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What is platform engineering and what are its key components
a) Platform engineering is the process of designing, building, and deploying an online service to deliver valuable experiences to a global audience. This usually entails designing and building the systems that allow the service to provide a valuable experience (e.g., users can interact with each other and create content, etc.). In addition, platform engineering involves identifying the areas of risk related to building this service, implementing these risks into the systems, and building a robust platform so that those risks remain minimized over time.
b) The key components of platform engineering, in our view, include the following:
Identifying and implementing an appropriate development framework (e.g., agile, DevOps, AgileOps). Building a set of infrastructure components (e.g., continuous integration environment, release management tooling) that are used to develop and deploy the service. Building reusable services that can be consumed by multiple teams (including both product teams and other platform engineering teams). Implementing a comprehensive monitoring and logging framework that allows teams to monitor and troubleshoot the service. Providing a security framework that provides the proper level of protection for critical data, services, and infrastructure components (including building policies for employees to implement).
c) The following types of platform engineering teams include those responsible for the following:
The benefits of platform engineering
A platform can help provide new business opportunities for a company since platforms offer a way to reach users for an ongoing and ongoing service. At the same time, when building and launching a new service, platform engineering can help reduce risks. Platform engineers not only identify the ground rules of their project, but also explain how their project fits into the overall business strategy of their company. [NOTE: this is NOT the case with most software developers] Examples of Platform Engineering Benefits:
* The benefits of using a platform can include the benefits of using a software system, but with additional engineering benefits. For example, if the platform is used to provide services for other applications on the same computer, then additional issues are raised when it comes to security, reliability and performance.
* The core benefit of a platform is to provide developers with an environment where they can build real applications that deliver business value.
* When building a platform, the first thing that the platform designers need to do is to identify the ground rules of their project. For example, if one of those rules is that it must support different types of operating systems, then platform engineers have to take into account which parts of their code can be built for only one operating system and which parts need to be flexible enough to run on different operating systems. [NOTE: this is VERY hard]
How to get started with platform engineering
To get started with Platform Engineering, the first step is to identify your investment priorities and the areas of risk. In addition, you should build a higher level architecture that defines how the system will look like in months and years to come. The second step involves developing an implementation plan. It is important to know that business users will have needs for a variety of systems, but you should focus on one or two major systems. For example, a developer’s first step might be to focus on the core system which enables the basic functionality of the service. Once the core system is developed, then you can spend the time to develop other systems that make up your platform.
Since all companies are unique, the metadata, process and technology for each company will vary. As you build your platform, you will want to focus on a few items such as workflow, data/schema and other technologies.
Workflow is defined by how the functional components of your system interact with each other. You should establish processes to ensure data quality, performance and availability. The Platform Engineering team should also define the tools used to monitor and manage the system.

Platform engineering best practices
The following is a list of platform engineering best practices that you can implement right now to start building your own platform. In addition, you can use the list of platform engineering best practices as a guide for your own platform development:
1. First principles:
A platform is a computational abstraction, which is a simple mechanism by which you can build complex systems of computational objects. When you solve this problem, you can make the computation happen on any device (desktops, laptops, tablets and phones). You don’t need to spend time making sure all the devices are identical. The only thing that matters is how they connect to the system’s architecture.
2. Commonality and abstraction:
This is the key to developing a platform. You need to solve the problem of building a platform in a way that is both generic and standardized, which means the same principles apply to all platforms. For example, the same rules apply when you build your website from scratch or when you develop an application for your work or for your hobby. A platform is not just a combination of hardware and software. You need to understand the interplay between both parts and know how to choose between them.
3. Building blocks:

Case studies of successful platforms
The following is a list of successful platforms that were built after the platform engineers identified their critical areas of risk and implemented it into the platform. These platforms are just examples. There are too many other successful cases of Platform Engineering, such as: Apple’s App Store, Google’s Android Marketplace, Flicker’s Photo Sharing Platform, and Twitter’s Social Media Platform.
There are various stages of platform engineering: [1] developing the platform [2] creating the platform [3] providing a vision of success [4] determining the risk areas and opportunities within these risk areas that could build into an innovative and successful platform [5] identifying risks in the immediate area, and how it could affect other areas of the company’s business. These two circles can be connected so that you can more efficiently manage future risks.
Platform engineers will also work with product managers to identify areas for big innovation. They will also work to ensure that the platform is the best way to bring new products to market.
“Building an innovative platform” is a top priority for Google. [1] “Google has a number of ways it makes money, but they all tend to flow down from what we’re doing at the core–and our software, in particular, and our Internet search engine. Our other businesses are building out off these technologies.”
“Platform engineering is about creating new capabilities that help make their business better through product innovation. It’s about thinking of a platform as a portfolio of products that they can deliver to market.”
1. “Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt lays out the company’s central mission: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”