By André Alfter

Redefining Platform Engineering

Platform engineering is all about empowering developers by creating self-service environments where they can build, deploy, and run applications without the heavy lifting of managing underlying infrastructure. An Internal Developer Platform (IDP) brings this concept to life by enhancing the developer experience through tailored solutions, intuitive interfaces, and standardized components designed specifically with developers' needs in mind. Self-service capabilities enable on-demand access to essential services, templates, and resources, significantly reducing reliance on operations teams and streamlining the entire development process.

By abstracting infrastructure complexities, the platform minimizes cognitive load, allowing developers to concentrate fully on coding, innovation, and delivering high-quality products. It also accelerates onboarding for new team members, helping them become productive faster by providing consistent environments and clear workflows. Standardized processes and automated pipelines ensure smooth and efficient infrastructure provisioning, reducing the risk of errors while boosting overall efficiency. With multi-cloud flexibility at its core, an IDP supports seamless deployment across on-premises, cloud, and air-gapped environments, giving teams the freedom to choose the best infrastructure for their needs. Built-in security policies and compliance standards further empower developers to work independently while maintaining robust safeguards, ensuring that innovation never comes at the expense of safety or reliability.

Inside the AI-Enhanced IDP Architecture

The AI-empowered Internal Developer Platform (IDP) architecture from Bechtle Competence Center AV Software Solutions 360° (AVS), developed in collaboration with NVIDIA and Dell, is designed to support machine learning (ML) development and deployment, particularly in industries with strict security and compliance requirements. AVS's new architecture advances traditional platform engineering by integrating AI-centric features across three distinct planes:

1. User/Developer Plane

Specifically designed for ML researchers, data scientists, and AI Ops teams, this layer provides a highly intuitive, developer-friendly environment that includes:

• An integrated development environment (IDE) and user portal.
• Version control systems, service applications, ML pipelines, and feature stores.
• Support for inference workload management alongside BI/data science tools and model training capabilities.
• Seamless integration with industry-standard tools such as PyTorch, CUDA, SparkML, and MXNet.

2. Resource Delivery Plane

This layer is all about execution-deploying and managing AI workloads efficiently:

• A robust continuous integration (CI) pipeline flow.
• A dedicated model registry and an orchestration engine.
• Deployment capabilities powered by accelerated computing infrastructure featuring GPUs and RDMA networks.

3. Control Plane

Ensuring the platform's security, stability, and cost-effectiveness, this plane handles:

• Comprehensive monitoring and logging with advanced observability via Dash0.
• Rigorous security measures, including identity and secrets management along with strict policy controls.
• A cost management system that oversees reporting, billing, and chargebacks.
  

Empowering Highly Regulated Industries

Industries facing stringent security requirements and complex compliance landscapes will find the AI-enhanced Internal Developer Platform (IDP) particularly beneficial. This platform delivers a secure and standardized environment, tailor-made to address high-stakes security challenges, enabling teams to innovate without being bogged down by the complexities of compliance. With developer-infrastructure abstraction, the platform simplifies the development process, fostering innovation, while built-in compliance enforcement ensures that regulatory standards are met without compromise. Automation and standardization further enhance efficiency across development workflows, making the platform more effective and streamlined.

AVS aimed to develop a platform that accelerates AI development while ensuring high security and compliance standards. The result is a reference architecture designed to meet the unique needs of customers in regulated industries, empowering them to innovate while maintaining stringent security and compliance standards.

Driving Developer Success

Early feedback highlights the practical outcomes of adopting platform engineering. The streamlined development processes have:

• Boosted developer morale and performance.
• Reduced onboarding times significantly.
• Enhanced overall brand reputation by showcasing operational excellence.

These advancements support internal teams while providing customers with a framework that integrates smoothly into their IT operations.

About Bechtle Competence Center AV Software Solutions 360° (AVS)

Headquartered in Bonn/Cologne, Bechtle Competence Center AVS is a leading provider of software development and IT solutions. With a team of over 150 experts, AVS specializes in cloud-native applications, DevOps, and platform engineering. The mission is to help organizations across various sectors modernize their IT infrastructure and accelerate digital transformation.

By championing platform engineering and rolling out a state-of-the-art IDP, AVS is paving the way for a future where developers are empowered to innovate securely and efficiently-even in the most demanding IT environments.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

André has been at home in the IT and consulting industry for over 25 years, accompanying highly regulated companies and public authorities through major technological changes. He supports Bechtle AVS clients in designing complex IT architectures and digital products.