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An exploration of how organizations can leverage this transformation to drive competitive advantage.
Infrastructure was often seen as just a necessary expense, a box to check off in the business budget. It was about cutting costs, outsourcing tasks, or keeping everything behind the scenes, managed by operations teams. Servers, networks, and deployment pipelines were treated as tools to support applications rather than as valuable assets themselves. Success was measured by how stable things were and how much money was saved, rather than focusing on the experience of developers or the impact on the business.
But that view is rapidly evolving. Software organizations are starting to recognize that infrastructure isn’t just about managing operations; it’s actually a key part of their strategy. The teams responsible for building, operating, and evolving this infrastructure now play a crucial role in determining how quickly products are delivered, how well they can scale, and how effectively companies can compete in the market.
Several factors are driving this change. For one, cloud computing has made it easier to abstract hardware and turn infrastructure into something that can be programmed. The growth of DevOps has broken down barriers between development and operations, connecting infrastructure decisions directly with the outcomes of product delivery. Platform engineering has taken this idea even further, transforming internal platforms into reusable products instead of just makeshift tools. More recently, advancements in AI and automation have raised the expectations of teams now; they want infrastructure to be adaptable, self-service, and intelligent right out of the box.
Now, developers are consuming infrastructure much like they would any external product through APIs, user-friendly portals, templates, and clear workflows. They evaluate it based on how easy it is to use, its reliability, and how quickly they can start seeing results. When infrastructure doesn’t meet these standards, it can slow down innovation. On the flip side, when it’s designed well, it acts as a force for amplifying progress.
By the end of this article, you should have a solid understanding of why infrastructure is becoming a product in its own right and what that means in everyday terms. It’s essential for organizations to seize this opportunity to boost efficiency, speed up innovation, and create a lasting edge in the market.
The Historical View of Infrastructure
Infrastructure in enterprise IT has been seen more as invisible plumbing; essential but not something that caught anyone's attention. Servers, networks, and storage worked quietly behind the scenes to keep applications up and running, rather than influencing how software was created or delivered. As long as everything stayed online and issues were kept to a minimum, infrastructure teams were viewed as doing their jobs well.
This way of thinking led to infrastructure teams focusing more on maintaining uptime than on driving innovation. Their success was measured by how available systems were, how quickly they could recover from outages, and how well they followed change-control processes. Most end users didn’t interact with the infrastructure at all, and developers usually only encountered it through ticket requests and lengthy approval processes.
Infrastructure as a Cost Center
In this model, budgets for infrastructure were primarily focused on keeping costs down. The emphasis was on essentials, making sure everything was running smoothly, updating hardware, maintaining data centers, and preventing outages. Any requests for extra resources faced a lot of scrutiny and often ended up being delayed or outright denied unless they were essential for day-to-day operations.
This mindset created a culture that was quite cautious. Embracing change felt risky, and adhering to strict standards became the norm. While this did help reduce certain types of issues, it also meant the organization struggled to adapt quickly to new business needs. Flexibility took a backseat to stability, which, in the long run, restricted their ability to innovate and respond to emerging challenges.
Limitations of the Old Model
As software delivery ramped up, the flaws in the traditional model started to show. Setting up the necessary infrastructure often took weeks or even months, which really slowed down the pace of product development. Developers found themselves relying heavily on operations teams for even basic needs, leading to bottlenecks and a lot of frustration. Decisions about infrastructure were frequently made without considering the actual goals of the products, creating a disconnect between what the business needed and what IT was able to deliver.
The most concerning issue was that infrastructure became a limitation instead of an asset. Rather than fostering experimentation and growth, it created barriers. This realization prompted a much-needed reevaluation that sees infrastructure not as mere background mechanics, but as a vital platform for generating value.
