A carefully crafted platform can reduce error, speed delivery, and increase platform resiliency for maximized business value
As discussed in a previous post, many benefits come from implementing a platform business model, especially when reinforced by a collection of proven platform engineering best practices. Some of those benefits include functional alignment, developer autonomy, and increased efficiency.
According to Gartner, by 2025, 75% of organizations with platform teams will focus on improving the developer experience and accelerating product innovation, further advancing the role of platform engineering in business. (1)
As security and compliance continue to be critical elements of digital business operations, Gartner also found that 60% of organizations are hardening their software delivery pipelines to protect against supply chain security attacks. (2)
Security and compliance become particularly relevant as platform engineering models amplify the use of APIs, shared services, and open-source code, each exposing application vulnerabilities and supply chain weaknesses. And, with the growing government-level scrutiny over organizations’ software bill of materials (SBOMs), the need to demonstrate integrated security and compliance as part of platform, infrastructure, and application development processes is only intensifying. (3)
However, security and compliance integration into the platform engineering model extends beyond their core benefits of demonstrating defined policies and implemented controls for systems, applications, and data. Below are a few aspects of platform operations that can extract value from a secure and compliant platform:
Reduced Human Error: By creating a strategy that embraces security and compliance from the platform’s inception, the team can determine how the platform should operate from the very beginning to ensure compliance requirements and internal security policies are met at every turn. Automation helps the platform self-regulate to handle sensitive data and critical business workflows, leveraging clear rules for how to handle errors and exceptions so business processes can continue with fewer issues, delays, and the need for additional human intervention.
Improved Speed to Market: Security and compliance baked into the platform’s core translate to less time required for each application development project built on the platform. New applications will have less stress on the project to deal with in terms of insecure components, vulnerability patches, and post-delivery configuration gap-filling. A secure and compliant platform also helps to secure the application pipeline and the overall supply chain, as the critical components are secured at the moment they are introduced into the platform. Then everything downstream is secure and inherently benefits from the security attributes of the validated components.
Enhanced Operational Resiliency: AI-enabled automation drives developer efficiencies, increases business workflow integrity, and enables automated defenses against bots and other AI-enabled malicious attacks. Automation allows the platform to operate securely downstream with as little friction as possible for developers and users.
Taos, an IBM company, has been at the forefront of the platform engineering revolution, providing several consulting and managed services to thousands of customers across cloud platform modernization, FinOps, DataOps, AIOps, DevOps, and DevSecOps. Our programs create resilient and scalable infrastructure, streamline application development and deployment, improve engineering efficiencies and developer experience, and enhance user workflows. These capabilities all equate to maximized business value.
Learn more about Taos Platform Engineering Services
Citations:
1, 2 – Predicts 2022: Modernizing Software Development is Key to Digital Transformation, Gartner, December 2021
3 – Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, White House, May 2021