Field Notes From KubeCon #3: Empower Your Platform Journey with Platforms Working Group
Key insights on platform engineering from Atulpriya Sharma’s KubeCon India 2024 talk. Learn how to simplify cloud ops.
Key insights on platform engineering from Atulpriya Sharma’s KubeCon India 2024 talk. Learn how to simplify cloud ops.
Hi Ishan here again! And I am delivering you the field notes I took from all the sessions I attended during KubeCon day 1 and 2 - so you don’t have to miss anything!
After grabbing some good breakfast, I headed to the talk by Atulpriya Sharma at KubeCon India 2024 in Delhi. The room was buzzing with excitement as platform engineers and tech enthusiasts gathered for this much-anticipated session.
The moment Atulpriya took the stage, his energy was contagious. “Let’s talk about kitchens,” he began with a grin. "Think about this: chefs cook without talking to servers, and servers take orders without knowing what the kitchen can handle. No recipes, no process—just chaos." A few puzzled looks floated across the room. “Imagine a restaurant where chefs cook without ever talking to the servers. Servers take orders without knowing what the kitchen can handle. No recipes, no process—just chaos.”
Someone behind me muttered, "Sounds like my last production deployment." Laughter rippled through the audience.
Atulpriya continued, “In tech, developers are the chefs, and operations teams are the servers. When they don’t communicate or follow consistent processes, things break down fast. Customers—your end-users—are left frustrated.”
The analogy hit home. It perfectly illustrated the disconnect that often happens when development and operations teams work in silos.
“DevOps promised better collaboration, but scaling it is tough,” Atulpriya explained. "Teams spend too much time setting up infrastructure. Every team reinvents solutions for the same problems. Developers struggle with fragmented tools," he added. He paced the stage thoughtfully. “Teams spend too much time setting up infrastructure. Every team reinvents solutions for the same problems. Developers struggle with fragmented tools.”
A curious attendee in the front row asked, “So where does Platform Engineering fit in?”
Atulpriya smiled. “Platform Engineering is about building a common, self-service platform that hides infrastructure complexity. Developers can focus on features, while platform teams manage the infrastructure. Everyone wins.”
He shared real-world examples, making it clear how a well-built platform can ease friction and boost productivity.
Atulpriya, a CNCF Ambassador and Co-Chair of the Platforms Working Group, shared how the group collaborates to define best practices for platform engineering.
“We meet regularly to discuss industry challenges,” he said. “One major outcome is the Platforms Maturity Model—a framework to help organizations see where they are and how to improve.”
I jotted down key points:
Someone asked, “How can we get involved?”
“Join us on CNCF Slack or our biweekly calls,” Atulpriya encouraged. “Share ideas, write blog posts, review content. There’s room for everyone.”
Sitting there, I couldn’t help but think about what we’re building at Facets.cloud. Our mission is to make cloud infrastructure simpler through platform engineering. The Working Group’s focus on community-driven best practices felt perfectly aligned with what we’re striving for.
We’ve faced similar challenges while crafting our platform—standardizing processes, simplifying developer experiences, and ensuring scalability. Atulpriya’s insights confirmed we’re heading in the right direction.
As the session wrapped up, I realized platform engineering isn’t just about tech—it’s about building systems where developers can thrive. It’s about helping organizations scale without burning out their teams.
With fresh ideas swirling in my head, I walked out feeling inspired. KubeCon had only just begun, and I was already full of actionable takeaways for building better platforms.
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