The End of DevOps As We Know It

"DevOps was never about tools. It was always about culture."

DevOps is nearing almost two decades. And like any mature practice, it is evolving — some say dying. I disagree. DevOps isn't dying. It's transforming into something more sophisticated.

The problem with traditional DevOps

Original DevOps promised to break silos between Dev and Ops. It worked for a while. But it created new problems:

• Cognitive overload: Developers now need to know everything (code, infra, deploy, monitoring...)
• Infinite tooling: Every team choosing its own CI/CD stack
• Duplication of effort: Teams reinventing the wheel internally

The emergence of Platform Engineering

Platform Engineering is the answer. The idea is simple: instead of every developer knowing everything, a specialized team builds an internal platform that abstracts complexity.

The developer doesn't need to know Kubernetes, Terraform, ArgoCD. They use the platform. The platform takes care of the rest.

What changes in practice

Before (Traditional DevOps):

• Dev chooses tools
• Dev configures pipelines
• Dev manages infrastructure
• Ops puts out fires

After (Platform Engineering):

• Platform offers self-service
• Dev uses standardized APIs/portals
• Automatic guardrails
• Ops only in exceptional cases

The role of the DevOps specialist in 2030

It won't disappear — it will migrate. Instead of configuring pipelines for every project, they will build the platform that serves all projects. Instead of teaching every Dev how to deploy, they will create abstractions that make deployment invisible.

It is more complex, more strategic, more impactful.

My bet

Companies that invest in robust internal platforms will deliver faster, with less friction, and with happier teams. Those who continue with the "every team for themselves" model will pay the price in complexity and slowness.

The future of DevOps is Platform Engineering. And the future is now.