Build security, scalability, compatibility, and openness into your platform engineering practice by choosing the right tools.
Translated from 7 Greatest Tools for Your Platform Engineering Toolchain by Francesca Carta. Platform engineering, the practice of building and managing an in-house developer platform for software development, is rapidly gaining popularity. What is its promise? Seamlessly integrate and optimize traditional development and DevOps methodologies to address critical gaps.
However, the rise of platform engineering has led to the growth of a range of toolsets, each claiming to solve all of your organization's problems. Sadly, only a handful of tools have been able to deliver on this hype. Take a closer look at these seven platform engineering tools that are really useful. Here are some tools to facilitate seamless adoption of platform engineering.
Open Policy** (OPA) is an open-source, universal policy engine designed to simplify and unify security policy management across disparate software and systems. OPA allows you to declaratively and enforce policies in the form of **, leveraging the expressive power of the high-level language REGO. This policy engine powers solutions such as R nd, a lightweight, open-source Kubernetes container developed to protect your APIs with simple security policies. By leveraging OPA as a security engine for validating authorization rules, and leveraging REGO to write security policies, RND goes beyond its role as an authorization mechanism. It enables you to build robust and flexible role-based access control (RBAC) or attribute-based access control (ABAC) solutions by providing its basic building blocks: roles, permissions, and user groups. By bridging the gap between policy definition and enforcement, OPA and R ND simplify security management and enhance the overall security posture of the application.
However, securing an application isn't just about defining who has access to what; It also involves securing the keys and credentials that unlock that access. Enter HashiCorp Vault.
Over the past few decades, cyberattacks of varying sizes have cost large enterprises millions of dollars. The ongoing breaches demonstrate the undeniable need for strong data security.
Organizations have traditionally used passwords, encryption keys, and certificates to control access to sensitive information. However, these "credentials" often don't have a central location and are scattered across systems. This makes it challenging to keep track of who has access to what, often leaving sensitive data vulnerable.
That's where Hashicorp Vault comes in. It is an identity-based secret and encryption management system designed to simplify the secure storage, generation, encryption, and transmission of secrets. Vault uses authentication and authorization to help ensure that only authorized individuals have access to the information they have access to. Vault securely stores and manages secrets, including passwords, API keys, SSH keys, RSA tokens, and one-time passwords (OTPs), in a centralized platform. Another key feature of Vault is Dynamic Secret – short-lived, auto-renewing credentials that minimize exposure.
Vault also supports a variety of authentication methods such as tokens, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), and multi-factor authentication (MFA), providing a flexible and adaptable security framework. Its encryption capabilities are not limited to storage but also facilitate the encryption of data in transit and at rest.
Access control and secrecy management are important, but they are not enough. For true peace of mind, continuous monitoring is essential. This means real-time insight into the health and performance of your security infrastructure, allowing you to identify and address potential issues before they become problems. This brings us to the classic monitoring and visualization duo Prometheus and Grafana.
Prometheus excels at collecting real-time data from a variety of targets, such as applications, servers, and cloud services. These goals expose key metrics through a dedicated metrics path, allowing Prometheus to assess system health and performance. But collecting data is only the first step. grafana(Visualization experts who turn complex metrics stored by Prometheus into actionable insights.) Grafana empowers teams to build interactive dashboards that turn raw numbers into easy-to-understand visualizations that reveal trends and potential issues. Common,Grafana and Prometheus( Assemble a strong team. Prometheus collects and stores real-time metrics, while Grafana presents them in a clear and insightful way. This collaboration enables teams to quickly identify performance issues, track trends, and maintain optimal system health and resource efficiency. This brings us to the next cost-saving and eco-friendly tool: kube-green. kube-green( is an open-source operator designed to reduce the environmental impact and cost of Kubernetes clusters.) This Kubernetes add-on automatically shuts down unused resources, minimizing energy consumption and carbon emissions. This "green" approach is in line with the tech industry's growing sustainability efforts. Kube-Green was developed by D**ide Bianchi of Mia-Platform and is part of CNCFLANDSCAPE. In addition to its environmental benefits, kube-green can help you save money. Many cloud providers use a pay-as-you-go payment model, so by intelligently shutting down unused resources, Kube-Green can significantly lower your cloud bill. Adopters report savings of 30 to 40 percent, cementing Kube-Green's reputation as a powerful optimizer for resource use, energy consumption, and financial resources. kube-green is built to work seamlessly with Kubernetes, one of the most popular container orchestration platforms. This makes it possible to smoothly integrate with popular workflows and CI CD pipelines, making it easy to reap its benefits without interrupting your current setup. If you've ever been exposed to software development, you've almost certainly come across itgit(Popular distributed version control systems, and their many providers.) Essentially, these platforms host your Git repository, enabling teams to collaborate and manage software projects effectively. But git providers offer more than just collaboration and version control. They have become indispensable tools in modern software engineering, with features that simplify development and improve quality.
