The Platform Engineering Playbook: A practical guide to implementing and scaling DevOps with cloud native internal developer platforms

by George Hantzaras

Overview

Accelerate the delivery of cloud services and developers' productivity by building, designing, and managing internal developer platforms and platform teams with the help of real-world case studies

Key Features

• Learn how to build Internal Developer Platforms using cloud-native tools, such as Kubernetes, Istio, Prometheus, and more.
• Includes real-world use cases of platform implementations from industry leading companies
• Provides step-by-step guide on platform team building and organizational dynamics
• Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free eBook in the PDF format

Book Description

Platform engineering offers solutions to multiple problems, in an era where scaling software and operations is more challenging than ever. The Platform Engineering Playbook is a meticulously crafted practical guide that covers the fundamentals, strategies, tools, and best practices of platform engineering. The book introduces the basics of infrastructure management and DevOps approaches that lead you to platform engineering and related advanced concepts like automating infrastructure for enhancing developers’ experience, and ensuring security and compliance at scale. You’ll learn how to design and build a complete Internal Developer Platform (IDP) using cloud-native tools, such as Kubernetes, Crossplane, Backstage, and ArgoCD. You’ll explore platform teams in-depth including why they are essential and how they can transform the efficiency of your engineering team and assist them in dealing with Observability (using Prometheus, Thanos, Open Telemetry, etc.) and security issues. You'll understand the importance of platform engineering as a critical component in the modern software development through real-world use cases from top IT companies. After reading this book, you’ll be able to confidently establish and manage a platform engineering team and design an internal developer platform using cloud native tools.

What you will learn

• Understand the why, what, and how of Platform Engineering and its relevance to your organization
• Details about the architecture and components of an internal developer platform (IDP)
• Leverage the different cloud native tools to build internal developer platforms
• Measure platform success with key metrics
• Know how to structure a platform team, hire the right people, and build a community around platform engineering
• Understand the different aspects and best practices of cloud financial management (Cloud FinOps)

Who this book is for

This book is intended for software, DevOps, site reliability and cloud engineers wanting to cross-skill and go into platform engineering roles. It can also used as a reference material by mid to senior level software and cloud architects as well as engineering and technology leaders interested in scaling their engineering function and building a platform engineering team. Basic understanding of DevOps and cloud concepts as well as a good grasp of modern software development practices is required while using this book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781837638055
Publisher:	Packt Publishing
Publication date:	11/14/2025
Product dimensions:	75.00(w) x 92.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

George Hantzaras is a cloud expert and a hands-on engineering leader with focus on delivering cloud services at scale. He is a Director of Engineering at MongoDB, focusing on implementing cloud native technologies at enterprise scale. He is also a Managing Partner at Algorythm, a boutique innovation and startup consulting firm, and has led large scale transformation projects for enterprise and government customers, focusing on cloud transformation and cybersecurity. He has been a speaker at global events, most recently speaking at Kubecon, Open Source Summit, Hashiconf, LeadDev, DeveloperWeek, and more, focusing on agile leadership, scaling engineering teams, and entrepreneurship.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

1. Overview of Infrastructure Management and the DevOps Journey
2. Essentials of Platform Engineering
3. Understanding the Business Value
4. Growing into Platform Engineering
5. Understanding the Platform Architecture and Internal Developer Platform (IDP)
6. Building Core Internal Developer Platform with Cloud-native Tools
7. Building an IDP with Cloud-native tools – Additional Capabilities
8. Adopting a Platform as Product Approach
9. Understanding the Financial Aspects of Platform Engineering
10. Building an IDP with Cloud-Native Tools- Core Platform
11. Building Your Platform Engineering Team, The Right Way
12. Measuring Platform Success
13. Discovering End-to-End Platform Implementations with Real-World Use Cases
14. The Road Ahead for Platform Engineering