stackconf 2024 | Towards Standardized Platforms: How the CNOE Project Can Help by Daniel Bodky

Platform building has become an emerging practice in the IT world. Be it internal developer platforms (IDPs) or more generalistic PaaS offerings for internal organizations, enterprises strive for unified platform experiences on top of Kubernetes and GitOps. 
This endeavor comes at a risk: How to choose the right building blocks and make sure they are maintained and play nicely with each other?
The CNOE (Cloud Native Operational Excellence) project makes an effort to mitigate these risks by providing reference architectures and implementations built on pluggable and extensible open source tooling. The speaker will outline the when and why of building platforms before introducing the CNOE project, its tenets and aims.
He will also live-demo the deployment of a reference IDP using idpbuilder, a tool maintained by the CNOE project, to provide attendees with steps to get started with platform building and experimenting putting together CNCF tools such as ArgoCD, Backstage, or Crossplane. Attendees will gain an understanding of what problems IDPs in general and the CNOE project in particular try to solve, as well as which steps it takes to get started.

1. Towards Standardized
PlatformsHow the CNOE Project Can Help Daniel Bodky | Platform Advocate stackconf 2024 18th of June, 2024

3. will establish Platform Engineering teams by 2026, according to Gartner

4. ~ $ whois daniel-bodky
Platform Advocate at
Ex Systems Engineer, Consultant
Focus on Kubernetes, Platforms, and GitOps

5. So What is a Platform?

6. So What is a Platform?
Some product I buy off the
shelf?

7. So What is a Platform?
Some fever dream I built
myself?

8. So What is a Platform?
This?

9. So What is a Platform?
Any of these!

10. A platform […] is an of
defined and presented according to the
of the
- CNCF Platforms White Paper
integrated collection
capabilities
needs platform’s users.

11. A platform […] is an of
defined and presented according to the
of the
- CNCF Platforms White Paper
integrated collection
capabilities
needs platform’s users.

12. A platform […] is an of
defined and presented according to the
of the
- CNCF Platforms White Paper
integrated collection
capabilities
needs platform’s users.

13. In Other Words…
Platforms need to...

14. In Other Words…
Platforms need to...
…help solve …

15. In Other Words…
Platforms need to...
…help solve …
…provide for processes…

16. In Other Words…
Platforms need to...
…help solve …
…provide for processes…
…establish a for multiple technologies…

17. In Other Words…
Platforms need to...
…help solve …
…provide for processes…
…establish a for multiple technologies…
…cater to a of autonomous teams…

18. In Other Words…
Platforms need to...
…help solve …
…provide for processes…
…establish a for multiple technologies…
…cater to a of autonomous teams…
...throughout your engineering organization as a whole!

20. Remember DevOps?

21. Remember DevOps?

22. Remember DevOps?

23. Platform Engineering Is Similar!

24. Platform Engineering Is Similar!

25. Platform Engineering Is Similar!

26. Platforms Can Help Your Engineering Teams
Improved productivity and efficiency
through curated self-service(s)
Reduced operational overhead
through centralized infrastructure capabilities
Faster TTM for products, features, and patches
through streamlined procedures
Consistency and standards across your organization
through consistent look and feel on the platform

29. Internal Developer Platforms are a strategic
commitment. Share learnings & build in the open.
- from the CNOE project’s website

30. CNOE (Cloud Native Operational Excellence)
A framework for bringing together
enterprises to…
…navigate their operational technology decisions
…de-risk their tooling bets
…coordinate contributions
…offer guidance on available technologies

31. CNOE Tenets
summarized, from the CNOE project page

32. CNOE Tenets
Open Source technologies are prioritized over
proprietary technologies to allow alignment and
coordination of contributions from many different
participants.
summarized, from the CNOE project page

33. CNOE Tenets
Decisions on technologies, level of commitment and
contributions are driven by the community and its
governing body.
summarized, from the CNOE project page

34. CNOE Tenets
The CNOE project offers suggestions on which tooling
and configurations to use, not which practices to build.
summarized, from the CNOE project page

35. CNOE Tenets
CNOE tooling builds on top of Kubernetes and CNCF
technologies while providing solutions to target
virtually any compute platform.
summarized, from the CNOE project page

36. CNOE Tenets
CNOE tries to ensure best possible usability to its
stakeholders by allowing customizations and reducing
complexity of integrated tooling.
summarized, from the CNOE project page

37. CNOE Tenets
All CNOE development, e.g. its reference architecture
and deployable packages, are developed out in the
open and made available for anyone to use.
summarized, from the CNOE project page

39. idpbuilder CLI
A command line tool for…
…bootstrapping…
…extending…
…developing…
…internal developer portals

40. idpbuilder - Core Packages

41. idpbuilder - Core Packages
ArgoCD
Cloud-Native GitOps Engine

42. idpbuilder - Core Packages
Gitea
Lightweight SCM

43. idpbuilder - Core Packages
Backstage
Service Catalog & IDP Framework

44. idpbuilder - Core Packages
Crossplane
Cloud-Native Controlplane Framework

45. idpbuilder - Core Packages
Keycloak
Cloud-Native IAM Platform

46. idpbuilder - Core Packages
External Secrets Operator
External Secret Management for Kubernetes

49. Summing It Up…
… standardized, streamlined processes throughout your engineering organization
… with your team(s) and strategic decisions regarding integrated
technologies
… feasible, proven standard tooling for building customizable
platforms
… by bootstrapping portable, demo-able, and customizable platforms

50. Thank you
for your time and interest!
Learn more here:
[slides.dbodky.me/stackconf-berlin-2024]