# What Is Platform Engineering? > Platform engineering, IDPs, and developer self-service compared – including a real example of automating AWS account creation with Jira Service Management. Source: https://www.xalt.de/en/blog/what-is-platform-engineering/ TEAM XALT Atlassian Platinum Partner · 25 October 2023 · 8 min IT teams, developers, department heads, and CTOs must ensure that applications and digital products reach the market quickly, efficiently, and securely, and are always available. However, the conditions for this are often not in place. Compliance and security policies, as well as long and complicated processes, make it difficult for IT teams to achieve these goals. But this does not have to be the case and can be solved with the help of a [Developer Self-Service](https://container8.io/) or Internal Developer Platform. Table of Contents show - Platform Engineering vs. Internal Developer Platform vs. Developer Self-Service - Challenges that can be solved with Platform Engineering - Practical example: IDP and Developer Self-Service with Jira Service Management and AWS - Webinar - The first step in Platform Engineering with a Developer Self-Service and JSM - Conclusion ![Three nested layers: Developer Self-Service inside, Internal Developer Platform around it and Platform Engineering on the outside](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/c475o02b/production/e603122d2f17155e011137dca923092e3f70fe74-4048x2001.png?w=1504&q=75&fit=max&auto=format) ## Platform Engineering vs. Internal Developer Platform vs. Developer Self-Service ### What is Platform Engineering? Platform Engineering is a new trend aimed at modernising the delivery of enterprise software. Platform Engineering implements reusable tools and self-service features with automated infrastructure workflows that improve the developer experience and productivity. The first efforts to build platforms often begin with internal developer platforms (IDPs). Platform Engineering helps make the creation and delivery of software faster and easier by providing uniform tools, workflows, and technical foundations. It is like a well-organised toolkit and workshop for software developers, enabling them to do their work more efficiently and without unnecessary obstacles. ![Advert for the free webinar on platform engineering on Friday, 17 November 2023 at 10:00 am with Chris Becker and Ivan Ermilov](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/c475o02b/production/7c9b1938e144be9c2bacc3e635c6e151230c05ee-1200x627.jpg?w=1504&q=75&fit=max&auto=format) #### What is Platform Engineering used for? The ideal development platform for one company may be completely useless for another. Even within the same company, different development teams may have entirely different requirements. The main goal of a technology platform is to increase developer productivity. At the enterprise level, such platforms promote consistency and efficiency. For developers, they provide a significant simplification in dealing with delivery pipelines and low-level infrastructure. ### What is an Internal Developer Platform (IDP)? Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs), also known as Developer Self-Service Platforms, are systems established within companies to accelerate and simplify the software development process. They provide developers with a central, standardized, and automated environment in which they can write, test, deploy, and manage code. IDPs offer a range of tools, features, and processes. The goal is to enable developers with a seamless self-service experience that provides the right features to help developers and others produce valuable software with as little effort as possible. ### How does Platform Engineering differ from an Internal Developer Platform? Platform Engineering is the overarching field that deals with the creation and management of software platforms. Within Platform Engineering, Integrated Development Platforms (IDPs) are developed as specific tools or platforms. These provide developers with self-service and automation features. ### What is Developer Self-Service? Developer Self-Service is a concept that allows developers to create and manage the resources and environments they need themselves, without having to wait for support from operations teams or other departments. This increases efficiency, reduces waiting times, and boosts productivity through independent work and faster access to resources. This means that developers do not have to wait for others to get what they need and can complete their work faster. ### How do IDPs help with this? Think of Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs) as a well-organized supermarket where everything is easy to find. IDPs provide all the necessary tools and services so that developers can complete their tasks without major detours. They are, so to speak, the place where self-service takes place. ### The transition to Platform Engineering When a company transitions from IDPs to Platform Engineering, it is like jumping from a small local shop to a large shopping center. Platform Engineering offers a broader range of services and stronger automation. It helps companies further optimize and scale their development processes. By switching to Platform Engineering, companies can make their development processes more efficient, improve collaboration, and ultimately bring better products to market faster. The first step with IDPs and Developer Self-Service lays the foundation for reaching this higher level of efficiency and automation. ## Challenges that can be solved with Platform Engineering ### Scalability & Standardization In growing, as well as large and already well-established companies, the number of IT projects and teams can increase rapidly. Traditional development practices can make it difficult to scale the development environment and keep it homogeneous. The continuously growing number of IT projects or applications leads to differences in setup and configuration, security and compliance standards, as well as an overview of which user has access to what. Platform Engineering enables greater scalability by introducing automation and standardised processes, making it easier to manage a growing number of projects and application developments. ### Efficiency and Productivity Delays in development and infrastructure creation can arise from manual processes and dependencies between teams, increasing the time it takes for an application to reach the market. Platform Engineering