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July 17, 2023

Platform Engineering Tools: 12 Types of Tools to Use in Your Platform

Platform Engineering
DevOps

By

Platform engineering tools are the apps and services in an internal developer platform (IDP), like configuration management, provisioning, testing, automation, CI/CD, and more. Your actual IDP should comprise tools your team actually needs: Your choice of platform engineering tools matters because it defines what your dev team can do on their own.

But that doesn’t mean you’re completely on your own for finding and choosing platform engineering tools – particularly if you’re just starting out. Take a look below for information on the types of tools you’ll often find in a developer platform and how they work together to build an effective, efficient platform.

Table of Contents

What Are Platform Engineering Tools?

Platform engineering tools are the set of apps and services in an internal developer platform (IDP). Common types of platform engineering tools include configuration management, automation, deployment, containerization, testing, CI/CD, IaC, orchestration, and more.

Because every DevOps team is different, every internal developer platform will be different. The common thread is that every IDP enables DevOps self-service, which helps developers work faster, more efficiently, and with fewer bottlenecks.

How Do You Use Platform Engineering Tools?

Developers use platform engineering tools to code, build, test, and release software independently. Platform engineers build internal developer platforms (IDPs) with platform engineering tools. 

The purpose of platform engineering is to enable developer self-service. That means letting devs do things like spinning up new resources, merging and testing code, and deploying all from one platform – and without the cognitive load of having to seek out direction from other teams or departments.

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A graphic image representing Puppet's 2023 State of DevOps Report: Platform Engineering Edition.

Platform Engineering Tools to Try

It can’t be said enough that every IDP is different. Your choice of tools should be based on what your team does most often, what they’d like to be able to do, and where your developers would find most value in self-service. That said, most developer platforms have a few tools in common. 

Here are a few common platform engineering tools to use:

  • Ticketing tools
  • Provisioning tools
  • Configuration management tools
  • Version control software
  • Infrastructure-as-code tools
  • Containerization tools
  • Orchestration tools
  • DevOps automation tools
  • Application performance monitoring tools
  • CI/CD tools
  • Automated testing tools
  • Reporting tools

12 Examples of Platform Engineering Tools + Where They Fit in an IDP

Platform Engineering Tool 

Where it Fits in an IDP 

Examples 

Ticketing 

Tickets are used for approvals and tracking. 

Provisioning 

Using provisioning tools in an IDP lets developers spin up new resources and development environments. 

Puppet, Terraform 

Configuration Management 

Use configuration management tools in your IDP to manage configuration files and establish consistency and repeatability across environments. 

Puppet 

Version Control Software 

Version control software lets developers collaborate to monitor and manage changes to their codebase. That’s invaluable when many devs are working from the same platform. 

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) 

IaC tools let your dev team write infrastructure setup and configuration as code, which means they can reproduce infrastructure automatically on their own, right from your IDP. 

Puppet 

Containerization 

Containerization packages applications in isolated, portable, scalable environments to let your dev team work faster with less risk. 

Kubernetes, Docker 

Orchestration 

Orchestration lets you automate and manage the deployment and scaling of applications (whether containerized or non-containerized). 

Kubernetes, OpenShift, Nomad, Puppet (for on-prem and cloud infrastructure) 

DevOps Automation 

Automation in DevOps streamlines the common tasks associated with the development and operations cycle. 

Puppet 

Application Performance Monitoring 

Observability tools like application performance monitoring tools let you see and understand app performance in real time. 

BlazeMeter, Perfecto 

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) 

CI/CD tools automate code commits and deployment from your developer platform. 

CircleCI, Jenkins, CD4PE (for Puppet code) 

Automated Testing 

Automated testing tools can help ensure software quality from your IDP with less effort on the part of developers. 

Reporting 

Companies can use reporting tools to make better business decisions based on the utilization and effectiveness of the tools in their IDP. 

Splunk, PowerBI 

How to Pick the Right Platform Engineering Tools

Like we said above, there’s no perfect set of platform engineering tools. Your platform will probably look different from another company’s platform. Generally, though, it’s smart to choose tools with two primary factors in mind:

  • Extensibility: An IDP should respond to the needs of developers. That often means adding new tools to the platform when needed. Make sure you’re picking tools that let you integrate new tools and services.
  • Scalability: An IDP needs to be able to serve the team you have today, but it should also be able to scale with your DevOps team. If you’re a DevOps organization, consider that your devs may not be the only ones using the platform.

Most importantly, if you’re choosing platform engineering tools for an IDP, you should first find out what its users would find useful. Getting a variety of perspectives is vital to building a useful platform. Our 2023 State of DevOps Report: Platform Engineering Edition found that platform teams at most organizations are made up of a variety of roles, including DevOps (48%), software engineers (45%), developers (40%), SREs (16%), and more.

A bar graph from Puppet's 2023 State of Platform Engineering Report indicating the roles that comprise a platform team.

MORE STATS IN THE FREE REPORT

Go out and actually ask your team where their pain points are. Conduct user research, build an IDP roadmap, get feedback, evangelize the IDP, and understand its meaningful outcomes. Create a conversation and common understanding around your platform and you’ll quickly learn what tools are actually helpful. 

Sounds more like product engineering than a process, right? That’s because platform engineering can only work if the people building the platform treat it like a product. A good IDP is planned with the user in mind, deployed in a way that makes the user’s work easier, and iterated upon over time.

Learn More About Platform Engineering + Tools Platform Engineers Use

Platform engineering is on the rise because it helps organizations get more from their DevOps. The 2023 State of DevOps Report: Platform Engineering Edition from Puppet zooms in on the trend for organizations considering platform engineering. With 40+ pages of data from surveys conducted with companies already doing platform engineering, the State of Platform Engineering Report is the definitive resource for unpacking the hype.

Learn more by downloading the free report from Puppet.

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A profile headshot of Margaret Lee, Manager of Product Management

Margaret Lee

Manager of Product Management, Puppet by Perforce

Margaret Lee is a product leader at Puppet by Perforce. She has always worked to give a voice to the Puppet user base, establishing her as an advocate for customer needs. She leverages her cross-team experience to identify the challenges Puppet customers face and find solutions that ensure DevOps success.