Platform Strategy: Innovation Through Harmonization

by Gregor Hohpe, Michele Danieli, Jean-Francois Landreau

Platforms seem to be everywhere, whether it’s platform business models that fuel the most valuable companies and most unicorns, 100-billion Dollar cloud platforms, or in-house developer and analytics platforms. And that's no platforms appear to be able to rewrite the laws of physics, for example by boosting innovation thanks to harmonization.

Most organizations looking to harvest the power of platforms discover that building one, or even deploying one, is far from easy. Many in-house platforms are outdated by the time they’re launched, restrict rather than enable users, and face a certain demise when their use is mandated in a last-ditch effort to make the economics work.

Harvested from a decade of building successful in-house platforms and enabling enterprises to utilize cloud platforms, this book provides a fresh look at what makes platforms work, why they are different from other IT services, and how you can use them to boost developer productivity. Sticky metaphors (“are you building a fruit salad or fruit basket?”; “is your platform sinking or floating?”; “build abstractions not illusions!”) provide actionable design guidance without being lecturing or boring.

Genres: Technology, Architecture, Business, Software, Programming, Nonfiction

463 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 29, 2025

Reviews

[Miguel Alho · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the things I enjoyed about this is, considering I'm currently on a platform team, it conforms a lot of the ideas I've been collecting and experience. Also gives me a lot of warning signs, things to look out for, and plenty of food for thought as I go forward.

[Christoph Kappel · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was an entertaining and educative read and perfectly matches my own experience building platforms. Especially the service aspect and the problems to get people to actually use it was always something we had to struggle with.

[Vitalii Stepchyk · Rating 1 out of 5]

Starts very broad, ends very narrow, stays superficial all the way.
I am not experienced with platform development; I've only read Platform Engineering: A Guide for Technical, Product, and People Leaders and Platform Strategy so far, and the former one is incomparably more useful.
I wouldn't say I did not learn anything useful, but what I learned could fit on a single sheet of A4 paper, not ~350 pages. The book is full of references to other Gregor's works and other online resources, which sometimes felt like I am reading an advertisement of "The Architect Elevator" series, and sometimes like I need to read all the other articles to get the author's point (getting some reading Wikipedia vibes).

[Dmitriy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gregor in his usual incredible manner shows the meaningful steps and guidelines for architects who adopting the platform. This book will definitely become a golden standard as “Enterprise Integration Patterns”

[Stefan · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the most boringly written books I’ve read in a long time. The topic is very current and relevant, but the authors ramble endlessly, burying the message in unnecessary fluff. This could’ve easily been a 15-page essay without losing any relevant information instead of a 350-page slog.

[Ruben · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone dealing with cloud migrations or Cx-level conversations in general. Revisit every now and then.

[Steve Fenton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a really clear style with vivid metaphors and illustrations.