Research Interview
What separates good platform engineering from great?
In this episode, Sam sits down with Faisal Afzal, Platform Engineering Master at AHEAD, CNCF community leader, and Platform Engineering community ambassador, to dig into what defines great platforms, how to measure real usefulness, and why security, observability, and AI are now first-class citizens in modern platform design.
🎯 Key topics:
What “great platform engineering” really looks like in 2025
Why usefulness beats vanity metrics when measuring success
Making observability a first-class part of your platform
Embedding security and risk ownership into platform design
The role of AI and risk in platform evolution
Why so many teams struggle with roadmapping and how to fix it
The hidden value of service providers and community knowledge
Talking to leadership in business value language, not tech jargon
Finding your platform candidates where the value really is
💬 “If multiple teams are solving the same problem again and again, that’s your platform candidate."
FEATURED GUESTS
State of Platform Engineering Report: Volume 4
state-of-platform-engineering-report-volume-4
Reference architecture for an AI/ML Internal Developer Platform on GCP
reference-architecture-for-a-data-ai-internal-developer-platform-on-gcp
Reference architecture of an Internal Developer Platform on Azure
reference-architecture-of-an-internal-developer-platform-on-azure
Reference architecture of an Internal Developer Platform on GCP
reference-architecture-of-an-internal-developer-platform-on-gcp
Cloud Development Environments (CDEs) for Platform Engineers
cloud-development-environments-for-platform-engineers
Kubernetes cluster lifecycle management for platform engineers
kubernetes-cluster-lifecycle-management-for-platform-engineers
State of AI in Platform Engineering 2025
state-of-ai-in-platform-engineering-2025
Observability for platform engineers
observability-for-platform-engineers
Reference architecture of an Internal Developer Platform on AWS
ref-arch-aws