Good morning everyone, and thank you for being here. My name is Sunil and I have an experience for almost like a f 16 years of experience in the networking domain and in the security domain and also in the automation side. So today we are here to discuss about the topic called bridging the layers in the platform engineering in the modern network stack. So in the next 15 minutes, I will take you through why this topic is so important to us. The challenges we face in today's environment, the tools that help us to improve our security and the deployment and everything else, right? And then finally, some real world strategies and lessons we can apply. Okay? Coming to this matter, why this is so important for us, right? Why this matters for us. Let's begin why this matters, because applications today are no longer built as chain monoliths, right? So they are distributed across different regions and different locations and in different cloud environments, right? Some of them might host the applications in AWS, some of them might host the applications in Azure, and some of them might host the applications in their on-prem data centers. And there are scenarios where they want to host the applications in multiple. Cloud environments and also in the on-prem depends upon the needs of the business and all those things, right? That makes all clear lines between infrastructure, the networking and applications, but to blood together, right? Because the requirements have been changing every day and we have to see how we can make these things. Align together and make it in a better way to deploy the things. Today, the developers are expecting something different. They want the platforms that are fast, secure, and self-service without needing to worry about the plumbing underneath. So why they want, they don't need to worry about how that. Network is built at the downstream where they don't have any knowledge on how the things are deployed and also the security of the deployments, right? So the shift is focusing to rethink the how infrastructure platforms and networks come together, and that is where the platform engineering enters the picture. Okay. The key challenges, of course, that is not easy, right? The first challenge is complexity with the hybrid deployments, right? Where we have the the applications being deployed in multiple clouds. And I would say deploying the things in the on-prem. And, most probably the how the, all the things are being deployed and they're very tough to analyze for a developer. And the second thing is the challenge of the security. The world is moving so fast with the zero trust mindset. That means that we have to identify, verify our required across each and every layer. We are deploying the things now, not just at the at the where the is deployed. We have to. We deploy the things more securely for the business owners and for the applications, and also for the businesses, right? And also the last, but not least, right? The performance of the applications because the applications being deployed in a multiple cloud environment and also in a different geographical locations. So the third thing is very important is like the performance, right? And the way we are deploying the modern. Applications. They're very sensitive to the latencies and they want the things to be very fast because some of the financial transactions, gaming and also the apps, everyone is not ready to wait for a minute also, right? Today everyone wants the things to be happening in a millisecond. So the performance very mad, is really very important for the applications to function seamlessly. Finally the developer's experience, right? Reducing the friction for developers is very critical. Otherwise, they will bypass the security controls or build shadow infrastructures just to move faster because everyone wants the things to be deployed in in a days now, not in months. Earlier we used to take years even for developing an application, but things have changed so fast and everyone wants the things to be done very faster, right? And in order to. Deploy the things faster and securely. We have to think about entering into the platform engineering, right? This is where the platform engineering comes into the picture, right? Things of all, its glue between infrastructure, networking, and applications. Everyone has to understand how the things are deployed at each and every layer. And it's very different, difficult for everyone to understand those, right? The main objective of the platform engineering is abstracts, complexity, automates the repeat to the operations, and also provide the secure self-service platforms. It creates this foundation that bridges the developers and operations teams and also security, right? In other words. It lets developers move quickly while keeping, while still keeping the network and infras infrastructure stable and secure. So if they deploy the things faster without thinking about the security aspects of the applications, that's where the real challenge of issue realize, right? Like where people will struggle in deploying the things securely. And there is a chance of people trying to use that loopholes and getting into the networks or exploiting the applications. So this is where we have to start thinking about how do we use, actually enable the platform engineering and what are the tools which we can use today in order to use this kind of a platform engineering where we can think, deploy the things faster and securely. There are four key tool sets. We'll talk today, the service mess which eng, which manages the service to service com communication, observability, and also policies. And the next one is the API Gateway is that's where the security of ingress, authentications and developer friendly access is needed. And the next one is the zero trust models, which makes sure security is identity driven and continuous. And also the finally, the programmable infrastructure. Things like infrastructure as code and GI tops, which allow us to conti consistently deploy and manage across the environments, right? Because as I said like earlier things we are deploying the things in multiple cloud environments, right? And they should be a unique way of deploying the things faster and within same set of configuration. I mean to they say at the security level or whatever that is, right? So they have to be unique and we have to see how programmable we can deploy the things and automate the stuff. Service mesh practice. Let's start with the service mesh examples include sst, o and linkard. These tools sit inside the cluster and manages the east west traffic and retries. And the observability. I'm not here to advertise for any kind of a product or anything like that. So I'm just bringing up a couple of examples for the people who can understand the things, right? So now we have many other, applications of the tools in the system are in the environments now where we can go ahead and pick whichever is more relevant to the businesses. They also bring in MTLS encryption, right? That these tools can bring encryption things, which critically for securing the communications between the services. The key benefit is that developers don't need to build these features themselves. The mesh uploads that complexity, given them a clean, secure way to connect the services. And the next thing is the API Gateway and Developer's