Pulumi today added a portal to its portfolio, dubbed Pulumi for Platform Teams, to centrally manage environments through which developers can self-service their own requirements within the context of a set of pre-defined guardrails that ensure compliance and improve security.

In addition, the company also announced general availability of the previously launched Pulumi Deployments orchestration tool for deploying workloads.

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Which of the following best describes how you currently monitor and manage systems across your hybrid cloud environment?(Required)

Multiple separate tools for different environments

Multiple separate tools for different monitoring and management functions

Single consolidated dashboard

Custom built monitoring and management solution

No full monitoring and management solution

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How valuable would it be for your monitoring and management solution to incorporate predictive analytics to help you identify and address system issues that are critical and not waste time or effort working through all the data and “noise” that is not critical?(Required)

Extremely valuable

Moderately valuable

Somewhat valuable

Slightly valuable

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How do you most typically address potential system issues BEFORE they impact your operations?(Required)

Automated workflows and playbooks to remediate potential issues as soon as they are detected

An orchestrated response process that leverages automation, AI, and human expertise to rapidly respond to potential issues

Advanced monitoring tools such as predictive analytics and anomaly detection to proactively identify and address potential issues

Respond to issues as they arise, using manual processes and troubleshooting techniques

A combination of automated remediation, orchestrated response, and/or proactive monitoring to address potential system issues

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Other

What methods does your organization use to control and monitor cloud/IT spending?(Required)

Centralized procurement processes

Pre-approved budget thresholds

Automated cost monitoring tools

Department-level spending controls

Regular cost audits and reviews

Cloud cost optimization platform

Approval workflows for resource provisioning

Native financial operations tools provided by the cloud provider

No formal controls in place

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Other

Please specify:

Which methods do you rely on most to detect security vulnerabilities in your systems?(Required)

Automated scanning tools

Manual assessments

Vendor notifications

Threat modeling (for early detection)

None of these

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Please specify:

What are the TWO most common ways you prioritize vulnerabilities to address within your environment?(Required)

Based on potential impact

Based on exploitability

Regulatory compliance requirements

Based on CVSS scores

Risk-based analysis of multiple factors

First-in-first-out approach

No formal prioritization process

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How do you typically handle system updates and security patches?(Required)

Automated updates and patches

Manually review and apply updates and patches on a regular schedule

A combination of automation and manual review

Apply updates and patches on an as-needed basis.

Outsourced update and patch management

No defined process

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Other

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Pulumi CEO Joe Duffy said both offerings are part of an ongoing effort to extend the company’s portfolio of offerings beyond infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tools.

Pulumi for Platform Teams is designed to be deployed via the Pulumi Cloud platform for configuring infrastructure, and provides DevOps teams with a service catalog that can be integrated with DevOps workflows via a REST application programming interface (API). That approach makes it possible to leverage hundreds of existing Pulumi CrossGuard policies for automating compliance. In addition, there is a policy-as-code engine to author policies that automatically correct configuration violations.

Pulumi for Platform Teams also includes a plug-in for Backstage, an open source project for building internal developer platforms (IDPs) originally developed by Spotify that is now being advanced under the auspices of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

With the launch of Pulumi for Platform Teams, the company is providing the building blocks that will enable DevOps teams to build and maintain an IDP that complies with multiple regulatory requirements, noted Duffy.

IDPs are at the core of many efforts to embrace a platform engineering methodology that promises to enable organizations to manage DevOps workflows at scale. The overall goal is to reduce the amount of time developers spend on maintaining environments to enable them to spend more time writing code while at the same time reducing the total cost of DevOps by eliminating redundant tools and processes.

Regardless of approach, given the current overall state of the economy, there is more pressure than ever to improve developer productivity. The goal is to enable developers to self-service their own requirements as much as possible within the context of a standard set of “golden path” workflows. When a developer requests a new environment, the IDP uses calls to application programming interfaces (APIs) to set up a namespace, updates configurations, pulls any images that might be needed and connects to eternal resources such as databases. The IDP should provide developers with enough flexibility to employ new tools when required without unnecessarily adding tools and processes that are redundant to capabilities that already exist.

As every IT leader knows, that’s a fine line to walk, so they would be well-advised to embrace platform engineering in phases. The most critical asset any DevOps team has is culture. Major changes to existing workflows that developers have not bought into are likely to do more to increase friction and strife than to reduce them. When it comes to change management, slow and steady usually wins the race. After all, the worst thing that can happen after embracing platform engineering is for developer productivity to decline rather than improve.