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From YouTube: Backstage: Shaping the Future Of Developer Experience - Ben Lambert & Francesco Corti, Spotify
Description
Don’t miss out! Join us at our upcoming event: KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2023 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands from April 17-21. Learn more at https://kubecon.io. The conference features presentations from developers and end users of Kubernetes, Prometheus, Envoy, and all of the other CNCF-hosted projects.
Backstage: Shaping the Future Of Developer Experience - Ben Lambert & Francesco Corti, Spotify
The CNCF Landscape offers an incredible and diverse ecosystem of frameworks, technologies, and platforms. Your teams have their own implementations of these technologies. Onboarding new developers is super confusing, and docs are scattered around the place. In short: chaos and fragmentation in dozens of different tools. The solution to this might be… another portal? Backstage (https://backstage.io), an open source platform you can use to build your own developer portal. It is highly customisable and adopted by companies like Unity, Netflix, American Airlines, and Epic Games. Lee & Francesco will share the lessons learned and latest tips from the hundreds of Backstage adopters and thousands of contributors. We’ll cover how core features such as the Software Catalog and software templates are changing the way end users interact and manage their ecosystem. Let’s shape the future of developer experience together! 🎉
A
A
A
All
right,
so,
let's
get
started
so
what
the
heck
on
what
is
backstage
anyway,
what
on
Earth
is
backstage
so
backstage
is
an
open
platform
for
building
developer
for
building
developer
platform,
so
portals
even
sorry,
let
me
stop
so
what
do
we
mean
by
this?
Oh,
it's
open
source.
That's
what
I
mean
it's
free,
it's
a
platform
which
is
like
a
framework
or
collection
of
libraries,
and
it's
there
to
help.
You
build
your
own
developer
portal
in
your
organization
or
company.
B
A
Anyone
using
in
production,
okay,
amazing,
that's
good
wow,
all
right,
so
developing
in
today's
world
can
be
complex
and
challenging,
because
there's
just
so
much
going
on
now
that
you
couldn't
do
10
years
ago.
There's
new
languages,
new
technologies,
new
open
source
and
SAS
Solutions,
and
every
company
is
different
right
and
every
company
uses
different
Technologies.
So
this
kind
of
leads
to
fragmentation,
and
it's
this
fragmentation.
A
A
A
So
in
Spotify
we
have
a
team
of
probably
like
six
seven
people
which
actually
like
ship
backstage
so
they're
the
people
that's
in
charge
of
our
stage,
then
we
delegate
building
inner
Source
plugins
to
teams
inside
Spotify
to
surface
this
information
that
they're
in
charge
of.
If
you
know
what
I
mean
so
that
we
have
like
a
build
team
and
they're
in
charge
of
surfacing
a
build
view
because
they
know
what
information
developers
want
to
see,
so
we
leave
them
to
do
that.
So
I've
got
a
little
bit
of
stats
here.
A
So
backstage
is
open
source
and
with
that
comes
a
lot
of
great
contribution,
so
the
community
is
huge
and
thriving
and
backstage
so
from
its
launch.
In
March,
2020
we've
had
nearly
100
plugins
being
contributed
to
the
con,
contribute
to
the
project
that
allow
you
to
get
integrated
with
your
third-party
services
and
tools
without
having
the
hassle
of
building
these
Integrations
yourself.
So
things
like
Jenkins,
GitHub,
page
of
Duty,
the
list
goes
on.
These
can
all
be
integrated,
in
fact,
in
your
backstage
organization,
and
to
reduce
the
developer
headache
you're,
you
or
your
organizations.
B
A
Need
to
create
these
inner
Source
plugins
to
get
started
and
start
getting
the
benefit
for
backstage.
You
can
just
use
this
Marketplace,
so
you
can
also
use
the
plugins
that
ship
out
of
the
box
at
Backstage
and
it's
some
of
those
that
I'd
like
to
show
you
today
so
I'm,
going
to
give
you
a
little
heads
up.
I
tried
this
demo
earlier
and
it
didn't
work,
but
we're
going
to
go
with
it
anyway,
and
so,
let's
just
pray
to
the
demographic
works.
A
So
let's
talk
about
the
centralization
of
Technology
assets,
Serge
your
company
and
your
organization
or
business
growth.