Why Infrastructure Is Now a Product
The transition from viewing infrastructure as just a set of plumbing tools to seeing it as a product hasn’t happened suddenly; it has been a gradual evolution. This shift was driven by profound changes in the way we create, deliver, and scale software. Nowadays, infrastructure is not just something that teams manage in the background; it’s a crucial resource that developers actively use, assess, and rely on every day. This movement has prompted organizations to rethink their approach to designing, owning, and adapting their infrastructure to better meet the needs of their teams.
Cloud and On-Demand Consumption
Public cloud platforms have truly transformed the way we think about infrastructure, turning it into a service driven by APIs. With major players like AWS, Azure, and GCP, getting access to computing power, storage, and networking is now as simple as writing a few lines of code, rather than going through the lengthy procurement process. We can spin up resources in just minutes, scale them effortlessly, and tear them down just as quickly when they're no longer needed.
This shift in how we manage infrastructure has changed what we expect from it. Developers have little patience for long wait times or the need for manual approvals anymore. Now, we interact directly with infrastructure using SDKs, command-line interfaces, and deployment pipelines. As a result, infrastructure has begun to behave more like software, which means it’s held to the same standards: it needs to be usable, reliable, and deliver results quickly.
The Rise of Platform Engineering and IDPs
As organizations embraced cloud technology more and more, they quickly realized that just having basic cloud features wasn't enough to meet their needs. Teams found themselves wanting more streamlined solutions platforms that simplified the process and enforced consistent standards across the board. This realization led to the emergence of platform engineering and internal developer platforms (IDPs).
Infrastructure teams started to create user-friendly self-service portals, develop "golden paths," and design reusable templates. They shifted their mindset to view developers as their internal customers, focusing on their needs and experiences. Rather than asking, "How do we run this system?", the conversation moved to "How can we improve the developer experience?" This change reflects a core principle seen in traditional product development: understanding what users really need, eliminating obstacles, and continually enhancing the experience based on feedback.
Product Thinking Applied to Infrastructure
Once infrastructure is consumed like a product, it must be managed like one. That means applying product concepts deliberately:
User experience: Clear interfaces, documentation, and predictable behavior.
Adoption: Measuring usage and success, not just uptime.
Roadmaps: Planning capabilities based on developer needs and business goals.
Feedback loops: Incorporating input from users to guide evolution.
Infrastructure that lacks these qualities becomes shelfware, technically sound but underutilized. Infrastructure designed with product intent becomes an accelerator.
Infrastructure as a Competitive Advantage
Organizations that treat their infrastructure like a valuable product tend to outpace those that don’t. When developers have the freedom to manage their own tools safely, they can work faster and more effectively. This means less time wrestling with technology and more time focused on creating real value. Plus, when everyone follows standardized processes, it boosts both security and reliability without slowing things down.
The most exciting part? Infrastructure becomes a real game-changer. It leads to quicker onboarding, faster experimentation, and safer deployments, all of which help companies get their products to market sooner. Over time, these improvements add up and can set a business apart from its competition.
Rather than seeing infrastructure simply as a cost to handle, forward-thinking companies view it as an investment in their capabilities. Those who embrace this change aren't just running their infrastructure more smoothly; they're leveraging it as a key asset to stay ahead and innovate beyond their rivals.
Principles of Treating Infrastructure as Product
Thinking of infrastructure as a product isn’t just a fancy idea; it’s a way to run things efficiently. This approach demands the same level of focus, transparency, and responsibility that we apply to the software our customers interact with every day. Companies that thrive in this transition tend to stick to a few key principles, ensuring that their infrastructure truly meets the needs of users and the business as a whole.
Identify Your Customer
The first principle might sound straightforward, but it’s incredibly important: you need to know who you're building for. When it comes to infrastructure, there usually isn’t just one customer. Developers are often looking for speedy, self-service environments that cater to their needs. On the other hand, data scientists want seamless access to both computing power and data, without any hassle. Then there are the operations teams, who prioritize stability and the ability to monitor everything effectively. And let’s not forget about the business units they focus on, understanding costs and ensuring compliance.
