In 2025, CTOs are making a strategic shift—from focusing solely on agile practices and DevOps pipelines to building robust platform engineering teams. What’s driving this pivot? The answer lies in scale, speed, and the need for consistency across sprawling development ecosystems.

The Shift: From DevOps to Platform Engineering

While DevOps focused on collaboration and automation, platform engineering introduces a structured, product-oriented approach to developer enablement. At its core, it is about creating Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs)—a curated set of tools, workflows, and environments that empower dev teams to build and deploy software independently, securely, and efficiently.

Instead of every team reinventing the CI/CD wheel, platform engineering offers a self-service, plug-and-play infrastructure layer. This isn’t about central control; it’s about intelligent enablement.

Why CTOs Are All-In

Here’s why platform engineering has become a boardroom conversation:

1. Developer Productivity Is Business Velocity

In high-growth environments, delays in provisioning environments, configuring pipelines, or navigating inconsistent toolchains directly slow down time to market. Platform engineering addresses this by reducing friction and cognitive load for developers.

A recent survey by Puppet found that companies with mature platform teams saw a 50% increase in deployment frequency and a 70% reduction in time spent on troubleshooting and configuration tasks.

2. Scaling Without Chaos

As companies scale, so do their dev teams, tools, and environments. Without a unifying platform strategy, tech debt accumulates fast. Platform engineering enables standardization without rigidity, helping CTOs scale safely.

3. Security and Compliance—Built In

In sectors like fintech, healthcare, and e-commerce, compliance is non-negotiable. A well-built IDP can bake in security policies, audit logging, and automated checks, making “shift-left” security not just possible—but default.

4. Talent Retention Through Developer Experience

Burnout from repetitive, non-core tasks is real. Developers increasingly expect great internal tooling. CTOs are recognizing that investing in platform engineering is investing in developer happiness and retention.

What an Internal Developer Platform Looks Like in 2025

Modern IDPs include:

• Automated CI/CD pipelines

• Pre-configured Kubernetes environments

• Secrets and policy management baked in

• Dashboards for observability and cost monitoring

• Templates for microservices and event-driven apps

Tools like Backstage (Spotify), Kraken (Netflix), and Internal DevPortals built on Platform as a Product principles are setting benchmarks.

Not Just for Big Tech Anymore

What was once a luxury of FAANG companies is now a necessity for mid-size enterprises too. Thanks to open-source frameworks and managed services, even lean engineering teams can roll out scalable platform foundations.

The Verbat Perspective

At Verbat, we see platform engineering as more than an engineering trend—it’s a strategic differentiator. It aligns tech execution with business velocity. It shifts focus from firefighting to building. It liberates developers to innovate.

If you’re a CTO looking to future-proof your software org, start with a simple question:
Are my developers spending more time shipping features—or figuring out how to ship them?

Want to build your internal developer platform the right way?
Let’s talk. Verbat can help you design and implement a platform engineering strategy tailored to your tech landscape.