So
does
the
amount
of
services
and
components
that
run
inside
your
organization
so,
like
you
might
start
off
with
the
monolith
and
then
this
might
become
microservices
and
then
suddenly
you've
got
a
lot
of
stuff
to
manage
inside
your
organization.
A
A
To
date,
so
that
every
team
can
manage
the
services
Services
they
own
and
the
related
resources,
so
like
deployments,
data
pipelines
all
requests
whatever,
so
backstage
makes
it
easy
for
one
team
to
manage
10
services,
and
it
also
makes
it
possible
for
your
entire
company
to
manage
thousands
of
them.
So,
let's
just
give
you
a
quick
demo
of
the
software
catalog
I'm
going
to
try
this
one
hold
on
one.
Second,.
A
A
A
A
A
Can
see
everything
in
the
company
lots
of
things
here,
I
think
they're
star,
for
instance,
I,
can
click
into
one
of
these
things.
I
aren't
and
get
a
little
bit
more
information
about
it.
So
this
is
called
The
Entity
page.
So
this
is
super
customizable
you
can
put
in
your
own
plugins
in
here
and
show
the
information
that
you
need
around
this
component
on
this
service.
So
we
can
see.
We've
got
some
CI
CD
stuff
here.
A
A
So
we
as
Spotify
want
to
make
it
easy
for
engineers
to
get
set
up
and
get
basically
reduce
the
barrier
to
building
new
components
inside
your
organization.
So
if
we,
you
know,
we
say
we
want
to
ship
Java
a
Java
applications,
Java
Services.
We
want
to
be
able
to
make
it
super
easy
for
you
to
bootstrap
that
Java
program,
Java
back
in
service
or
whatever,
with
login
monitoring
metrics
all
that
stuff
baked
into
one
place.
A
Didn't
work
so,
let's
give
this
a
go,
so
I'm
going
to
go
to
create
here
and
I'm
just
going
to
pick
one
of
these
templates.
So
these
are
the
templates
that
you
might
have
in
your
organization.
They
can
be
super
extensible,
so
you
can
create
custom,
UI
form
fields
to
collect
more
data
from
the
engineer
or.
A
B
A
A
B
A
B
A
It
is
if
I
click
on
this,
and
here
we
have
the
random
component
I've
just
created
and
is
there
a
build
that
could
be
interesting?
No
okay,
but
yeah.
This
is
basically
going
to
create
those
everything
that
we
need
to
do
in
our
organization.
Super
flexible
super
easy
to
get
started,
and
the
last
bit
so
onboarding
so
on
boarding
is
hard
right,
especially
when
you're
a
growing
company,
and
it's
also
something
that
you
really
need
to
make
right
and
make
Engineers
getting
up
to
speed
really
quickly.
A
So
we
found
in
in
Spotify
that
it's
there
was
a
lot
of
effort
being
there's
a
lot
of
effort
from
Engineers
to
get
up
and
running
inside
a
company
and
documentation
is
key
for
this.
So
we
made
the
technology
code
which
is
trying
to
help
with
this.
So
we
basically
want
to
store
documentation
alongside
components
and
alongside
the
repository
and
code
of
that
service.
A
A
So
we
use
this
for
quite
a
lot
of
things,
not
just
documenting
components
and
servicing
themselves,
but
also
like
creating
things
that
we
call
Golden
paths
which
is
basically
kind
of
like
a
getting
started
with
web
development
or
back-end
development
inside
Spotify.
So
it's
all
of
our
standards
and
how
we
do
things
like
log
into
things
like
that
all
baked
into
documentation.
A
A
B
A
A
B
Thank
you
Ben,
so,
okay,
so
this
is,
we
did
an
exercise
recently,
it's
a
new
thing
about
estimating
how
many
developers
are
impacted
with
all
of
this
I.
Don't
know
if
you're
aware
backstage
is
having
a
great
moment
where
you
are
super
happy
super
agent.
We
will
see
more
data
after
we
estimated
how
many
of
the
developers
are
using
backstage
or
I
mean.
Of
course,
it's
an
estimation
how
many
developers
we
are
impacting-
and
the
number
is
huge
is
huge.
We
are
super
happy
super
excited
about
that.
B
A
B
240
in
the
pipeline,
considering
to
adoptee
and
during
a
weekly
office
hour
that
we
prepare
and
we
offer
to
the
one
interested
to
know
more
about
backstage
we
had
in
the
past
few
five
months
more
than
200
of
company
is
joining.
