Platform engineering and self-service: simplifying complexity with Red Hat Developer Hub

Empowering development teams with self-service and automation capabilities has long been a goal for organizations seeking to reduce bottlenecks and speed up innovation. However, many traditional approaches to self-service fall short, bogged down by ticket queues and overwhelmed operations teams. Additionally, a lack of ownership in maintaining component catalogs, lack of product mindset and constant changes to curated technologies are some of the key reasons that platform engineering initiatives fail in many organizations.

For development teams tasked to develop and maintain software solutions, waiting days or weeks for resources to provision disrupts workflows and delays value delivery. For IT operations, the constant flood of requests, combined with the need to maintain compliance and governance, creates a resource-intensive burden. It’s a challenge of speed versus control, innovation versus regulation—a delicate balance that often leaves both sides frustrated.

Modern self-service, supported by platform engineering practices, can transform this dynamic - enabling developers to work efficiently within a well-structured and governed environment. In this blog, we’ll explore how Red Hat Developer Hub and its integrated orchestrator plug-in simplify self-service, foster innovation and address the needs of both developers and operations teams.

The challenge with traditional self-service

Traditional self-service typically involves ticket-based systems where everyone within IT organizations submits requests to operations teams. These requests might include provisioning environments, creating CI/CD pipelines or deploying virtual machines. While the goal is to grant development teams autonomy, the process often involves manual intervention, multiple handoffs and delays.

Operations teams, tasked with managing these requests, face a dual challenge. On one hand, they must respond quickly to developers’ needs and be careful not to overspend their current budget; on the other, they must ensure compliance with security policies, regulatory requirements, supportability and resource utilization standards. These competing demands can lead to overwhelmed teams, inconsistent configurations and missed opportunities for innovation.

The root of the problem lies in the complexity of modern IT systems. Development teams  require access to a wide range of resources, from containerized environments to virtualized workloads, in order to ensure their commitment and a plausible time to market. Each request introduces potential risks if not properly governed. What’s needed is a way to simplify self-service without sacrificing control—a solution that provides developers with speed and agility while embedding guardrails to meet enterprise requirements.

The role of platform engineering

Platform engineering has emerged as a discipline to these challenges, enabling organizations to build curated self-service experiences for development teams. A platform engineering team creates an abstraction layer that simplifies access to infrastructure and services by curating a set of technologies, resources and documentation based on the development team's needs. By integrating guardrails directly into the platform, they ensure compliance, security and consistency.

This approach shifts the focus from reactive ticket-based workflows to proactive enablement. Development teams no longer need to navigate complex systems or wait for manual approval, nor wait for decisions on which technology to pick from (e.g., Kafka or AMQ Streams). Instead, they interact with a self-service portal that provides everything they need—quickly and reliably. If you want to learn more, make sure to also read my earlier blog about the strategic importance of platform engineering in modern software development.

How Red Hat Developer Hub delivers

Red Hat Developer Hub is a purpose-built solution that addresses the complexities of self-service in modern IT environments. It provides development teams with a centralized interface to access pre-approved services, tools and environments. Whether it’s provisioning a complete OpenShift cluster, a namespace, setting up a CI/CD pipeline for a project, provisioning an AI-infused application such as MLOps or deploying a virtual machine, teams can find and launch resources in a matter of minutes, not days.

One very important addition is the orchestrator plug-in. Think of it as a configurable extension of Developer Hub. The orchestrator is a mechanism designed to facilitate the implementation and execution of developer self-service flows. It serves as a vital component that enhances and augments the existing scaffolder functionality of Backstage with a more flexible and powerful set of features including long-running and asynchronous flows.

The orchestrator works harmoniously with other Developer Hub components such as the Software Catalog, permissions and plug-ins as well as others. By taking advantage of its capabilities, organizations can orchestrate and coordinate developer self-service flows effectively.

For example, when a developer needs a containerized environment, the orchestrator can handle provisioning on OpenShift, applying predefined templates and configurations, adding audit trails and even auto-approving based on environment size or other metrics. These templates can include guardrails, such as:

• Security policies: Ensure workloads comply with organizational standards
• Cost tagging: Automatically tag resources to track spending
• Governance rules: Enforce policies for compliance and auditing

This combination of intuitive self-service and automated governance creates a streamlined experience for developers while lowering the operational burden on IT teams.

Built for modern IT needs

Red Hat Developer Hub and the orchestrator plug-in are designed to address the unique challenges of modern IT environments:

• Complexity: Simplify access to diverse resources, from Kubernetes clusters to virtual machines
• Speed: Enable development teams to provision resources in minutes through intuitive self-service
• Governance: Embed policies and guardrails directly into the platform to ensure compliance and consistency

These capabilities not only improve developer productivity but also enhance operational efficiency. By reducing manual workloads, operations teams can focus on higher-value activities, such as optimizing infrastructure and driving innovation, saving time and improving the delivery process.

Red Hat’s recent survey on platform engineering, State of platform engineering in the age of AI, highlights the growing importance of platform engineering in enterprise IT. According to the survey, 78% of organizations prioritize improving developer productivity, while 62% focus on operational efficiency. These findings underscore the need for tools that support both goals.

Platform engineering, supported by solutions like Developer Hub and Red Hat OpenShift, bridges the gap between development team autonomy and operational control. It creates a foundation for scalable, efficient IT operations, enabling organizations to adapt to changing demands and maintain a competitive edge.

And Developer Hub can do even more

Traditional self-service approaches are no longer enough to meet the demands of modern IT environments. Development teams need faster, more intuitive ways to access resources, while IT leaders require robust governance to ensure compliance, efficiency and cost control.

Red Hat Developer Hub and Red Hat OpenShift provide a cohesive solution, combining developer-friendly self-service with enterprise-grade guardrails. By investing in platform engineering and tools like these, IT leaders can empower their teams, reduce operational bottlenecks and help their organizations be prepared for the future.

Take a look at this short demo and experience first-hand how developers experience self-service provisioning with an example Java application:

Arcade Demo here

(An Arcade Demo to experience the power of the self-service capabilities provided by Red Hat Developer Hub.)

As the pace of innovation accelerates, the need for a modern approach to self-service becomes clear. Learn more about what Red Hat has to offer.

Where to learn more

• Learn more about the orchestrator plug-in
• Read the e-book: Developer Portals: Prepare to Perform with Red Hat Developer Hub
• Learning path: Application development with Red Hat Developer Hub
• Learning path: Install and configure Red Hat Developer Hub and explore templating basics