Introduction to Backstage
After having written a lot about IDPs in general, it is now time to shift our focus on Spotify Backstage in the next blog posts. Let’s begin with a general introduction.
The Essence and Adoption of Backstage
Backstage is a comprehensive framework designed to go beyond the traditional scope of Internal Developer Portals by offering an open platform capable of constructing tailored developer portals. Distinct from being a standalone Internal Developer Portal written in the blog post series before, Backstage enables development teams to create a portal that align with their specific requirements. Its ongoing development under Spotify underscore its credibility and the innovative approach towards addressing common developmental and operational challenges.
Due to its effectiveness and versatility, Backstage has seen widespread adoption across the tech industry, with over 1000 organizations and more than a million individual developers leveraging the platform. Among its notable users are big IT enterprises such as Netflix, Zalando, and DAZN, showing the platform’s capacity to serve a diverse range of development environments and organizational sizes. This widespread adoption is further validated by Backstage’s inclusion in the „Incubating Projects“ of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), highlighting its potential for future growth and evolution within the cloud-native ecosystem.
The drive behind Backstage’s development was Spotify’s own experience with rapid growth, which brought about significant infrastructural fragmentation and organizational complexities. These challenges, common in fast-scaling tech environments, led to inefficiencies, including reduced productive time for developers and increased cognitive load due to constant context-switching and the need for navigating disparate tools and systems. Backstage was conceived as a solution to these challenges, aiming to streamline and centralize the development process through a unified platform that abstracts away the complexity of underlying infrastructures and toolsets.
Centralization and Customization Through Backstage
Key to Backstage’s functionality is its ability to serve as a central hub for various development-related activities and resources. It offers platform teams the tools to consolidate engineering and organizational tools, resources, technical documentation, and monitoring capabilities for CI/CD pipelines and Kubernetes, among other features. This centralization is facilitated by a user-friendly visualization layer and a variety of self-servicing capabilities, which are foundational to the philosophy of Internal Developer Portals (IDPs). These features are designed to empower developers by providing them with the means to manage software components, rapidly prototype new software projects, and access comprehensive technical documentation—all within a single, integrated platform.
Furthermore, Backstage’s extensible, plugin-based architecture encourages the integration of additional platforms and services, enabling teams to customize and expand their developer portals according to evolving needs. This architecture supports a vibrant ecosystem of plugins, contributed by both external developers and Spotify’s own engineers, available through the Backstage marketplace. This ecosystem not only enhances the platform’s capabilities but also fosters a community of practice around effective development operations (DevOps) and platform engineering principles.
In summary, Backstage represents a strategic tool for addressing the complexities and inefficiencies associated with modern software development and platform engineering. Its development is a response to real-world challenges faced by one of the most innovative companies in the tech sector, and its adoption by leading tech firms underscores its value and effectiveness. Through its comprehensive suite of features, flexible architecture, and supportive community, Backstage offers a promising pathway for organizations looking to enhance their development practices and infrastructure management.
The following table summarizes these keypoints:
| Aspect | Details |
| Nature of Backstage | An open framework for creating tailored Internal Developer Portals, not just a portal itself. |
| Development and Adoption | Developed by Spotify, with over 1000 adopters and more than a million developers. Notable users include Netflix, Zalando, and DAZN. |
| CNCF Inclusion | Included in the „Incubating Projects“ of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), indicating potential for growth. |
| Purpose and Origin | Created to address Spotify’s challenges with infrastructural fragmentation and organizational complexities during rapid growth. |
| Core Functionality | Serves as a central hub for development tools, resources, technical documentation, and monitoring of CI/CD pipelines and Kubernetes. |
| Self-Servicing Capabilities | Empowers developers with tools for managing software components, prototyping, and accessing technical documentation. |
| Architecture | Plugin-based, allowing for integration of additional services and customization to meet evolving needs. |
| Community and Ecosystem | Supported by a vibrant ecosystem of plugins, contributed by both Spotify and external developers, available on the Backstage marketplace. |
For integrating Backstage into a productive environment, Spotify recommends delegating the portal’s maintenance and development to a dedicated Platform Team. This team is tasked with ensuring that both internal developers and other infrastructure and platform teams transition to actively using the portal. The goal is to establish Backstage as the central platform for all software development activities within the organization. To facilitate the platform’s adoption, Spotify suggests various tactics and identifies metrics to measure the adoption process. These tactics and metrics, while described in the context of Backstage, could generally apply to the adoption of any Internal Developer Platforms or portals. Additionally, the Platform Team is responsible for implementing best practices in consultation with technical leaders or architects.