It's
amazing.
It's
incredible
that
the
moment
that
we
are
that
we
are
experiencing.
So
what
I
would
like
to
discuss
with
you
is
beyond
what
band
was
showing
so
beyond
what
backstage
is
doing
is
already
providing
its
benefit
to
the
companies.
What
this
more
than
446
companies
are
doing
with
backstage
it
is
incredible.
B
I
I
often
talk
with
many
of
you
and
many
of
the
adopters
incredible
how
things
how
this
new
things
are
happening
beyond
what
we
were
expecting
beyond
what
we
were
thinking.
What
I
would
like
to
discuss
with
you
is:
what
is
the
evolution
of
the
developer
experience
through
backstage,
but
not
done
by
us
in
isolation,
but
done
by
the
community,
the
community
of
more
than
446
companies,
adopting,
let's
be
inspired
by
them
and
just
a
disclaimer,
because
we
have
adopters
in
the
room?
If
you
don't
see
your
name
quoted
here,
I.
B
It
doesn't
mean
that
you
don't
innovate,
it
seems
that
I
didn't
have
time
to
collect
all
the
all
the
things
let's
go
through
all
of
them.
First
of
all,
I
would
like
to
share
something
about
the
repository
language
showing
and
most
in
particular,
about
the
software
Capital.
So
the
central
repository
you
have
all
the
technology
asset,
the
software
entity
that
your
companies
is
using.
This
is
sdasce,
it's
an
important
consultancy
company
and
what
they
tell
and
what
they
see
is
that
the
capital
can
address.
B
Also,
the
problem
of
the
sparse
organization
composed
by
many
companies
and
the
company's
act
doesn't
don't
know
what
the
company's
Zed
is
doing,
and
they
don't
know
about
the
software,
the
entities
they
are
managing.
It's
amazing
also
these
policiest
case.
Another
important
topic
is
the
technical
documentation.
Ben
highlighted
this
very
well.
We
worked
with
I
mean
one
of
the
idea
behind
the
technical
documentation
is
to
treat
it
the
competition
as
code.
This
is
what
making
the
developer
closer
to
the
technical
documentation.
B
This
is
what
reduce
the
friction,
what
helped
the
developers
to
have
better
documentation-
and
we
were-
we
are
working
with
stack
Overflow,
to
provide
a
closer
experience
from
the
technical
documentation
to
the
problem
and
the
issue
that
the
developers
are
are
doing.
It's
a
huge
help.
It's
something
that
we
didn't
imagine
at
the
time
this
is
tell
us
probably
tell
us,
is
also
in
the
room,
great
job
guys.
B
They
did
an
amazing
experience,
because
I
mean
we
want
to
help
the
developers
in
having
better
documentation,
but
they
also
integrated
with
a
third-party
services
to
help
also
the
non-technical
people
to
write
good
documentation
through
backstage.
It's
amazing,
something
that
we
didn't
imagine
they
integrated
contentful,
that
is
a
API
driven
CMS
to
work
with
backstage.
If
you
want
to
know
more,
they,
they
know
the
guy.
B
Guys
about
creating
software
components,
it's
amazing
what
happened.
This
is
American
Airlines,
what
they
are
doing.
They
are
offering
the
opportunity
to
create
python
services
apis,
but
not
only
this
also
applications
business
entities
with
one
click
in
the
way
that
band
was
showing
it's
fantastic.
This
is
boss
box
added
something
that
is
a
more
human-centric.
B
So,
of
course,
creating
a
software
component
can
be
something
that
you
can
completely
optimize,
make
it
automatic
through
the
tool
that
we
were
showing
and
that
package
is
implemented
and
offering,
but
there's
also
some
human
interaction,
maybe
an
approval,
maybe
in
certain
conditions
you
have
to
do
something
in
some
area
of
the
company,
they
integrated
a
complete
workflow
with
diska
folder.
How
easy
is
this
to
create
software
in
a
self-service
way
with
a
human-centric
approach
instead
of
a
technological
complexity
that
remains
valid,
but,
of
course
we
want
to
make
it
easier,
reuse.
B
A
B
Problem
from
the
beginning,
similar
solution
from
Deutsche
Bank,
they
use
this
taxonomy
added
to
the
software
entities,
and
so
they
have
again
this
sort
of
marketplace
where
you
search
for
I,
don't
know
something
related
to
the
customer.
