Platform engineering vs DevOps: Difference in 2025

Let’s start with DevOps, the buzzword that changed how we think about building and shipping software. These days, every college student and other professional wants to become a DevOps engineer. If you are an aspiring DevOps engineer or already working as a DevOps engineer, this blog will help you understand the difference between Platform engineering and Devops

Platform engineering is really changing every company’s perspective on developing platforms. These days, every company has started building its own internal developer platform (IDP). Let’s see why platform engineering is so important and whether platform engineering is replacing DevOps.

What is DevOps?

If you see the definition of DevOps online, this is what you get to see:

“DevOps is the combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increases an organization’s ability to deliver applications and services at high velocity.”

The goal? To shorten the software development life cycle and deliver high-quality software quickly and reliably. It’s all about collaboration, automation, and breaking down silos between teams.

But DevOps isn’t just about tools. It’s about people working together, sharing responsibility for building, testing, and releasing code. Think of it as a bridge that connects development and operations, powered by automation and transparency.

Now let’s come to our hero.

What is Platform Engineering?

Platform engineering focuses on designing, building, and maintaining the internal platforms that software teams use to build, test, deploy, and operate applications. These platforms aim to make developers’ lives easier by providing self-service tools, infrastructure as code, automation, and standardized processes.

If DevOps is the bridge, platform engineering is like building a really smart highway system on top of it.

Imagine you’re a developer. Instead of dealing with infrastructure headaches every time you want to deploy something, a platform engineer has already built you a “golden path”—a toolkit that lets you focus on your code and ship it faster (and safer).

For example, if you are a developer who needs access to a K8s cluster, instead of waiting for DevOps team or your manager to give you access, imagine if there is a platform (Internal Developer platform) where you can self-provision everything without needing to wait for anyone. How cool is this, right?

How are Platform Engineering and DevOps Different?

At a first glance, DevOps and platform engineering can look pretty similar—they both want to speed up delivery, improve collaboration, and automate all the things. But here’s the big difference:

• DevOps is a set of practices and a cultural movement. It encourages developers and operations to work together, adopt automation, and own the entire lifecycle.

• Platform Engineering is about productizing infrastructure and tooling. Platform engineers build the reusable platforms, paved roads, and self-service portals that enable DevOps to scale across a company.

How to Get Started with DevOps?

To be honest, the answer will differ. From a company perspective, they may already be implementing DevOps and have DevOps engineers in place. But if you are someone new to DevOps and want to start learning, here’s how you can begin:

First, start with containers and try to containerize your application. Once you are familiar with containerization technology, learn CI/CD. Then, start using any of the popular cloud platforms to deploy your application. Finally, explore Kubernetes. These are tools in DevOps, but you don’t need to learn every tool—focus on learning the technology behind them.

For example, learn containerization technology first before diving into Docker or Podman. The same applies to all tools: understand the underlying technology first, then use the tools.

How to Get Started with Platform Engineering?

I know everyone has this question: How do I get started with Platform Engineering? My first recommendation is to use tools that provide platforms or help in building platforms. This will give you a better understanding of how platform engineering works. Learning theory, like reading this blog, is fine, but try using tools that are useful for building platforms. There are many tools on the market, like Backstage, and the most popular tool I would recommend is Crossplane. Use these tools and then analyze how they can be used to build platforms that solve the internal issues developers are currently facing.

Also, join the Platform Engineering community. The CNCF has a dedicated working group for Platform Engineering. You can join the community and learn how others are building platforms.

How to Implement DevOps

1. Start with a Collaborative Culture: DevOps is about collaboration between development and operations teams. Break down silos and foster open communication, ensuring both teams work toward common goals.

2. Automate Repetitive Tasks: Embrace automation to reduce manual intervention. Implement CI/CD pipelines for continuous integration and continuous delivery, ensuring faster and error-free deployments.

   

3. Focus on Continuous Testing: Integrate automated testing like Keploy to catch issues early in the development process.

4. Adopt Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Manage infrastructure with code for consistency and repeatability.

5. Monitor and Measure: Continuous monitoring is vital. Implement monitoring tools to track system performance, detect issues in real-time, and improve response times.