helps overcome these challenges by offering self-service features and automation, enabling teams to work faster and more independently. ### Security & Compliance Security concerns are of central importance in every development process. Through Platform Engineering, we standardise and integrate security and compliance standards into the development process and IT infrastructure in advance, enabling consistent security review and management. ### Consistency and Standardisation Different teams and projects may use different tools and practices, which can lead to inconsistencies. Platform Engineering promotes standardisation by providing a common platform with uniform tools and processes that can be used by everyone. ### Innovation and Experimentation The ability to quickly test and iterate on new ideas is crucial for a company's innovation capability. Platform Engineering provides an environment that encourages experimentation and rapid iteration by efficiently delivering the required infrastructure and tools. ### Cost Control By optimising and automating development processes, operational costs can be reduced. Platform Engineering provides the tools and practices to use resources efficiently, thereby reducing the overall cost of development. ![Self-service portal with AWS request types such as requesting or revoking access, creating an organisation account and an EKS cluster, with the user's own requests below](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/c475o02b/production/f4bc151fe33b347fbf4614a62a217f3406bc76ff-1577x789.png?w=1504&q=75&fit=max&auto=format) ## Practical example: IDP and Developer Self-Service with Jira Service Management and AWS One way to get started with Platform Engineering is, for example, to use [Jira Service Management](https://www.xalt.de/en/jira-service-management/) as a Developer Self-Service to automatically and securely set up AWS Cloud infrastructure and provide templates for developers and cloud engineers in a wiki. ### How does it work? ![Request form for an AWS account with the fields Account name, AWS Security Champion, AWS Technical Lead, Account Type and Request participants](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/c475o02b/production/d633ccdcf7dce054e9bd875904ae4c714f154290-526x402.png?w=1504&q=75&fit=max&auto=format) #### Jira Service Management Developer Self-Service With the help of Jira Service Management, one of our customers provides a self-service that allows developers to automatically and securely set up an AWS organisation account. This works through a simple portal and a service request form, where the user must provide information such as name, role, account type, security and technical owner, and approving manager. Subsequently, the account is created on AWS in the backend using Python scripts within a build pipeline. During setup, all security- and compliance-relevant standards are already integrated, and JSM Self-Service is linked to the company's Active Directory. Due to the deep integration with all relevant company systems, it can subsequently be explicitly traced who has access to what. This also facilitates the control of access and existing accounts in retrospect. The result: The time required to create AWS organisational accounts is reduced to under one hour (from several weeks) with the help of JSM, enabling IT teams to release, test, and update their products faster. In addition, an overview is created of which and how many accounts already exist and for which product, thereby simplifying cost control of the cloud infrastructure on AWS. #### Confluence Cloud as a knowledge base for IT teams Of course, a developer self-service is only a small part of platform engineering. IT teams need specific tools and apps tailored to their requirements. One of these tools is a knowledge base where IT teams, from developers to cloud engineers, can find relevant information such as templates that make their work easier and faster. We set up a knowledge base with Confluence for our client, providing various templates, courses, best practices, and important information about processes. This knowledge base enables all relevant stakeholders to access important information and continue their professional development at any time. ## Webinar - The first step in Platform Engineering with a Developer Self-Service and JSM Having discussed the challenges and solutions that platform engineering entails, it is important to implement these concepts in practice and continue to explore them. An upcoming webinar offers a great opportunity to learn more about the practical application of platform engineering. This webinar places a specific focus on the automation of AWS infrastructure creation using Jira Service Management and developer self-service. Additionally, it offers a live demo with our experts from the DevOps field. ![Advert for the free webinar on platform engineering on Friday, 17 November 2023 at 10:00 am with Chris Becker and Ivan Ermilov](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/c475o02b/production/7c9b1938e144be9c2bacc3e635c6e151230c05ee-1200x627.jpg?w=1504&q=75&fit=max&auto=format) ## Conclusion The journey from internal developer platforms to platform engineering is a progressive step that helps companies optimise their development processes. By utilising a developer self-service and overcoming challenges in software development, platform engineering paves the way for more efficient and innovative development practices. With practical resources such as the webinar presented, interested parties can dive deeper into this topic. And furthermore gain valuable insights into the effective implementation of platform engineering. ## Ready to take the first step toward platform engineering? We'll show you how to automate and scale your development processes with Jira Service Management and a developer self-service. [Talk to us](https://www.xalt.de/en/contact/) ## More articles ### [The Agent Harness: The Real Foundation of Enterprise AI](https://www.xalt.de/en/blog/agent-harness-foundation-enterprise-ai/) Why the agent harness – not the AI model or the generated code – determines the success of enterprise AI initiatives, and how to build one in five steps. *DevOps* ### [Governing Agentic AI Safely: Zero Trust and Compliance for AI Agents](https://www.xalt.de/en/blog/governing-agentic-ai-zero-trust-compliance/) AI agents are transforming the enterprise at speed – and the risk is growing just as fast. 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