf product gets you 80% of the way there tomorrow. It costs a fraction of one developer's salary.

This is the smart move. Focus your expensive devs on your product, not on rebuilding basic infrastructure. This is why products in this space (like, ahem, ours) even exist. We handle the plumbing so you can build your house.

Why This Matters Now #

Everything is moving faster. The cost of a bad platform adds up fast.

Teams that were 'fine' two years ago are now drowning in complexity. You can't ignore this. The only choice is how you fix it: on purpose (like a product) or by accident (with more duct tape).

Your Choice: Accidental Problem or Intentional Asset? #

You don't get to choose if you have a platform. You only choose if it's an asset or a problem.

• You already have a platform. Stop arguing about it. Give it a name. Give it an owner.
• This is a team shift. Make clear rules. Build simple 'paved roads'. Build security in from the start. This is a product problem, not just a tool problem.
• Focus on the developer's life. Measure your success by outcomes (like DORA metrics and if devs are happy), not by how many tools you buy. Make life simpler for your team.