6. Integrate Security: Build security into the development pipeline from the start (DevSecOps).

7. Iterate and Improve: DevOps is a journey, not a destination. Regularly review your processes, gather feedback from teams, and continuously refine your approach to achieve better efficiency and quality.

How to Implement Platform Engineering

1. Understand Developer Needs: Interview your dev teams. What slows them down? What do they need to move faster?

2. Design for Self-Service: Build tools and platforms that let developers help themselves.

3. Standardize and Automate: Use Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CI/CD pipelines, and reusable modules.

4. Feedback Loop: Keep talking to your users (the devs) and keep improving the platform.

5. Measure Success: Track adoption, developer satisfaction, and the time it takes to deliver features.

Is Platform Engineering Replacing DevOps?

It’s a question a lot of people are asking as platform engineering gains popularity: Is platform engineering replacing DevOps?

The short answer is no platform engineering is not replacing DevOps. Instead, it’s building on the foundation that DevOps created.

DevOps introduced the world to better collaboration, automation, and a culture of shared responsibility between development and operations. Platform engineering takes these ideas a step further by creating internal platforms and tools that make it easier for teams to practice DevOps at scale.

Think of it like this:

• DevOps is about changing how teams work together and automate software delivery.

• Platform engineering is about building what teams use internal products, self-service tools, and reusable systems that support DevOps practices.

In fact, platform engineering and DevOps go hand in hand. Platform engineering empowers DevOps teams to work more efficiently and consistently, while DevOps culture ensures that platforms are used and improved collaboratively. Rather than a replacement, platform engineering is the next evolution that helps organizations get even more value out of DevOps.

Integrate Keploy into Your CI/CD Pipeline for Continuous Testing

In a typical CI/CD pipeline, I’m sure everyone has integrated some static tools and security tools. But what if there’s something we can add for testing? Yes, you can add Keploy to your CI/CD pipeline so that testing becomes a part of it. This way, every time you make changes, testing is included, and you can identify bugs and confirm if any new regressions have been introduced.

No matter where your CI/CD pipeline is whether it’s in GitHub, GitLab, or Jenkins you can run Keploy.

To learn more about Keploy integration with GitHub: https://keploy.io/docs/ci-cd/github/

To learn more about Keploy integration with Gitlab: https://keploy.io/docs/ci-cd/gitlab/

To learn more about Keploy integration with Jenkins: https://keploy.io/docs/ci-cd/jenkins/

Benefits of DevOps

• Faster releases: Automate everything from builds to deployment.

• Better collaboration: No more “throwing code over the wall.”

• Higher reliability: Automated tests and monitoring catch issues earlier.

• Continuous improvement: Feedback loops make processes better over time.

• More fun at work: Developers and ops feel like they’re on the same team.

Benefits of Platform Engineering

• Self-service: Developers don’t have to wait for ops to provision resources.

• Consistency: Standardized tools and processes across teams.

• Scalability: Easy to grow as your organization grows.

• Happier developers: Less time fighting with infrastructure, more time coding.

• Security and compliance: Built-in guardrails keep your cloud safe.

Conclusion:

I hope you had some insight on platform engineering and DevOps. I guess DevOps people already know and have used DevOps, but platform engineering is something new to many people. Many organizations have started investing in platform engineering, so it is good to know about these concepts. More importantly, if you are a DevOps engineer, start investing in yourself on platform engineering. Build some simple platforms, do POCs, and then you will understand the importance of platform engineering and how it will improve your team’s productivity.

FAQs:

1. Can you have DevOps without platform engineering?

Yes DevOps can work with manual processes or basic automation, but it scales better with a strong platform.

2. Does platform engineering replace DevOps?

No. Platform engineering empowers DevOps by providing better tools and reusable infrastructure.

3. Is platform engineering only for big companies?

No. Even small teams can benefit from simple platforms, especially as they grow.

4. What skills do platform engineers need?

Cloud, automation, programming, CI/CD, and empathy for developers’ pain points.

5. Which roles should own developer experience—DevOps or platform engineering?

Both have a stake, but platform engineers are increasingly focused on developer experience as their main product.