For organizations determining their next step towards platform engineering, the question of building or buying a DevOps platform is decisive. Is building or buying better? In our experience, there is no “correct answer”.
However, depending on your current capacity, needs and team maturity, buying or building could be a more suitable option at different stages. Want to know whether building or buying is better? We will dive into some of the top considerations and the benefits of buying and building a DevOps platform, including a few pro tips if you choose to buy or build.
What is a DevOps platform?
According to GitLab, a DevOps platform “combines the ability to develop, secure, and operate software in a single application […] and empowers organizations to maximize the overall return.”
A DevOps platform offers a centralized portal with standardized toolsets and workflow to code, deploy and test applications or software and to analyze DevOps performance data. With much-enhanced accuracy, transparency, and efficiency, a DevOps platform empowers every team of an organization to collaborate in planning, building, securing and deploying applications and software and applications.
The end goal? It supports a cross-team (tech, security, business, operation) ambition to take control of creating measurable business outcomes faster.
Is it better to buy a DevOps platform or build your own?
We wish there was an ultimate answer to the question. The truth is: it depends. While many PaaS (platform-as-a-service) providers recommend buying over building without hesitation, we believe compatibility and readiness are decisive.
To focus on long-term and fruitful success, before deciding whether your organization should buy or build your own DevOps platform, you should consider various reasons, including scalability, team size, cost, speed over your competitor, determination to gain market shares, etc. No worries, we will break them down for you.
How to determine whether to buy vs. build – Top considerations
While cost is almost always the number one factor on the list, a visionary (and smart) investment looks beyond just cost. Here are a few reasons to consider before making a build vs. buy decision regarding a DevOps platform.
Build vs. Buy consideration #1: team size and skillset
If your team is small or lacks serious DevOps experience (e.g. just a handful of senior DevOps veterans with many junior developers), buying a platform might be easier to start and manage.
On the contrary, building from scratch could be an option if you have an extensive team of DevOps professionals who can focus on building an internal DevOps platform over time. Be sure to account for extra time and resources that may be needed to train a new team or hire those with the necessary platform-building skills.
Remember: the dedicated developers and DevOps team must focus solely on building a platform for it to work. Imagine this: if your pizza maestros also need to take orders, organize payments and chop ingredients while the pizza is in the oven – you will likely end up with a burned piece of dough.
Build vs. Buy consideration #2: security needs
For companies in regulated industries, such as banking, finance, insurance, NGOs, healthcare, etc., security is a top priority and cannot be compromised.
A custom-built DevOps platform can be tailor-made to your specific needs and workflows, but this requires more upfront development effort. During the building process, make sure all security protocols are followed from top to bottom; i.e., your platform team needs to be experts in DevOps security and have a unified understanding of policy and governance. Someone should ensure governance and policy are kept up-to-date and communicated diligently so no security errors slip through the cracks. Keep good documentation of who has access to what and when. Keep track of departed employees and remove all access to those who have left the organization to protect the integrity of the security measures.
Many DevOps PaaS may just offer standardized security measures that do not meet the needs of industries with high-security requirements, except those with a DevSecOps approach in mind.
How can you tell? You can take RE:FORM as an example.
For instance, in addition to standardized security measures such as identity and access management, data protection, network security, etc., RE:FORM also offers:
- 100% in-house control of your code;
- An on-premise option so your data stays within your cloud;
- Compliance with industry standards to protect sensitive data during the CI/CD process;
- Pre-set policy and governance requirements on the platform, which remain consistent despite personnel changes.
Build vs. Buy consideration #3: time investment
Regardless of your preference to buy or build a DevOps platform, if you are considering an investment in expanding your DevOps operation, you are likely experiencing growth in your projects and team.
If that’s the case, buying a DevOps platform allows you to get up and running quickly without investing in building from scratch.
It isn’t impossible to build your own DevOps platform at this stage, but you’d have to take into account the ongoing time commitment for brainstorming, planning, permission, maintenance and updates. If time is of the essence for your application or software launch, or if you’d like to gain market share for a time-sensitive product swiftly, you should prioritize time to market.
Build vs. Buy consideration #4: future-proofing (scalability and features)
Committing to a DevOps platform is a significant investment one way or the other. For your investment to be long-lasting with a continuous ROI for many years, your DevOps platform must be future-proof. That means it should be ready for future needs, e.g., high scalability, flexibility, frequent features and security updates, etc.
As your team and projects grow, you will need a DevOps platform that can scale to accommodate your increased workload. At the same time, it shouldn’t compromise flexibility in dealing with a business’s flow and ebb. Buying a DevOps platform ensures flexibility and scalability; you can easily add more users or resources and downgrade your capacity if business needs change. Also, bought DevOps platforms come with a wide range of market-compatible features that are proven to work. They also offer a more future-proof solution with regular updates, new features and security solutions.
If you prefer to build your own DevOps platform, you should be prepared for less flexibility and more constraints in scalability capacity, feature expansions and updates. But it is still manageable.
Build vs. Buy consideration #5: support
When you buy a DevOps platform, you will get access to vendor support. This can be extremely helpful, especially if your team is small or needs more assistance.