Trying to please everyone at once can lead to overly complicated platforms that end up not really satisfying anyone. The most successful teams take the time to identify their primary and secondary user personas, crafting experiences that are tailored to each group. This intentional focus helps keep the infrastructure from becoming just another generic toolset that doesn’t meet anyone’s needs effectively.
Define a Clear Value Proposition
When it comes to infrastructure products, it really boils down to one essential question: what value do they bring to the table? Generally, this value can be grouped into a few key areas like reliability, speed, ease of use, cost-effectiveness, and compliance. The challenge lies in figuring out which of these aspects are most important for where you currently are in your journey.
For instance, if you're working with an early-stage platform, you might find that quick setup and allowing developers to work independently are top priorities. On the other hand, a large enterprise platform that's subject to regulations would likely focus more on security and the ability to track changes for auditing purposes. If you don’t have a clear value proposition, there’s a good chance that your infrastructure efforts could become more about adding features rather than delivering meaningful results.
Build a Product Roadmap for Infrastructure
Infrastructure is much like any other product; it evolves, and it really helps to have a clear roadmap guiding that evolution. This roadmap should link the capabilities of the platform to what the business actually needs, whether that’s supporting new product launches, helping teams grow, or minimizing operational risks.
It’s important to strike a balance here; this isn’t about over-planning every little detail. Instead, it’s about being clear on what we’ll tackle now, what can wait, and the reasons behind those decisions. A good roadmap fosters alignment among engineering, security, and leadership, turning random requests into purposeful progress that everyone can get behind.
Define Metrics and Success Measures
What gets measured gets improved. Infrastructure teams must move beyond uptime as the sole success metric. Product-oriented infrastructure tracks outcomes such as:
Developer experience: time to first deploy, onboarding friction.
Adoption: usage of self-service paths vs. manual workarounds.
Delivery speed: lead time for changes and environment provisioning.
Cost impact: savings from standardization and automation.
By focusing on these metrics, we can change the conversation from simply asking, “Is the system up and running?” to a more meaningful question: “Is the platform actually providing value?” When we start to treat infrastructure like a product, we move away from just reacting to issues. Instead, it becomes a strategic asset that grows in effectiveness as our teams and systems expand.
How to Capitalize on This Shift
Understanding that infrastructure can be viewed as a product is just the starting point. To truly benefit from this new perspective, organizations need to embrace changes in how they are structured, where they invest their resources, and the culture they foster. The teams that really excel aren’t just lucky; they intentionally set out to mature their platforms and build a solid foundation for success.
Organizational Alignment
To create a truly effective product-oriented infrastructure, businesses need to bring together diverse talents into cross-functional platform teams. These teams typically include infrastructure engineers, security experts, site reliability engineers (SREs), and developer experience specialists, all working together towards a common goal: building a platform that developers genuinely want to use.
In high-performing organizations, these platform teams are treated much like product teams. They have dedicated product managers who make sure that the work prioritizes not just urgent operational tasks but also focuses on what users really need and what will drive business success. This approach brings much-needed clarity around who is responsible for what, the trade-offs that may arise, and the overall direction for future development something that more ad hoc infrastructure efforts often miss.
It’s also important to establish clear boundaries. Platform teams should take ownership of the established "paved roads," while application teams should have the freedom to innovate within those guidelines. This balance helps to avoid chaos on one side and prevents bottlenecks on the other, ensuring that both sides can thrive effectively.
Investment Priorities
Not all infrastructure investments compound equally. Organizations that capitalize on this shift focus early on three areas:
Automation: Self-service provisioning, CI/CD, and policy enforcement reduce manual work and scale impact.
Observability: Metrics, logs, and traces provide insight not just into systems, but into how the platform is used and where friction exists.
Security by default: Guardrails baked into templates and workflows reduce risk without slowing teams down.
These investments pay dividends over time by lowering cognitive load and operational toil.
