PODCAST FEATURE | TECH UNBOXED

The Platform Engineers’ Cookbook: Building Golden Paths to Cloud Simplicity

What do infrastructure and fine dining have in common? Everything, according to BBD’s platform engineers.

Imagine if ordering infrastructure was as effortless as choosing from a restaurant menu. That’s the future platform engineering is serving up – and in this episode of Tech Unboxed, BBD’s Andre Staats and Nicholas Pym take us deep into the kitchen.

With a blend of sharp insight and restaurant metaphors that just work, they unpack how platform engineering is reimagining cloud complexity by creating ‘golden paths’ – curated, standardised approaches to infrastructure that developers can access through a single API. The result? Less friction, more velocity and a whole lot more consistency.

From chaos to consistency – the platform promise

Let’s rewind.

Infrastructure used to live in the hands of siloed operations teams. Developers would throw tickets over the wall and wait for the magic to happen – or not. Then came the rise of the cloud and the DevOps boom. Tools like Terraform and Pulumi helped teams move faster, but as companies scaled, cracks began to show. Managing multiple cloud environments, dozens of engineering teams and bespoke requests? Not so magical anymore.

Enter: platform engineering.

It’s not just another buzzword. It’s a whole new philosophy – and a practical one at that. At its heart, platform engineering is about building internal developer platforms that simplify infrastructure without sacrificing governance, compliance or security.

“You can think of it like a high-end restaurant,” says Staats. “Developers are the patrons. They don’t need to know the inner workings of the kitchen – they just need a dependable, curated menu to order from. Platform engineers? We’re the chefs, obsessing over the ingredients, standards and recipes.”

Hungry for more?

Platform engineering isn’t about replacing DevOps – it’s about evolving it. It’s about freeing developers to focus on what they do best while giving operations teams the tools to build at scale, securely.

So whether you’re already running Kubernetes clusters or just dipping your toes into cloud-native waters, this episode offers a feast of practical insight and strategic perspective.

Listen now to Tech Unboxed: The Platform Engineers’ Cookbook – with BBD’s Andre Staats and Nicholas Pym. Click here to listen