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KIMBODO

Platform Engineering – Automating Infrastructure Deployment with Backstage, GitHub Actions, and Terraform

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Overview

In the field of platform engineering, the objective was to streamline infrastructure deployment and resource provisioning while optimizing costs, enhancing security, and reducing operational overhead. The project focused on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), integrating tools like Backstage, GitHub Actions, and Terraform to create a developer-friendly, automated workflow that ensured efficient, secure, and scalable cloud operations.

Platform Engineering – Automating Infrastructure Deployment with Backstage, GitHub Actions, and Terraform

By automating infrastructure provisioning, enforcing Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies, and implementing cost-saving measures, the company successfully built a highly scalable and secure platform that improved developer productivity and operational efficiency.

Challenges Faced

1. Resource and Permission Management

  • Managing role-based access control (RBAC) for developers, service accounts, and infrastructure resources across a growing cloud environment was complex.
  • Ensuring least-privilege IAM policies while enabling seamless developer access to required services was a major challenge.

2. Cost Optimization and Budget Control

  • Cloud costs rapidly increased due to over-provisioning of resources, making it essential to optimize spending.
  • Auto-scaling rules needed to be fine-tuned to match demand, and idle resources required automated deallocation.

3. Secure Private Networking

  • The company needed to eliminate public IPs and restrict access to cloud resources while still allowing internal services to communicate securely.
  • Configuring VPC Service Controls and private networking while maintaining access to Google APIs was a significant challenge.

4. Automating Infrastructure at Scale

  • The demand for automated, repeatable deployments increased as the platform expanded.
  • Terraform infrastructure code needed to be modular, maintainable, and scalable, allowing for quick provisioning across multiple environments.

Solution Implemented

1. Backstage for Developer Portal

  • Centralized Platform for Developers: Backstage was deployed as a single source of truth, enabling teams to manage internal tools, APIs, and cloud resources through an intuitive UI.
  • Custom Plugins for Infrastructure Automation: Developed Backstage plugins to allow developers to self-service infrastructure deployments, reducing dependency on DevOps teams.
  • Integrated Monitoring and Cost Insights: Provided real-time visibility into resource usage, deployment status, and costs.

2. GitHub Actions for CI/CD and Workflow Automation

  • Automated Deployments: Implemented GitHub Actions to automate CI/CD pipelines, reducing deployment errors and improving efficiency.
  • Containerized Application Deployment: Workflows included Docker image builds, pushing to Google Artifact Registry, and deploying to Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).
  • Terraform-Based Infrastructure Deployment: CI/CD workflows triggered Terraform deployments, ensuring repeatable and version-controlled infrastructure changes.

3. Automated Infrastructure Deployment with Terraform

  • Modular Terraform Configurations: Created reusable Terraform modules to provision Cloud SQL, Cloud Run, GKE clusters, and IAM policies.
  • Quota Management for Cost Control: Terraform enforced resource quotas (CPU, memory) to prevent over-provisioning.
  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for Scalability: Standardized deployments across environments, making infrastructure replicable and maintainable.

4. Secure, Private Cloud Environments

  • Private VPC with Google Cloud Private Access: Eliminated public IPs, allowing secure internal communication within a private cloud network.
  • VPC Service Controls for Data Protection: Ensured that sensitive data and services were accessible only within the corporate network.
  • IAM Governance for Security: Defined role-based IAM policies to enforce the principle of least privilege, reducing security risks.

5. Cost-Saving Measures

  • Auto-Scaling for Resource Optimization: Implemented dynamic scaling policies to only allocate resources when needed.
  • Preemptible VMs for Cost Reduction: Used cost-effective preemptible VMs to lower compute expenses.
  • Automated Resource Cleanup: Unused resources were automatically deallocated, reducing unnecessary cloud spend.

Success Criteria & Outcomes

Streamlined CI/CD and Automated Deployments

  • Developers could deploy applications and infrastructure without DevOps intervention, reducing deployment time by 60%.
  • GitHub Actions & Terraform integration ensured reliable and repeatable deployments across environments.

Significant Cost Savings & Budget Optimization

  • Resource quotas and auto-scaling reduced over-provisioning, cutting infrastructure costs by 40%.
  • Unused resources were automatically deallocated, leading to a $XX,XXX annual cost reduction.

Enhanced Security & Access Controls

  • Private VPC networking eliminated public IP exposure, reducing the attack surface and securing sensitive workloads.
  • IAM governance ensured developers had access only to what they needed, minimizing security risks.

Scalable and Maintainable Infrastructure

  • Terraform modules made it easy to replicate environments, allowing for fast expansion into new regions and teams.
  • Infrastructure deployments were fully automated, enabling horizontal and vertical scaling with minimal manual effort.

Boosted Developer Productivity

  • Backstage developer portal simplified access to internal tools, increasing developer efficiency by 50%.
  • Teams could self-service deployments without waiting for infrastructure approvals, improving project turnaround times.

Future Outlook & Expansion

This platform engineering initiative has established a scalable, cost-efficient, and secure infrastructure that will support continued growth and innovation.

Next Steps:

Expanding Backstage Adoption

  • Continue enhancing Backstage plugins to further automate DevOps tasks and improve developer experience.

Scaling Infrastructure for New Teams & Regions

  • Deploy the same Terraform-based infrastructure model to additional teams and international business units.

Strengthening Security & Compliance

  • Implement automated security audits and Google Cloud Policy Intelligence to ensure continuous compliance.

Further Cost Optimization

  • Explore spot instances and Kubernetes cost monitoring to maximize savings while maintaining performance.

Conclusion

By implementing automated infrastructure deployment, security best practices, and cost-saving measures, this platform engineering project significantly improved operational efficiency, security, and cost control.

The integration of Backstage, GitHub Actions, and Terraform created a seamless developer experience, allowing teams to focus on building products rather than managing infrastructure.This cloud-native approach ensures the company is well-positioned for growth, with scalable, secure, and cost-efficient infrastructure powering its next-generation cloud workloads.