Platform Engineering: Raise the Level of Abstraction using Kubernetes Operators by Tom De Wolf

Lower the cognitive load of developers by engineering higher-level abstractions into the Platform Orchestrator with Kubernetes operators and CRDs. In this talk, we’ll use microservices and data products as examples. Platform engineering and the development of Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs) are top of mind for many organizations. Let's consider developers as our primary end users and empower them with self-service platform tools. The goal is to raise the level of abstraction for developers using the platform and abstract away the accidental complexity of underlying infrastructure and technology. In this "shift-left" movement, the cognitive load for developers is lowered, enabling them to work more autonomously and focus even more on delivering value. But how exactly can we engineer and design such platforms? Platform engineering and cloud-native technologies allow the creation of interesting architectures and designs for platforms. Join us in this talk to discover how Kubernetes can be utilized as a powerful tool for engineering platforms. We’ll delve into the design of a core component of such a platform, i.e. the Platform Orchestrator or Control Plane. More specifically, this talk will show how Kubernetes Operators and Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) can be leveraged to define and develop fit-for-purpose abstractions. We also provide example patterns for designing a complete Control Plane platform. Both a Microservice in the context of software engineering and a data product in the context of data engineering (data mesh) will be used as example abstractions throughout the talk. By the end of this session, attendees will gain valuable insights and knowledge on leveraging Kubernetes to engineer cloud-native platforms effectively.