Internal Platform Teams: What Are They and Do You Need One?

Internal Platform teams are becoming increasingly important for large organizations to ensure end-to-end developer self-service and streamline development and deployment processes. These teams build internal workflows and tooling, such as Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs), to shield application developers from infrastructure complexities. By enabling developer self-service across the organization, platform teams create a smooth experience for everyone involved. Top-tier engineering organizations have found that building an internal platform team is crucial for scaling rapidly while maintaining reliable and maintainable systems. These teams focus on reducing complexity and cognitive load for app developers, treating their platform as a product, optimizing iteration speed, solving common problems, and providing glue to bring together various tools. By doing so, they can help organizations scale considerably faster and more efficiently than with a less standardized approach.