Platform Engineering in Practice
Build internal Developer Platform from Empty Clusters to Self-Service Delivery, Observability, and AI-Assisted Operations
We will define the developer contract first, and we will then build the platform underneath it together, step by step, using decisions that hold up in regulated environments and in small startups alike. Along the way, we will provision clusters, wire delivery, publish a developer API, enforce policy and ship observability, and we will do all of it where you can see every command, every manifest and every failure. Nothing here stays theoretical, because platform problems only show their true shape where an abstraction meets a real cluster.
About
About the Book
At some point, every software engineering organisation hits a point where shipping software feels like it's taking longer than writing it. So, developers are waiting days for a database, environments are drifting apart, and every team is deploying in its own way. This book shows you how to do that, one working layer at a time.
In this book, you'll get to build a complete internal developer platform using tools you can run on a single Linux workstation. The plan is to provision multi-cluster infrastructure with OpenTofu, wire GitOps delivery with Argo CD, design a self-service component API with Kubebuilder and Crossplane, enforce policy with Kyverno and Cilium, and add observability and a Backstage portal that cuts onboarding from weeks to minutes. Then you'll adopt OpenChoreo and use it with custom component types, promotion pipelines, multi-cluster data planes, and AI agents connected through MCP.
Out of the book, about 40% is about the thinking behind it, and the rest is all about putting it into practice. The idea is to make you capable and skilled to design, build, secure, measure and grow a platform that developers will actually use.
Key Learnings
- Provision multi-cluster Kubernetes foundations with OpenTofu modules, gateways, and shared secret stores.
- Deliver change through GitOps with Argo CD, ApplicationSets, and progressive rollouts.
- Design single-file component API that hides Kubernetes detail from developers.
- Provision databases on demand with Crossplane compositions and a custom operator.
- Enforce security baselines through Kyverno policies, signed images, and zero-trust network rules.
- Instrument services with OpenTelemetry, and reuse dashboards, SLOs, burn-rate alerts.
- Speedup onboarding using Backstage templates, catalog entities, and TechDocs.
- Operate OpenChoreo with custom component types, traits, and promotion pipelines.
- Run dedicated production data planes across clusters using outbound cluster agents.
- Grow adoption voluntarily, score platform maturity, and prove ROI to leadership.
Table of Content
- Why Platform Engineering Exists
- Thinking Like a Platform Team
- Architecting Internal Developer Platform
- Building Foundation Layer
- GitOps and Delivery Pipelines
- Self-Service and Platform APIs
- Guardrails, Security and Governance
- Observability and Developer Portals
- OpenChoreo as Reference Outcome
- Operating OpenChoreo
- Scaling Platform Adoption
Target Audience
If you know to ship software, and have worked around Git, containers and the Linux command line, then this book is well-suited for you. No prior work with the platform tools is expected, although some knowledge of Kubernetes helps.
Packages
Pick Your Package
All packages include the ebook in the following formats: PDF and EPUB
This book only
Minimum price
Suggested price$29.99$29.99
This book + Extras Downloadable (Infrastructure as Code with OpenTofu)
Minimum price
Suggested price$52.99$47.99
- Infrastructure as Code with OpenTofuInfrastructure as Code with OpenTofu delivers the declarative provisioning that powers self-service, using an open-source, vendor-neutral IaC toolchain.
This book is also available in the following packages:
This book + Extras Downloadable (Unified Observability with OpenObserve)
No Description Available
- Unified Observability with OpenObserveUnified Observability with OpenObserve completes the platform with full-stack visibility across infrastructure, network, application, data, and AI layers.
- Minimum price
- $47.99
- Suggested price
- $52.99
- Unified Observability with OpenObserve
This book + Extras Downloadable (IaC with OpenTofu + Unified Observability with OpenObserve)
No Description Available
- Infrastructure as Code with OpenTofuInfrastructure as Code with OpenTofu delivers the declarative provisioning that powers self-service, using an open-source, vendor-neutral IaC toolchain.
- Unified Observability with OpenObserveUnified Observability with OpenObserve completes the platform with full-stack visibility across infrastructure, network, application, data, and AI layers.
- Minimum price
- $69.99
- Suggested price
- $74.99
- Infrastructure as Code with OpenTofu
Bundles
Bundles that include this book
- Pricing
$69.99
Minimum priceBought separately$89.97Suggested price$75.99
- Pricing
$77.99
Minimum priceBought separately$119.96Suggested price$84.99
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About the Author
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Where others summarize, we construct step-by-step learning blueprints, cutting through clutter, banning the fluff, and ensuring every paragraph delivers hands-on value. Our audience isn’t learning from scratch—they’re leveling up with purpose, and we stand by them with code-first content, consistent project workflows, and a zero-redundancy approach.
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