Most platform engineering talks are about tooling. Most platform failures are about something else: unclear boundaries, unsustainable operations, and a mismatch between what the platform team built and what customers can adopt. This session tells the story of an integration platform (iPaaS) built on Azure Integration Services, from first idea to an actual integration platform that has been running in production at multiple customers.

Azure gives you every building block for integration. Turning them into a platform that one team can operate for many customers is another matter. This session shares the lessons learned while building the platform, evolving it over time and operating it for multiple customers. I will share the principles that made this possible and the way we govern the product.

Principles are easy to write down and hard to live by, especially when they conflict. The core of the session addresses the tensions between them. We'll look at what each principle meant in practice, where they collided, and how we resolved the conflicts. Expect architecture, an overview of the platform, and honest lessons that we have learned. Whether you're building an internal platform or a commercial one, you'll leave with a set of principles to adapt and a clearer view of what makes a platform usable and maintainable.