Platform Engineers and DevOps Engineers are both critical roles within an organization's IT department, but they have slightly different focuses and responsibilities.
by Mike Dreisch
A Platform Engineer is responsible for building and maintaining the underlying infrastructure and services enabling the organization’s applications. This can include configuring servers, networking, storage, and other infrastructure components. Platform Engineers focus on building a stable and reliable platform on which the organization’s applications can run. They often work closely with developers to ensure that the platform meets the needs of the organization’s applications.
On the other hand, a DevOps Engineer focuses on the overall software development process to automate and streamline the software development lifecycle. DevOps Engineers work closely with developers to ensure that code is deployed quickly and reliably, and they are responsible for implementing tools and processes to improve efficiency and reduce errors. This can include automating testing and deployment processes and implementing tools for monitoring and logging.
While there is some overlap between the roles of Platform Engineers and DevOps Engineers, the primary difference is that Platform Engineers focus on the infrastructure that supports the applications. In contrast, DevOps Engineers focus on the overall software development process. In some organizations, the responsibilities of these roles may be combined, and a single engineer may be responsible for both the platform and the DevOps process.