“The one simplicity for which I might give a straw is that which is on the opposite facet of the advanced.”
— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.*
At Forrester, we’ve periodically debated the that means of the phrase “platform,” and it’s been difficult. Widespread floor has eluded those that cowl ecosystems reminiscent of Amazon and Salesforce versus these masking platform engineering.
Just lately, we’ve been discussing this widespread definition of platform: “a product that helps the creation and/or supply of different merchandise.” The next diagram illustrates this idea:
The acid take a look at for a unified definition of “platform”: What can we are saying that will be true each of the Amazon retail ecosystem in addition to Amazon Net Providers?
Properly, what do a brand new Amazon storefront and a brand new AWS account have in widespread? Each of them are going to require much more funding by their house owners to ship any worth. An empty Amazon storefront? It’s good to work out your product combine, provide chain, pricing, advertising, and many others. Amazon offers you lots of assist, however you’ve a lot work forward of you in configuring the platform for worth. An AWS account? Empty EC2 digital machines or Lambda features? Not doing anybody a lot good till you put in and run software program and encompass these workloads with lots of further capabilities.
So we are able to say that platforms, normally, require additional funding, and the results of such funding is usually value-generating functionality. It’s additionally properly established that platforms are merchandise (see Staff Topologies and different sources). Due to this fact, in a world pivoting to the product mannequin, it appears affordable to easily say that the platform is a product that’s creating, or supporting the supply of, different merchandise.
We additionally see platforms as both “infrastructure” or “enterprise.” Generally a given vendor offers each — Salesforce with Drive.com as an infrastructure platform (a platform as a service, within the traditional definition), Agentforce for CRM, and many others. Word that each require severe funding to get going (and this isn’t a criticism of Salesforce; it’s only a common commentary that you just’re not going to have a functioning CRM functionality with out investing substantial setup effort).
The boundary right here is straightforward: Infrastructure is business-agnostic (normally, it might work in numerous business verticals) whereas a enterprise platform embeds business-meaningful semantics within the type of APIs, information, or providers. Buyer relationship administration, provide chain, pricing, cost gross sales funnels — these are all business-specific ideas, and if that’s what’s on provide, you’ve a enterprise platform. (Some nuance within the above diagram: Enterprise platforms might assist constructed apps or be straight configured for client entry, however in both case, it’s effort, and for me, it’s “software” by definition if the tip client is interacting straight.)
Lastly, I can already really feel the eyebrows elevating on the inclusion of “software.” I’ll be speaking extra about this as we replace Forrester’s 4-Lifecycle Mannequin, however for now, I’ll simply say:
If platforms are “merchandise,” then we want a selected label for merchandise that aren’t platforms (information geeks will acknowledge the subtyping downside). And with due respect to Staff Topologies, I’ve not seen the time period “stream-aligned” get traction in portfolio administration.
Conversely, the time period “software” is right here to remain and has a fairly constant business that means, at the very least within the discussions I’ve with IT leaders — extra on this later.
Lastly, this mannequin is a part of the Forrester Platform Engineering Functionality Mannequin, simply launched final week. I’ll be doing one other weblog on the core of that work. Additionally, make sure to take a look at Embrace Platform Org Constructions To Break Down Silos And Ship Scale, additionally simply out this month, which I coauthored with Manuel Geitz!
*Wikiquote notes: “Usually quoted as ‘I wouldn’t give a fig for the simplicity on this facet of complexity; I might give my proper arm for the simplicity on the far facet of complexity’ and attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.”
