Anant Platform Playbook
Anant Platform Playbook
At Anant, we've been building business platforms since 2010, and these days we have focused on realtime data & analytics platforms that connect to other aspects of a comprehensive modern enterprise's business platform. We've worked on platforms of all sizes: small, medium, large, and even extra-extra-large. We started this playbook to train our team but want to share this as a set of best practices for creating, maintaining, and operating a modern enterprise business platform with a realtime data & analytics platform connecting it all. We present them as 15 Plays, broken out into three categories, in a format inspired by the Twelve Factor App, USDS Playbook, and Principled GraphQL.
Platform PrinciplesA framework & approach to creating a platform that scales.
1. Contexts
Contexts - People, processes, information, platforms, in that order.
2. Responsibility
The people, processes, information, and systems overlap across responsibility areas in an organization.
3. Approach
Having an approach allows us to manage systems long term.
4. Framework
Having a framework allows us to use the best practices but the freedom to switch things out.
5. Tools
Templates and tools help us save time and be consistent.
Framework PrinciplesUse the technologies of the modern enterprise.
6. Distributed
All components should be distributed so that it can scale and be available, all the time, to all users.
7. Realtime
All components should be realtime or reactive platforms.
8. Extendable
All components should be extendable and not closed.
9. Automated
All operations with data and dev should automated.
10. Monitored
All systems should be monitored with metrics and logging.
Approach PrinciplesPlatform management means people & technology management.
11. Setup
Setup procedures should be documented, scripted, and then automated.
12. Training
Training materials should available or referenced in a central place.
13. Administration
All administrative operations should be documented, scripted, and then automated.
14. Customization
All customization or special configuration should be documented, and part of an automated devops process.
15. Knowledge
All knowledge should be kept up to date as part of each sprint.