"Working code wins": Win big with a platform hackathon starter pack

Building internal platforms isn't just assembling tools: success requires people, process, and aligned business outcomes. Join us to learn how a hackathon can drive innovation, platform adoption, and create a platform using Backstage and Kratix.
Looking at landscapes such as the CNCF Landscape or Platform Tooling Landscape, it’s easy to think building internal platforms only requires assembling tools and technologies. But anyone who has experienced platform adoption challenges will recognize that tech alone is not enough: the real mission includes people, process, policy, and ultimately business outcomes. Join this workshop to learn how running an internal hackathon can spark innovative business ideas, grow awareness, and drive adoption of platform technologies.

Attendees will get hands-on experience creating an effective developer experience using a Backstage portal and orchestrating the platform with Kratix. By the end of this session, participants will have a working platform blueprint ready to take back for hacking in their organizations.

Transcript

1. "Working Code Wins" Win Big With a Cloud Native Hackathon Starter Pack Phill Morton, The Access Group Abby Bangser, Syntasso
2. Phill Software Architect, turned platform architect. I love what I do, anything to do with automation and tech. My mantra: “There is no right or wrong way, but there is always a better way” Abby QA turned DevOps turned SRE turned platform. CNCF Ambassador, Team Topologies Advocate and general community enthusiast! My mantra: “Be known for what you stand for, not against"
3. The largest UK headquartered software company. We provide solutions that empower more than 100,000 small and mid-sized organisations in Europe, USA and APAC, giving every employee the freedom to do more of what’s important. 22 Software Businesses, serving multiple sectors. 8000+ People
4. This isn't a talk, it's a tutorial. Go ahead and boot up! We are going to be using bit.ly/PlatformCon2025
5. By the end of the day you can look like Phill! bit.ly/PlatformCon2025
6. Complete the first two sections And this means you are done
7. How "as-a-Service" helps Platform Engineers thrive
8. First Dev || Ops turned into DevOps • Reduce time delays • Increase autonomy Operations Development
9. Platform engineering is re-centralising Rebuilding and scaling product development at Docker using Team Topologies
10. But platforms centralise smarter • Centralisation without delays • Autonomy with safety built in • Maintenance done efficiently Platform Democracy: Rethinking Who Builds and Consumes Your Internal Platform
11. To continue, use the following command: touch $HOME/kubecon/aas
12. User facing API
13. Deciding your level of control 👍 Maximum Flexibility 👎 Complex 👍 Easy to get started 👎 No Configurability Backups Storage Ingress Configuration When designing API’s for your Promises, you can decide how much control you want to give to the application teams.
14. Postgres Example We’ve designed the API to include the environment type. The user of our API has something simple to understand are you in dev or prod. This enables us as platform engineers to collaborate with our peers to decide the business requirement for reliability.
15. To continue, use the following command: touch $HOME/kubecon/on-demand Previous passwords: touch $HOME/kubecon/aas
16. Platforms can be monoliths or microservices too!
17. Service size is a familiar architecture challenge
18. Composition and decomposition • New paved paths shouldn't require complete rebuilds • Design needs to be flexible • Standardisation can enable better collaboration Is your platform a Fruit Basket or Fruit Salad?
19. To continue, use the following command: touch $HOME/kubecon/compose Previous passwords: touch $HOME/kubecon/aas touch $HOME/kubecon/on-demand
20. Bespoke business processes
21. Enough to run a hack! With the promise you have today, we were able to run over 250+ projects, over 3 hacks. We customised the promise to include our ingress configuration with a LetsEncrypt SSL cert. We even deployed our hack backstage instance using the app-as-a-service promise
22. To continue, use the following command: touch $HOME/kubecon/bespoke Previous passwords: touch $HOME/kubecon/aas touch $HOME/kubecon/on-demand touch $HOME/kubecon/compose
23. APIs provide a baseline interface, not the only interface
24. Providing the right interface requires managing multiple
25. APIs provide a single logical implementation
26. To continue, use the following command: touch $HOME/kubecon/apig Previous passwords: touch $HOME/kubecon/aas touch $HOME/kubecon/on-demand touch $HOME/kubecon/compose touch $HOME/kubecon/bespoke
27. Fleet management
28. Learning the power of GitOps I learnt the hard way don’t click this button!
29. Disaster Recovery Andrei my Front end Architect encouraged me to take a backup of our backstage database before hand. We lost all of the database data, but was able to quickly recover thanks to the GitOps state.
30. Conclusion
31. Hack Architecture
32. Special Thanks Adam Lonsdale Andrei Ivanovici David Bochenski Justim Odendaal Stefan Ivanoiu Vali Holban-Radutiu Simon Hooker
33. In summary… • Hackathons enable both apps and platform experimentation • Start quickly, and plan to maintain momentum • Platform architecture comes in layers… ◦ Backstage provided usability ◦ Kratix provided structure and customization ◦ Flux provided resilience and delivery ◦ Kubernetes provided scalability and a powerful API server
34. To continue, use the following command: touch $HOME/kubecon/fleet Previous passwords: touch $HOME/kubecon/aas touch $HOME/kubecon/on-demand touch $HOME/kubecon/compose touch $HOME/kubecon/bespoke touch $HOME/kubecon/apig
35. Thank you! Any questions? Phill Morton, The Access Group Abby Bangser, Syntasso
36. Resources Feel free to return to this course on Instruqt at any time, and this is free to share! bit.ly/PlatformCon2025 Please share any feedback with Phill and Abby via the Kratix Community Slack or socials The tech used today: • Backstage • Kratix • FluxCD • Minio • Gitea • Instruqt