Healthcare organizations can benefit from the agility afforded by platform engineering, a discipline that takes DevOps to the next level. The approach provides a standardized, self-service platform for developers that reduces operational overhead, accelerates software delivery and fosters greater collaboration among teams.
“As organizations reach more advanced stages in their DevOps journey, the need for a dedicated approach like platform engineering becomes clear,” notes Puppet’s 2024 State of DevOps Report. IT leaders who integrate platform engineering also report less technical complexity in managing modern applications. In fact, Gartner predicts that 80% of large software engineering organizations will establish platform engineering teams by 2026, up from 45% in 2022.
With platform engineering in the mix, healthcare developers benefit from simplified infrastructure management, an improved developer experience, increased scalability and enhanced security. Second only to problem-solving and troubleshooting, building and enforcing security processes is one of the top goals for platform teams, according to the Puppet report.
Here are some of the major benefits of platform engineering.
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1. Platform Engineering Reduces Complexity and Boosts Productivity
A major benefit of platform engineering is that it simplifies and consolidates internal developer software into one platform. This self-service resource can be customized to offer a developer-specific, standardized set of tools, services and automated workflows. Healthcare developer and platform engineering teams can also ensure that the work follows a set order of operations.
“By essentially creating templates and pipelines for developers to do their work, developers no longer waste time figuring out that part of the development process,” writes Neil Wylie, chief architect for DevOps and Site Reliability Engineer at CDW in a recent blog post. “This also makes it easier to onboard new developers who are not familiar with the various tools and workflows an organization uses.”
Reduced tech sprawl also translates to heightened productivity, allowing teams to spend less time on manual or repetitive tasks and more time on strategic initiatives. The Puppet report also notes that when platform engineering is implemented, it improves efficiency across the board.
READ MORE: How can health systems prepare to deploy platform engineering?
2. Platform Engineering Adds Data Governance to DevOps
The more healthcare organizations adopt platform engineering, the more they create modern data governance strategies. An internal developer platform has built-in frameworks for policy enforcement, monitoring and auditing so that sensitive data is safeguarded across all stages of the software lifecycle. IT leaders can also introduce Infrastructure as Code or Policy as Code principles to reduce the risk of breaches.
By centralizing governance policies within the platform, healthcare organizations can maintain consistent data practices across diverse teams and environments. Half of teams surveyed say that “increased regulatory compliance has led to greater business growth,” according to Puppet’s report.
3. Platform Engineering Helps Healthcare Organizations Scale
The ability to handle large workloads is essential for any growing organization, and platform engineering makes that effort easier. According to Wylie, it can help scale an organization’s “applications and services through containerization and orchestration technologies that automate the deployment and management of containerized applications, auto-scaling rules to manage resources, load balancing to distribute heavy network traffic and more.”
Working with an internal developer program also makes it easier for engineers to leverage emerging technologies in their work. By 2027, experts predict that 50% of engineers will use artificial intelligence in their platform engineering work, and that same group reports faster productivity, according to a 2023 Gartner press release.
4. Platform Engineering Improves Security
By folding platform engineering into their DevOps, healthcare organizations can take a more proactive approach to their security. This tactic can also boost cyber resilience and reduce the chance of recurring attacks. For example, teams can integrate automated security scanning tools and automated compliance checks right into their workflow. These steps, according to Wylie, “help verify that infrastructure and applications meet industry regulations and internal security policies.”
