As we close the chapter on 2024, it's time to reflect on Syntasso's progress this year in platform engineering, community engagement, and product iteration. From presenting at key industry events to shipping many new features in Kratix, the past year has been a lot of fun and also very educational.
Our mission is to help platform engineers thrive. We hope our contributions this year will enable organisations to see increasingly beneficial returns on their investment in platform engineering and building platforms as a product.
Conferences and Events in 2024: A Highlight for Us!
One of the year's highlights was our active participation in KubeCon North America in Salt Lake City this November. The event brought together the brightest minds in cloud-native technology, and we were thrilled to contribute with several sessions, meaningful discussions, and the sponsorship of PlatEngDay. Our presence underscored the growing importance of platform engineering in streamlining software delivery, and we aim to be even more involved at KubeCon EU in London next year.
We also thoroughly enjoyed helping to organise KCD UK in October. Sharing our knowledge with folks from our home city is always a lot of fun for us. Abby Bangser and Mauricio (Salaboy) Salatino, from Diagrid, presented a popular session, “When Platforms Meet Application Developers”, exploring three strategies to make your platforms more developer-friendly from both perspectives. Coincidentally, I riffed on a similar topic at KubeCon NA, “Platform Engineering for Software Developers and Architects”. Expect to see more developer-focused content from us next year.
The Fast Flow Conference, held in September, was another key moment for us. This event emphasised methodologies like those in Team Topologies, focusing on delivering value quickly and efficiently. The discussions on APIs, continuous stewardship, and value delivery resonated strongly with attendees.
Earlier in the year, Syntasso also made a significant impact at PlatformCon 2024, helping to organise the in-person London Live event and participating virtually during the online sessions.
Kratix Goes from Strength to Strength
On the innovation front, we introduced major updates to Kratix, our framework for building internal developer platforms, this year. After seeing increasing demand from customers wanting to upgrade their Backstage portal into a platform, the rollout of enhanced Kratix CLI features, improved security, and improved integration with Backstage marked a significant milestone in September. These updates reflect our commitment to creating a seamless and secure experience for platform engineers.
In November, we celebrated the growing adoption of Syntasso Kratix Enterprise (SKE), particularly within the financial services sector. This traction highlights Kratix's unique ability to address both industry-specific challenges and the growing desire to build platforms as a product.
This year, we also announced two key professional services partnerships, with MomentumAI covering the Americas and OpenCredo supporting the UK and EMEA markets. We look forward to continuing to work with the amazing people within these organisations.
Community, Community, Community
2024 also saw us making meaningful contributions to the community. In May, we were proud to have two of our team members, Abby Bangser and Paula Kennedy, recognised as CNCF Ambassadors, honouring their dedication to the cloud-native ecosystem. Additionally, Syntasso was named OpenUK Startup of the Year in November, a testament to our innovation and impact in open-source technology.
Beyond events and accolades, we maintained a strong focus on thought leadership and education. My blog exploring “Platform Engineering: Orchestrating Applications, Platforms, and Infrastructure” (and related talk about the missing middle of platforms) received positive feedback and sparked several interesting discussions. Thanks also to Jennifer Riggins and Todd Weiss for their great coverage of these topics on The New Stack.
Colin Humphreys shared several highlights from his 20 years of experience building platforms as a product. Paula Kennedy’s article on the evolution of platform engineering (based on her QCon SF talk) offered a deep dive into its growing influence on software delivery, and her list of pre-event readings proved popular. Earlier in the year, we also published a curated list of the top five platform engineering books for 2024 for platform engineers seeking to deepen their expertise.
You can learn more about all of these topics and more, including Cat Morris’ “Turning Legacy to Leverage: Building Developer Platforms in Brownfield Environments” by downloading our latest emag: “Building Effective Platforms.”
Happy holidays to One and All!
As we reflect on these achievements, it’s clear that 2024 has been a year of growth, innovation, and deep connection with the platform engineering community. We are immensely proud of our accomplishments and are excited to carry this momentum into the coming year.
We would like to extend a big thank you to all of our customers, contributors, and community members. Here’s to continuing to shape the future of platform engineering—together!