DEVOPSdigest

The continued maturity of platform engineering is shown by 43% of respondents reporting they have had a platform team for at least 3-5 years, according to the 2024 State of DevOps Report from Puppet.

Key findings of the report include:

Security built into platform engineering

Security is being built into the foundation of platform engineering, with far-reaching benefits for organizations who understand that Security is priority one.

■ 43% of respondents say that their platform has a dedicated security and compliance team, highlighting the importance of proactive security management.

■ Most respondents report that the platform team has helped their company become more compliant.

■ 51% of respondents say that platform teams are also responsible for enforcing software and tool versions for security updates.

Automation unlocks DevOps potential

Standardized automation unlocks the full potential of DevOps.

■ Organizations report an average of 3 self-service platforms operating internally, indicating expansion and maturity since last year's report.

■ "Automation," "productivity," and "standardized processes" are cited as the three top use cases that platform engineering helps solve.

■ 66% report that automating workflows and processes "is in scope" for their growing platform engineering teams.

Platform engineering team should support developers

It's critical that developers are supported by the platform engineering team to do their best work.

■ 52% say that a product manager is crucial to the success of the platform team.

■ Respondents cite "increased productivity," "better quality of software," and "reduced lead time for deployment" as the top benefits that the platform team has delivered for developers.

■ 65% of respondents report that the platform team is important and will receive continued investment.

As the number of self-service platforms increase, the report also shows that most functions have moved onto a platform of their own — especially the security function.

Methodology: The survey collected data from IT practitioners and leaders who work with or are part of their company's platform engineering teams, as well as from a control group of similar participants who do not have platform teams at their organizations. The survey was conducted online from August 24 to September 30 2023 from three primary world regions NorAm (38%), EMEA (27%), APAC (22%) and Other (13%). Respondents were gathered through two avenues, a snowball sampling method and a panel. The report was sponsored by the Continuous Delivery Foundation, Humanitec, and Women in DevOps.