For example,github( Leverage GitHub Actions, its built-in CI CD solution, to automate builds, tests, and deployments to speed up the development process while ensuring quality.) Again,gitlab(CI CD pipelines are also available, as well as issue tracking, project management, and access control, enabling comprehensive project management within the platform.) In addition to these giants, other providers bring unique advantages. Tight integration with JirabitbucketFacilitates seamless project management and issue tracking, especially for teams in the Atlassian ecosystem. gitkrakenwithsourcetreeFocus on a user-friendly graphical interface that makes version control easier for developers who are less familiar with the command line. The git provider simplifies the entire development and delivery process. They enable teams to adopt agile practices, accelerate delivery, and maintain high quality through efficient collaborative workflows through efficient collaborative workflows. However, when you manually deploy changes to more and more Kubernetes clusters, a new challenge arises: maintaining consistency between them. This is where ARGO CDs step in to maintain seamless harmony between your clusters.
argo cd( is an open-source declarative Gitops continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes.) It simplifies the automation of deploying, scaling, and updating applications in Kubernetes clusters by using Git as the single truth for application configuration. The desired state of the application is specified in the Git repository. Argo CD uses this repository to reconcile the actual state of the application with the desired state declared in the repository. Ensuring consistent and timely Kubernetes deployments with Argo CD, the next tool in the chain enables developers to build on top of the stability and automation provided by an in-house developer platform.
MIA-Platform enables organizations to build and manage their in-house developer platforms (IDPs). An IDP is a tool, service, and process that accelerates the development process by abstracting the context and complexity of the underlying infrastructure. This abstraction reduces the cognitive load on the developers responsible for delivering the product, ultimately improving the developer experience. The MIA platform also supports composable development by providing a software catalog of ready-to-use components, such as payment integration hubs and MIA platform fast data. The catalog enables developers to quickly assemble fully functional applications without having to "reinvent the wheel". While these tools are a great starting point for any organization looking to adopt platform engineering, there is no one-size-fits-all toolchain or solution. In order to make an informed decision and choose a tool that meets your requirements and goals, consider a few key factors to ensure seamless integration and maximum impact:
Security: Security is essential in platform engineering tools, especially when dealing with sensitive data. Some third-party solutions are like "black boxes" – you can't see their internal security features, so you don't know how they work. To be on the safe side, research and choose a tool that prioritizes strong security to protect your data. Look for a toolchain with strong encryption, vulnerability scanning, and secure access control.
CompatibilityChoose a tool that integrates seamlessly with your existing systems and infrastructure to avoid headaches. Incompatible tools can create siloed information silos and disrupt workflows, leading to development and deployment delays. For enhanced compatibility, choose a widely used tool that has a proven track record in different environments.
** Quotient locked: Adopt open-source tools as much as possible to avoid vendor lock-in. This reduces reliance on specific vendors and allows you to customize and tweak your platform as business logic and needs change. If you must opt for a closed-source tool, avoid the one that traps you in a proprietary ecosystem; Maintain multiple quotient options for redundancy and risk management.
ScalabilityChoose a tool designed for scalability to effectively manage your current and future needs as your user base and data volume continues to expand. Also, make sure that the tool's pricing model allows for resource optimization so that increasing usage doesn't create an unexpected financial burden.
Scalability: Another feature that supports efficient scalability is scalability. Choose a tool that allows you to seamlessly integrate new tools and services based on your team's needs.
Platform engineering has changed the way organizations build and deliver software. It's not just about speed and security; It's also about enabling developers to do more with less.
What was once a strategic investment has become a fundamental shift in software development, paving the way for an agile and innovative future.
The landscape of platform engineering is far from static. While these tools pave the way for revolutionary change, there are many more possibilities in the future. You can expect to deepen automation and intelligence with artificial intelligence, enabling the platform to learn and adapt independently. In addition, the democratization of building platforms with no-tools is coming, enabling developers of all skill levels to contribute to the evolution of the platform. This future brings greater efficiency, agility, and innovation to software development. While the future of platform engineering is full of potential, it's important to be pragmatic about it. Carefully assess your team's specific needs and choose a tool that directly addresses those needs. By adopting a flexible and solution-oriented mindset, you can confidently leverage platform engineering.