Expert services are ready to be deployed to troubleshoot issues, answer questions, and share market insights. You may get a glimpse into what trends are important in the market, what errors should be avoided and how to optimize your efficiency.
By building your DevOps platform, you would rely on your team’s support. While they have a better understanding of your company culture and product history, they may not have the capacity or expertise to troubleshoot effectively and under tight deadlines. So it is up to you to balance your needs.
Build vs. Buy consideration #6: cost
Of course, cost is an important consideration. Buying a DevOps platform involves ongoing subscription fees. You can subscribe to more or fewer services based on your organization’s needs.
Building your own DevOps platform can save you subscription fees. However, it requires a significant upfront cost in development and ongoing maintenance, and it’s an option that is more sensible for larger organizations, which can stomach the high price in one go.
Apart from the substantial overhead cost at the beginning, if you decide to build your own DevOps platform, be mindful of the expenses needed for regular feature and security updates, maintenance and support.
Why should enterprises buy a DevOps platform?
Buying a DevOps platform from a trusted, experienced and reliable partner can yield many benefits that building a DevOps platform internally cannot match. Here are some of the key benefits of buying a DevOps platform:
- Faster setup and time to value: buying a DevOps platform ensures that your application delivery can be up and running quickly without an enormous investment of time and resources. You can start delivering features and gaining a solid foothold in your market as soon as possible.
- Standardization of tools and workflows: DevOps platforms like RE:FORM offer a centralized portal that excels in streamlining the deployment process. You can shorten deployment time from weeks to minutes. Standardization also promotes quality consistency throughout your organization. So it doesn’t matter whether you are onboarding new members, lacking senior experience or expanding your operation multifold; you can still keep errors and overall efficiency to an optimum.
- Reduced workload: buying a DevOps platform offers additional managed service, including maintenance, updates and security patches. This frees up the time for your team so your developers can focus on building world-class applications that improve customer satisfaction and business returns.
- Less risky: not all bought DevOps platforms are safe, and we know it. So RE:FORM emphasizes pre-setting policy and governance practices during onboarding with our clients, offering top-tier security commitments tailored to your industry and your company’s needs. Regardless of turnover or personnel changes, your organization will have complete ownership of the code and consistency of security practice.
- Scalability: a PaaS DevOps platform allows for higher scalability; you can add more users or resources and scale up and down based on the changing business and market needs. Even if you increase headcounts extensively, the workflow standardization and policy and governance setup ensure that onboarding will be quick and consistent.
- Access to expert support: many DevOps platform vendors offer support and expertise to go with the platform. This can be helpful for insights, troubleshooting and performance analysis.
Why enterprises should build a DevOps platform from scratch
Building a DevOps platform from scratch can be beneficial for specific projects and needs. Here are a few benefits for enterprises to build a DevOps platform from scratch:
- Build the way you want it: though having expert support and standardization of workflows and infrastructures can be attractive to many, some organizations prefer a more free and flexible setup. There is no vendor dependency, and it allows for relatively more autonomy if there are dedicated resources to support it.
- Integration with legacy systems: if your organizations still work with a few legacy systems that need to be integrated into the platform, then building a DevOps platform from scratch may ensure more tailor-made incorporation.
- No subscription fee: building a DevOps platform can avoid a subscription fee. There is no additional cost apart from the initial overhead cost that may span out in the first few years and the regular resources and spending to maintain, fix and update the platform.
The limitations of a DevOps platform
DevOps platforms can be useful, but there are also limitations that may become challenging to address once your organization grows and requires more security, customization and scalability. It doesn’t mean you have to forgo adopting DevOps altogether; instead, you should focus on advancing your DevOps capability and application or software delivery with platform engineering.
DevOps vs. platform engineering: what’s the difference?
While DevOps and platform engineering often appear in the same discussions, there are significant nuances when comparing DevOps vs. Platform Engineering.
Opting for a platform engineering tool will be a more sustainable and investment-friendly choice because it offers:
- Tailored customization: platform engineering allows for more customization infrastructure and workflows that align with your organization’s unique needs and goals.
- Improved security and compliance: custom-built platform engineering solutions provide higher security measures and compliance features that are tailored to meet your industry’s regulatory standards. For instance, with RE:FORM, permission and governance are pre-defined with your organization’s leader before implementation. Your developers and team leads are not burdened by individual security and permission checks in the day-to-day workflow.
- Optimized scalability: platform engineering tools can be precisely tuned for optimal performance and scalability, ensuring your resources are allocated and utilized smartly. Whether you are a team of 20 or 2,000, platform engineering tools can help you optimize your application delivery with enhanced efficiency and performance.
Shorten deployment time from weeks to minutes with RE:FORM
Platform engineering and platform teams are crucial for scaling up high-growth companies. If your DevOps needs are growing but you struggle with hiring, retaining and onboarding experienced DevOps and platform engineering talents, or if you just want to improve your DevOps reliability and efficiency to the next level FAST, without an astronomical cost, RE:FORM can help.
We shorten deployment time to minutes and reduce your DevOps staff’s cognitive load while ensuring absolute control over governance.
Get in touch now with RE:FORM and discover how we can help you get more done in less time while maintaining peace of mind.
