The IDP Revolution: Why Self-Service is the Key to Developer Empowerment

You shouldn’t have to wait or ask for permission to do your job! 

Developers lose valuable time waiting to be granted access to environments, given approvals, or relying on other teams before they can start implementation. These delays slow down the development process, kill productivity, and increase cognitive load.

Software development should be seamless. This means software should be built, tested, and deployed without delays or dependencies on manual approvals. The longer developers have to wait, the less they create, and this is why most organisations are embracing the Internal Developer Platform (IDP) revolution. 

IDPs are a shift towards self-service access, automation, and developer empowerment. It gives you control over your workflows by providing on-demand access to environments, databases, and deployment tools. This approach to permissions ensures both flexibility and security.

But how exactly do they work, and how can they help developers?

What is an Internal Developer Platform (IDP)?

An IDP is a self-service system with a centralised interface or entry point called an internal developer portal — which is also sometimes referred to as IDP. Through this portal, developers gain access to a pool of tools and resources needed to build, test, and deploy software. 

They emerged as software development grew more complex. Traditionally, developers relied on operations teams to provision, configure, and manage deployments. However, as a comprehensive solution, IDPs eliminate the need for manual configurations, approvals, or dependencies on operations teams.

Designed and maintained by platform engineering teams, IDPs standardise processes, enforce security, and deliver seamless integrations with the company’s existing tools for CI and CD. So, instead of waiting for operations teams, development teams can now use an IDP to spin up environments, deploy applications, and manage services.

The role of platform engineering in IDPs

Platform engineering as the underlying infrastructure for IDPs

Platform engineering is the practice of designing and managing the underlying infrastructure, tools, and workflows that support software development and deployment. This means that it is the foundational infrastructure that powers IDPs!

With platform engineers as the backbone, they build and maintain frameworks, configure container orchestration systems like Kubernetes, and implement solutions to manage communication between microservices.

By creating an internal developer portal that serves as a centralised hub or an entry point to the IDP, developers gain access to a pool of tools and resources, allowing them to work independently.

Additionally, platform engineers integrate monitoring, logging, and observability tools into IDPs to keep them reliable. These tools are necessary because they give developers valuable insights into their application performance and resource utilisation.

Why self-service is the key to developer empowerment

As earlier stated, a key component of IDPs is that they provide developers with self-service access to the tools, environments, and resources they need. For example, an IDP may offer a portal where a developer can request a new staging environment. Within minutes, the platform provisions an isolated environment leveraging Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform. 

Here’s an example:

A Terraform script to built a staging environment

This example shows how a developer could quickly get a staging environment with a database. When integrated with an IDP, developers can simply click a button or make an API call, and the platform will automatically create an isolated namespace for a staging environment and deploy a PostgreSQL database.

IDPs provide a key advantage when it comes to security. With a concept such as “continuous compliance” baked into an IDP framework like Kratix, you can automate security scans and identify vulnerabilities early.

The best part? They are not just limited to pre-built components. Your platform team can create their own tailored platform and customise it to fit your business processes. Amazing right? Successful platform frameworks like Kratix provide you with the building blocks to design and manage a comprehensive solution that aligns with your workflows, security requirements, and infrastructure.

Essential components of an Internal Developer Platform

Developers spend a fair share of their time dealing with maintenance, setup, and dependencies rather than building and shipping features. That’s a lot of time lost to inefficiencies. Now, imagine the compounding impact of that over months and years.  A thriving business needs efficiency, and IDPs help by focusing on the following key components.

One crucial aspect is Application configuration management, which ensures that application settings remain flexible and easy to update. Developers can manage environment-specific settings, such as database URLs, API keys, or feature flags, in a centralised way.

For example, rather than manually updating environment variables (e.g., database URLs, API keys, etc.) in each configuration file, developers store these sensitive details in AWS cloud services like Secrets Manager and then reference them in their code.

However, managing configurations is just one piece of the puzzle. Infrastructure orchestration takes things further by automating the provisioning of servers, databases, networks, and other resources. Rather than manually configuring each component, developers can rely on automated tools to set up their infrastructure efficiently, reducing errors and saving time.

With infrastructure in place, developers also need a way to test without disrupting production. This is why efficient environment management enables teams to spin up fully functional development and testing environments on demand. Isolated environments ensure that new features and updates can be validated before they go live.

Once changes are tested, the next phase is moving them into production efficiently. Deployment management ensures that new features are released quickly and safely through a structured pipeline.

Finally, security plays a crucial role and cannot be overlooked. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) plays a critical role in preventing unauthorised access, protecting user privacy, and enhancing user confidence. This means only the right people can access specific tools and resources. For instance, a developer might have permission to deploy code, but only an admin can change security settings. This keeps the system secure.

Joining the IDP revolution?

Self-service doesn’t mean giving developers complete freedom without boundaries. It means empowering them to provision what they need when they need it, all within a secure and controlled platform ecosystem.

With an open source framework like Kratix you can build the best developer platform. This platform will not only give your developers what they ask for but also provide a consistent user experience, optimise business strategy, and enhance organisational growth.

Developers don’t want to wait. They want to build, and the organisations that help them do that will win.