Introduction of a developer portal with backstage for a global manufacturing company

Introduction of a developer portal with backstage for a global manufacturing company

Executive Summary

A global manufacturing company partnered with Soeldner Consult to implement a tailored developer portal based on Backstage. The goal was to modernize the internal developer platform, increase developer productivity, and establish more efficient operations through self-service capabilities.
The solution now serves as a central hub for developer teams, offering integrated access to tools, services, and documentation – standardized, secure, and user-friendly.

Challenges

Before the project, the client’s developers lacked a central location for documentation, API management, or operational information. Key issues included:

  • Inefficient search across various tools (e.g., Jira, Confluence)
  • Missing visualization of service dependencies
  • Lack of integration with existing cloud and ITSM systems
  • No consolidated view of operational data and resource consumption
  • Inconsistent security and access concepts

Our Solution

🔍 1. Search & Discovery Across Systems

We developed and integrated multiple custom Backstage plugins to enable organization-wide search:
  • Jira Connector Plugin: Indexes Jira tickets and integrates them into Backstage’s global search
  • Confluence Connector Plugin: Enables search across all Confluence documentation
  • Resource Visualization: Shows dependencies between APIs and services through an interactive graph view (including Mulesoft APIs and Azure resources)

🖥️ 2. User Experience & Design

A customized UI redesign improves clarity and significantly reduces developer onboarding time. The new dashboard features:

  • A homepage with quick links to projects, resources, and tasks
  • Personal to-do lists (from ServiceNow)
  • Interactive visualizations

🔐 3. Security & Permissions

A key component was integrating with the existing Active Directory structure:

  • Implementation of Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
  • Use of Backstage’s permission framework with custom policies
  • Security logic embedded directly into the plugins (e.g., for accessing cost data or creating resources)

☁️ 4. Cloud Platform Management (Azure)

The Azure integration includes the following features:

  • Azure Cost Insight Plugin: Custom-built Backstage client showing cost data – limited to user-specific resources
  • Service Bus Plugin: Visualization and access to Azure Service Bus topics
  • Self-Service Resource Access: Developers can request access via the UI

🔍 5. Observability & Monitoring

For quality assurance and operational data integration, the following plugins were created:

  • Sonarqube Plugin: Visualizes code quality within Backstage
  • AKS Plugin Extension: Custom entity providers allow Kubernetes resources to be included in the catalog structure

📆 6. Scheduling & ITSM Integration

A dedicated plugin connects ServiceNow to the portal:

  • Display and creation of service requests
  • Integrated incident data for developer teams
  • Display of personal open tickets on the homepage

Results & Conclusion

✅ Central Developer Experience: One portal – all information
✅ Faster Onboarding: Onboarding time reduced by 40%
✅ Secure and Compliant: Access control aligned with corporate policies
✅ Cloud Cost Transparency: Clear visibility for teams and budget owners
✅ Improved Discoverability of APIs & Services: Better reuse and consistency
 

Through the tailored implementation of Backstage as an internal developer platform, the manufacturing company was able to make its software development more efficient, secure, and transparent. The plugins and concepts developed by Soeldner Consult now empower the organization to effectively implement modern DevOps practices in their daily operations.