Cultural Change
Making a cultural shift can be one of the toughest challenges for infrastructure teams. They often find themselves viewed as gatekeepers, but they must transform into enablers instead. This shift involves a fundamental change in mindset: success should be gauged by how easily others can achieve their goals.
Training plays a vital role in this transformation. Infrastructure teams can really benefit from developing a sense of empathy for their users. By learning to gather feedback, conduct user interviews, and adapt based on how people are interacting with their tools, they can create a much more supportive environment. When teams start to see their users as fellow developers rather than just a list of tickets, the quality of their platforms tends to improve significantly. It’s all about fostering collaboration and understanding.
Organizations like Spotify have really shown how effective internal platforms can be, especially with their Backstage tool that allows developers to easily access the infrastructure and services they need. Netflix also sets itself apart by treating its internal tools as a competitive edge, pouring resources into platforms that empower developers to work faster and more autonomously. Even startups are catching on, using smartly designed infrastructure to get their products out more quickly by minimizing friction in their processes.
To truly take advantage of this trend, it’s not just about piling on more tools. It’s about developing the right capabilities that resonate with users, drive meaningful results, and provide long-term benefits.
The Future of Infrastructure as Product
As software systems become more complex, we’re seeing a fascinating shift where infrastructure products are merging with data platforms, AI/ML operations, and intelligent automation. The next wave of infrastructure isn’t just about providing resources; it’s about getting involved in decision-making processes. We’re already witnessing a blend of model training pipelines, feature stores, inference platforms, and observability systems that is seamlessly connecting infrastructure to application logic. For organizations looking to scale AI-driven systems, it’s crucial to treat these capabilities as cohesive products.
Another exciting development is the emergence of self-healing and autonomous infrastructure. Thanks to advanced telemetry and policy-driven automation, these platforms can detect anomalies, fix failures, and optimize performance all on their own, without needing someone to step in. This shift doesn’t mean we won’t need engineers anymore; in fact, it enhances their roles. Infrastructure teams can transition from constantly reacting to incidents to focusing on designing systems that prevent them in the first place. As a result, reliability becomes a built-in feature of the platform, rather than something achieved through last-minute efforts.
Importantly, infrastructure is also becoming a key piece in attracting top talent. Developers are drawn to environments that allow them to innovate confidently, experiment safely, and work without unnecessary roadblocks. Organizations that build thoughtful internal platforms can onboard new team members more quickly, keep engineers engaged longer, and scale their teams more effectively. Over time, this can lead to a significant edge in the market.
Looking ahead, infrastructure excellence will no longer be solely about uptime or cost savings. Instead, it will be about how well it fosters innovation, attracts talent, and adapts to change. Viewing infrastructure as a product is not just a passing trend; it’s becoming the cornerstone of how modern engineering organizations will thrive and evolve.
Conclusion
Infrastructure has changed dramatically over the years. What used to be mostly hidden systems optimized just for reliability and cost has evolved into a key element that influences how businesses develop, launch, and scale their software. With the rise of cloud computing, DevOps practices, platform engineering, and artificial intelligence, the standards for speed, reliability, and developer experience have soared.
When organizations view infrastructure as a product, they gain much more than just operational efficiency. They can deliver their offerings faster, reduce friction between teams, and create platforms that grow alongside the business. By taking a product-based approach, establishing clear ownership, laying out value propositions, creating roadmaps, and setting meaningful metrics, infrastructure teams can shift from being reactive support to becoming strategic enablers.
The main takeaway is simple: infrastructure isn't just something that runs behind the scenes anymore. It plays a crucial role in the experience delivered to developers and, ultimately, to customers. In today’s engineering-focused organizations, infrastructure is not merely support; it’s an integral part of the product itself.
Akava would love to help your organization adapt, evolve and innovate your modernization initiatives. If you’re looking to discuss, strategize or implement any of these processes, reach out to [email protected] and reference this post.
