Empowering Innovation: The Essential Role of Platform Engineering in Cloud Native Ecosystems

Savitha Raghunathan

Abstract: The move towards cloud native ecosystems signifies a vital evolution in application design, deployment, and management, focusing on agility, resilience, and scalability. This whitepaper examines platform engineering's key role in enabling this transition, showcasing how it cultivates robust, efficient, and secure environments suited to the dynamic needs of cloud native applications. Through a detailed exploration of key concepts and strategies such as Platform as a Product (PaaP), self - service platforms, automation, observability and monitoring, security, and Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs), it demonstrates how platform engineering supports and drives the successful adoption of cloud native technologies. By incorporating these elements into a unified strategy, platform engineering teams empower developers, optimize operations, and enhance security, resulting in innovation and keeping up with technological evolution.

Keywords: Platform Engineering, Platform as a product, Infrastructure as Code, Cloud Native, Internal Developer Platforms