empowering your development teams

An internal developer platform (IDP) is a self-service portal that enables developers to independently manage environments, deployments, resources, and configurations throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC). It is an internal product that makes developers self-sufficient, reduces their cognitive load, and modernizes enterprise software delivery by automating, securing, and centralizing the tools and capabilities required for application development, deployment, and operations.

do you really need one?

According to Gartner, by 2026, 80% of large software engineering organizations will establish platform engineering teams to provide reusable services, components, and tools for application delivery. Forester’s report "Adopt Platform Engineering To Accelerate Digital Transformation" and IDC’s "FutureScape: Worldwide Developer and DevOps Predictions" support similar predictions. 

The decision to build a developer platform depends on various factors, including the size and complexity of your engineering team, the diversity of your technology stack, identified inefficiencies in your development process, onboarding challenges, scalability concerns, compliance and security requirements, developer experience, cloud and infrastructure management needs, architecture considerations, time-to-market pressures, knowledge sharing practices, resource utilization, monitoring and observability capabilities, and innovation goals. If you find your organization grappling with several of these issues, an IDP could provide substantial benefits:

• Improved Developer Experience: An IDP streamlines workflows by providing a single point of access to critical resources like APIs, documentation, code samples, and sandboxes. This reduces time spent searching for information and fosters self-service development.
• Enhanced Collaboration: IDPs can host forums and discussion boards where developers can collaborate, share knowledge, and troubleshoot issues collectively. This breaks down silos and promotes knowledge sharing.
• Increased Developer Productivity: Easy access to resources and streamlined processes lead to faster development cycles and quicker time-to-market for new features and services.
• Standardized Development Practices: By consolidating resources and promoting best practices within the IDP, developers can maintain consistent coding styles, documentation formats, and security protocols.‍
• Reduced Operational Overhead: Self-service capabilities within the IDP can free IT support from repetitive tasks like provisioning environments or resetting passwords. This allows IT to focus on more strategic initiatives.

what capabilities should an IDP provide?

An IDP should provide a range of functionalities to empower developers and improve the developer experience. Here are some key features that should be included:

• Resource and Service Management
  • Centralized Resource Repository: A unified place for storing all project-related resources, such as code, documents, and binaries.‍
  • Self-service Provisioning & Management: Allows developers to provision and manage resources without needing manual intervention.‍
  • Infrastructure Provisioning: Tools for automating the setup and configuration of infrastructure.‍
  • Environment Management: Managing development, testing, and production environment
  • Service Discovery: Mechanisms for applications to discover each other on the network.
• Code Management
  • Code Repositories: Version-controlled repositories for source code.
  • Linting and Code Analysis: Automated code review and quality checks.
• Configuration, Artifact Management, and Tools
  • Configuration Stores: Centralized storage for configuration settings.
  • Artifact Registries: Repositories for storing build artifacts and container images.
  • Package Management: Systems for managing and distributing software packages.
  • Templating: Tools for creating and using infrastructure templates.
  • Documentation Management: Creation, storage, and management of technical documentation.
• Security and Compliance
  • Secret Management: Secure storage and management of sensitive information such as API keys and passwords, scanning of container images and sensitive information accidentally included in code.
  • Security Compliance, Security Checks, Policy Checks: Ensuring adherence to security policies and regulatory requirements.
  • Identity and Access Management: Tools for managing user identities and access permissions.
  • Cryptographic Signing: Ensuring the integrity and authenticity of code and artifacts through digital signatures.
  • Software Composition Analysis: Identifying and managing open source components and their vulnerabilities.
  • Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST): Testing applications for security vulnerabilities during runtime.
  • Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP): Tools that protect applications from attacks while they are running.
• Deployment‍
  • Deployment Pipelines & Monitoring: Automated processes for building, testing, and deploying applications with real-time monitoring.
  • CI/CD Integration: Continuous integration and deployment pipelines.
  • Application Deployment: Automated deployment of applications to different environments.
• Monitoring and Analytics
  • Developer Analytics & Feedback Mechanisms: Tools to track developer productivity, system usage, and gather feedback.
  • Observability, Monitoring, Logging: Comprehensive visibility into system performance and behavior. Tools for monitoring application performance and logging events.

The illustration below provides an overview of the AWS services that can be used to provide these IDP capabilities:

‍What are the keys to success?

Beyond the technology, several key factors contribute to the success of your IDP:

• Executive sponsorship: Secure leadership buy-in to ensure the IDP has the necessary resources and support to thrive, and is seen as a tool that increases productivity and innovation - not as a cost burden.
• Involve cross-functional teams early: Involve development teams, operations, security, infrastructure, and others in the planning and design phases to ensure that the platform meets their needs and addresses their pain points. Start small, focus on high-value use cases, and iterate based on feedback.
• Promote a culture of collaboration: Foster a culture where developers actively contribute to success by sharing knowledge and best practices through forums and discussions.
• Focus on the developer experience: Prioritize the user experience to ensure that the platform is intuitive and easy to use. Conduct usability testing and iterate on the design based on feedback. 
• Integrate with existing workflows: Automate everything possible, from infrastructure provisioning to application deployment and security checks. Ensure the platform complements and enhances existing development processes rather than disrupting them.
• Provide training and support: Offer training sessions and resources to help developers understand how to use the platform effectively. This includes documentation, tutorials, and hands-on workshops.
• Employ a change management strategy: Develop a comprehensive change management strategy to promote adoption and address potential resistance.
• Build a feedback and continuous improvement cycle: Monitor IDP usage, and gather regular feedback from users and make continuous improvements to the portal. Stay updated with the latest tools and technologies to keep the portal relevant and effective.
• Manage scalability: Design the platform with future growth in mind, both in terms of users and functionality.
• Establish a Governance model: Ensure clear ownership and processes for managing and updating the platform
• Measure and celebrate success: Define KPIs to measure the success of the portal. These can include DevOps Research and Assessment metrics (DORA - deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and time to restore service), usage statistics, developer satisfaction, impact on productivity, cost optimization from centralized management and automation, etc.

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Building an Internal Developer Platform is a strategic investment that empowers development teams, reduces friction, fosters innovation, and accelerates the delivery of applications and services. It is a critical component in modernizing your organization’s software delivery capabilities. It can significantly enhance the productivity and satisfaction of your engineering teams. The success of an IDP is not just measured by its technical capabilities, but by its adoption and the tangible improvements it brings to your development processes. With the right approach and ongoing support, an IDP can become an indispensable asset in your organization's tech ecosystem, driving innovation and efficiency across your engineering teams.