Developer Platform & CI/CD Modernization - Case Study

Developer Platform & CI/CD Modernization

Platform Engineer · 2023 · 3 min read

Built internal developer platform that reduced deployment time from 45 minutes to 8 minutes and increased deployment frequency by 300%

Overview

Led the modernization of CI/CD infrastructure and built an internal developer platform to improve developer experience and deployment velocity across 15 engineering teams

Problem

Deployments were slow, error-prone, and required significant manual intervention. Each team had their own CI/CD setup with inconsistent practices. Developers spent 20% of their time on deployment-related tasks instead of building features.

Constraints

  • Must support multiple languages (Node.js, Python, Go, Java)
  • Cannot disrupt existing deployment schedules
  • Limited platform team (3 engineers)
  • Must work with existing Kubernetes infrastructure

Approach

Built a self-service developer platform with standardized CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and one-click deployments. Created golden path templates that teams could adopt incrementally. Implemented GitOps with ArgoCD for declarative deployments.

Key Decisions

Use ArgoCD for GitOps instead of push-based deployments

Reasoning:

GitOps provides better auditability, easier rollbacks, and drift detection. The declarative model aligns with Kubernetes native patterns and reduces the blast radius of CI system failures.

Alternatives considered:
  • Jenkins with kubectl apply
  • Spinnaker
  • Flux CD

Build internal developer portal with Backstage

Reasoning:

Backstage provides a unified interface for service catalog, documentation, and CI/CD status. The plugin ecosystem allowed us to integrate existing tools without building everything from scratch.

Alternatives considered:
  • Custom-built portal
  • Confluence + scattered dashboards
  • Port.io

Standardize on Buildpacks instead of Dockerfiles

Reasoning:

Buildpacks eliminate the need for teams to maintain Dockerfiles while ensuring consistent, secure base images. Automatic security patching of base images is a huge operational win.

Tech Stack

  • ArgoCD
  • Backstage
  • GitHub Actions
  • Kubernetes
  • Helm
  • Buildpacks
  • Prometheus
  • Grafana

Result & Impact

82% reduction (45min → 8min)
Deployment Time
300% increase (weekly → multiple daily)
Deployment Frequency
90% reduction
Failed Deployments
NPS improved from 23 to 67
Developer Satisfaction

Teams now deploy with confidence multiple times per day. The self-service model freed the platform team to focus on improvements rather than manual deployments. New services can go from code to production in under an hour.

Learnings

  • Developer experience is a product—treat it with the same rigor as customer-facing products
  • Golden paths work better than mandates—make the right thing the easy thing
  • GitOps requires discipline around Git workflows—invest in training
  • Platform adoption is a change management challenge as much as a technical one

Platform Adoption Strategy

We didn’t mandate adoption. Instead, we picked two friendly teams as early adopters, worked closely with them to refine the platform, and let their success stories drive organic adoption.

The key insight was making migration incremental. Teams could adopt the new CI/CD without changing their deployment targets, then gradually move to GitOps when ready.

Golden Path Philosophy

Rather than enforcing standards, we created “golden paths”—opinionated templates that embodied best practices. Teams could deviate if needed, but the golden path was so much easier that most chose to follow it.

This approach respected team autonomy while still achieving consistency across the organization.

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