experience. The the examples of the API gateways are nothing but like an NGINX like an a PGE Kong, and there are some kind of an open source API gateways as well which are very, user friendly applications as well. Gateways, which are being used now because everyone wants, don't want to go on with some kind of an like an tools which are not ready to be like an open source. And it's very hard to manipulate those configurations, right? Everyone is looking at some of the open source. Tools nowadays because that way we can enhance the tools and deploy the things on our own, and also we can increase the security of that if there is anything on that. So some of the people are really looking at some of the open source tools nowadays. We have to think about all these things and for the future deployments and all those things in practice, they act as this API gateway, us act as a bridge connecting the external users to the platform and then to services. Behind it, right? For developers, it makes access simple, controlled, and secure. Because of these tools, the a p gateways takes it of that kind of an ingress security. And the next thing is the zero trust security. What do you mean by zero Trust? Security has to be everywhere nowadays, not just as at the perimeter. That's where zero trust comes in. So earlier people used to think there is an firewall, which is sitting in in the entry of our network is the one which gonna secure the things. It's all over now, just. Securing at the at the entry or the perimeter level is all gone. We have to be thinking about more more ways of securing this stuff. So this is where the zero trust comes in, right? Instead of assuming that once you are inside the network, you are not safe everywhere. It's, every request is verified continuously. This is enabled by I identity aware proxies and policy driven access. Examples include the pfi S-P-I-R-E for service identity for and Google Beyond Corp models for enterprise access, right? This approach ensures that both users and services are verified before they can touch any resources. Next comes to the programmable infrastructure. Now let's talk about the programmable infrastructure, right? With tools like Terraform, combined with GitHubs tools such as Argo CD and Flux, we can make infrastructure reproducible and version controlled. So someone else let's say that you have a code on your system and someone else is also having a code on their system. We don't want them to be pushing the codes individually and have a different ways of deploying the things, right? So there should be an version controlled way of doing the things with the GitHubs and all those things where people know. Like what the changes have been made by the other developers so that they can think about it and someone reviews and approves the changes with this tops and all those tools so that they don't make any unwanted changes into the environment, which is well structurally built by someone else. So this version control thinks, makes the things streamlined and also lets the developers to do it in in a well fashioned way. This is a powerful because it enables trust self-service because you don't need to do this repetitive task again and again with this infrastructure as a core platforms. Right now, developers can request infrastructure and the file system spins up it automatically in a consistent way. No more manual tickets, right? So with these tools, we are making everything automated. People doesn't have to go through that entire process when they're starting to build the first application. So now they know the process, like whatever they wanted, right? For any application to be built let's say that you want an IP address for the other server or a DNS name and all those things, these are all incorporated into the code so that they all can be happen at the same time. You don't need to, worry about these repetitive tasks again and again so that there are chances then when you go for this kind of and repetitive task, there are chances, like people might miss one step in the deployment. And there is a chance that people when they go for a production deployment, they worry about what happened? Where did I miss? And what happened over there? So instead of that these things, these tools really helps us a lot in order to automate this stuff. And make it like avoid doing any kind of manual mistakes, which people do. And this repeatable task being performed by this programmable staff makes the things faster. Also in a more secure way might be some people might forgot to deploy in firewall configuration or a security configuration over there. And it becomes a problem for the security of that application. So this repetitive task should be be performed by some kind of an programmable infrastructure so that we don't run into any kind of an issue when the applications goes into the deployment. And the next thing is the design strategies, right? Of course. How we design this platform is really matters because you cannot just blindly deploy anything. And then without knowing how the underlying things are working and all those things first layer abstraction without holding too much, we want to shield developers from unnecessary complexities, but still allow them to visibly and control. Where needed second, consistently across environments, whether be running it in on-prem or in the cloud or at the edge, the platform should look and feel the same. They cannot have a different base of deploying the stuff when they host it in AWS or when they host it in Google, or when they host it in somewhere else, right? Or even at the on-prem. So the things has to be very u same for the user field and also for the security and all for the other things. And the third one is a secure by design. That means that integrating policies from the start and continuously measuring so we know that what's working and what needs the improvement. Let's jump into the real world examples, to make this concrete, let me share a couple of real world scenarios. One organization was running a multi-cloud microservice. They were struggling with both the performance and security. They decided to adopt a service mesh for secure service to service communication, and a PA gateway for external access and infrastructure as code for consistency. The result. The reduced meantime dis recovery to 40%, and also perhaps more importantly, develops adoption to the platform increased like dramatically. So that's the power of platform engineering when applied effectively. Let me wrap up. The te the key takeaways from this one is platform engineering is gonna bridge the infrastructures, networking and the developers, the service mesh gateways, zero trust infrastructure as a code, as a core enablers. The balance is always between the developer's experience, scalability and security. And the best way forward is to start small, automate incrementally and measure continuously. And I would like to close it today for with saying thank you for everyone for joining this session with me today. And platform engineering is not just a technology trend, it's an shift in how we design, operate, and secure modern applications. If there is one thing I would like to leave with, it's a Bridging. The layers is about more than tools. It's about enabling developers, operations, and security teams to work together seamlessly in modern network stack. Thank you everyone.