8 key learnings from Platform Con 2024 

Conference season is well underway!

Platform Con 2024 rounds off three weeks of conference madness for us here at Calibo. After two weeks of kicking it in San Fransisco for the Snowflake Summit and the Databricks conference, it was a lovely way to round off the period by putting our feet up, grabbing a coffee, and expanding our minds.

I’d also like to give a shout-out to all the brilliant speakers who attended and spoke. There are too many of you to name (I’d need another blog post), but thank you for sharing.

1. Culture is king/queen 

One of the most profound themes across talks at Platform Con was the emphasis on culture. The consensus was clear that platform engineering is not just the nuts and bolts of digital development; it’s the engine that drives it. It’s all about creating good vibes so everyone thrives.

It’s about reducing the cognitive load on our brilliant developers, the rockstars of roll-outs, and baking in governance, structure, and process to our environment to smooth out the bumps in the road so it’s smooth sailing for everyone. 

2. Less brain strain, more brain gains 

One core tenant of platform engineering is slashing the cognitive load imposed on our teams and developers.

When the tooling and processes are slick, we maximize the time and energy people have for gainful pursuits that add real value to our organisations (and fantasy football, come on, England!). 

3. Treat them mean, keep them… Not keen? 

Okay – so I said I wasn’t going to name names – but I’ll make one or two exceptions here, like for Gerald Benischke from Ooredoo, who highlighted what I think is a highly important but often overlooked point. ‘Humans are not resources’. 

Finding the right engineers is hard, but finding the wrong engineers is easy. It can be much more expensive in the long run. So beware of false economies like this – it’s not always about the money. Thanks, Gerald – excellent point! 

4. Understanding your ecosystem 

This came up a lot and felt, though maybe obvious – is again something perhaps overlooked. Understanding where your platform fits in, who the users are, and what we need to provide them with to uplift and enable – not obstruct and frustrate.

One striking point I took away from Nathan Harvey at Google Cloud was a whitepaper finding that teams that focus on the user have 20% higher job satisfaction and 40% higher organizational performance.

That’s a whole lot of benefits for building a system that works for your users, not building one that requires them to bend to your will.  

5. Platform as a product: the winning formula 

There was also widespread consensus that part of the secret sauce to running a tight ship is treating the platform itself as a product. We’re talking incremental change based on feedback, giving teams the freedom to innovate, and embracing agile practices.

So, if it isn’t easy to make slight changes and react to quick feedback loops, keep the momentum going – you’re hamstringing yourself. Onwards and upwards.

6. Tools and toys – integrations everywhere 

Platform Con showcased a treasure trove of tools and integrations – reminding us there is a heap of exciting tech out there, and often, the tools can make all the difference. We are reminded that sometimes – legacy systems aren’t all bad.

There’s a saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. But with that in mind, you shouldn’t get mired down with legacy tech if it’s not providing value – with the speed at which technology has evolved in recent years, it’s unlikely that your legacy DB can keep up with the workloads that modern data warehouses can!

Remember, we always want to be improving.

7. DevOps is broken? 

This was an interesting point, though perhaps controversial. But in reality, DevOps can be messy and clunky. Tying things together can cause more headaches than hubris.

Therefore, it’s important to think about Platform Engineering as the manifestation of DevOps, perhaps even an enabler—remember, it’s the engine that drives us. If we’re not running a platform that speeds up our journey and frees up our users, then we’re not adding value.  

8. Structure for success 

Tapping into RBAC principles can be a powerful driver for governance and provide a quick change of pace for sluggish, bloated organizations. That said, it’s important to structure your roles and allocations carefully. Looping back to our emphasis on product, bringing in our senior product staff first can help us set a really solid foundation.

Ensure our products are set out clearly and concisely and that guardrails exist to ensure the product is the same at the bottom as expected from the top.

This ensures rigour and integrity in our development process. It also ensures our users and organization get the most value from the platform in pursuit of long-term success. 

So that’s our round-up of Platform Con 2024 – there were some great learnings to be had!

If you’re in the market for an Internal Developer Platform (IDP) or considering even building your own, come and chat with us at Calibo. Save yourself the legwork and get best practices baked in.