In this episode of the Infrapod, Tim and Ian sat down with Ian Nowland (ex-SVP of Datadog, co-author of Platform Engineering book), a platform engineering expert and co-founder of Junction Labs. They dive deep into the nuances of platform engineering, discussing the evolution of roles like sysadmin, DevOps, and SRE, and the current state and future of platform engineering. Ian shares his journey from Amazon to Datadog and talks about his new company, Junction Labs, which aims to simplify microservices networking. Tim and Ian explore the challenges and solutions in platform engineering, and Ian provides insights on building effective, user-friendly platforms. 00:00 Introduction and Welcome 00:21 Ian Noland's Background and Journey 01:49 Understanding Platform Engineering 04:03 Challenges in Platform Engineering 19:56 Effective Strategies and Common Pitfalls 25:02 Insights on Buying Software for Platforms 39:48 Conclusion