Satisfaction
and
you
have
API
software
entity,
and
maybe
you
as
a
developer,
can
use
something
that
is
already
existing
in
your
organization.
Instead
of
Reinventing
the
wheel,
all
the
time,
jobs
to
be
done,
guys,
we
are
Developer
and
the
morning
when
we
switch
on
our
computer.
B
The
first
thing
is:
okay:
I
need
to
see
what
I
have
to
do.
This
is
Orlando,
they
call
our
their
instance
of
Backstage
sunrise
and
they
have
a
home
page
where
there
is
the
full
list
of
full
requests
or
things
that
they
have
to
do
during
the
day.
Backstage
is
helping
them
in
their
job,
not
only
because
it
is
making
easier,
but
also
because
it's
helping
them
in
the
task
to
do.
B
This
is
SoundCloud,
it's
a
competitor
of
Spotify,
but
we
don't
care,
we
help
them
and
we
want
to
work
with
them
with
the
same
solution
and
they
did
an
amazing
contribution
to
Backstage
because
they
implemented
the
announcement
box.
So
every
developer
every
day,
the
first
time
that
they
they
turn
on
the
backstage.
They
have
a
notification
to
say,
hey
guys,
be
aware
that,
since
the
last
time
you
were
here
happened
this
this
this
and
this
we
are
helping
the
developers
to
do
back
to
their
job.
B
B
But
have
many
examples,
Splunk
already,
also
something
to
quote:
they
create
this
gamification
approach
where
every
developer
can
receive
this
label
if
in
case
of
improving
the
quality
and
for
me
this
is
really
a
game
changer,
because
it's
not
only
about
helping
the
developer,
but
it's
taking
little
developer
experience
to
the
next
level.
The
tool
is
helping
the
developers
and
the
organization
to
have
vector
quality
software.
B
B
These
are
a
list
of
other
clusters
of
ideas
that
I
have
seen
in
our
hundreds
of
adopters.
Every
adopters
is
rebranding
backstage.
Can
you
please
raise
your
hand?
The
adopters
are
not
rebranding
backstage
one
two,
three,
four:
okay
cool
a
couple
of
there,
so
measuring
engineering
productivity,
I'm,
pretty
sure
most
of
you
is
interested,
especially
on
the
management
side,
is
interested
on
this
topic.
B
If
you
have
a
single
portal,
when
everything
happen,
how
easy
it
is,
it
is
I'm
not
saying
it's
easy,
it's
easier,
because
now
it's
pretty
complex,
we
are
in
a
world
where
everything
wants
to
become
to
be
a
platform.
The
platformization
topic
is
a
huge
topic.
Instead
of
thinking
about
siled
software,
we
want
to
think
about
platforms,
communicating
one
each
other.
B
This
is
exactly
that
backstage
can
help
with
with
a
single
repository
and
the
chart,
the
relation
charts
thinking
about
business
process
beyond
what
is
of
our
software
component,
something
that
is
a
more
abstractions
a
structure
on
top
of
the
software
entities
and
another
interesting
use
case.
I
very
frequently
receive
question
about.
If
the
internal
developer
populate
what
you
have
seen
here,
it's
something
that
we
can
apply
also
for
customers,
Partners,
external
ecosystem
of
developers.
Imagine
that
you
are
a
company.
Probably
you
are
a
company
that
is
offering
Services
outside.
B
Can
we
offer
backstage
outside
of
the
organization
instead
of
inside?
It
is
an
option,
of
course,
providing
transparity
and
probably
more
and
probably
more.
Let
me
quote:
I
don't
know
if
there
are
the
VMware
faults
here
in
the
room.
Hello,
so
we
are
doing
an
amazing
job
as
part
of
the
community,
because
beyond
what
we
were
expecting
backstage
is
used
also
in.
A
B
And
solutions
backstage
is
a
platform
sitting
on
top
of
the
existing
services,
not
implementing
any
of
the
service,
but
making
easier
the
consumption
of
the
services.
What
we
are
experiencing,
that
major
companies
VMware
is
one
of
them,
but
we
have
many
other
collaborations
and
collaborations
are
becoming
a
thing.
Right
now
are
interested
to
put
taxes
on
top
of
the
solution,
simply
because
it
makes
easier
the
usage
of
the
technology
and
it
very
nice.
So
let
me
ramp
up
a
little
bit
because
I
took
only
a
few
of
them.