Llywelyn Griffith-Swain
Reducing Cognitive Overload Through Platform Engineering
#1about 1 minute
Defining cognitive overload and platform engineering
Cognitive overload is the limit on information processing, while platform engineering builds frameworks to enable developers safely and quickly.
#2about 1 minute
Vodafone's mission to become a technology company
Vodafone's "Tech 2025" initiative aims to transform the company by hiring 7,000 software engineers and building in-house scaled platforms.
#3about 2 minutes
The initial challenges of scaling microservices
As engineering teams scaled, they faced misaligned teams, environment drift, and a lack of end-to-end ownership for services.
#4about 2 minutes
Establishing core infrastructure as code principles
Key principles like immutability, disposability, and version control for all code and configuration were established to ensure consistency.
#5about 3 minutes
The first platform solution using a Slack bot
A Slack bot automated the creation of repositories, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure, abstracting away complexity for developers.
#6about 3 minutes
Applying IaC principles to achieve zero-touch environments
By removing all manual access and rebuilding environments through code, the team achieved consistency and improved availability by 1.5%.
#7about 2 minutes
Lessons learned and the shift to a global platform
The initial UK-based platform was successful but siloed, leading to a new global strategy called TAZ (Telco as a Service) to unify standards.
#8about 1 minute
Demo of the new global platform (TAZ)
A walkthrough shows how the new platform enables developers to create and deploy a new service to production in under 20 minutes.
#9about 2 minutes
How the global platform reuses open source components
The platform is built by stitching together reusable, open-source modules from different global teams, such as Argo CD and EKS modules.
#10about 4 minutes
The business impact and future platform vision
The platform enables global scale and developer autonomy, with a future vision of a "shopping cart" experience for infrastructure components.
#11about 7 minutes
Q&A on cost, adoption, and open source plans
The discussion covers cost management, gaining team buy-in through white papers, and the ambition to fully open-source the platform.
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Matching moments
01:32 MIN
Organizing a developer conference for 15,000 attendees
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Selecting strategic partners and essential event tools
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04:22 MIN
Why HR struggles with technology implementation and adoption
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03:39 MIN
Breaking down silos between HR, tech, and business
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04:27 MIN
Moving beyond headcount to solve business problems
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02:44 MIN
Rapid-fire thoughts on the future of work
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03:28 MIN
Why corporate AI adoption lags behind the hype
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03:38 MIN
Balancing the trade-off between efficiency and resilience
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