The Real Cost of Treating Your Platform Like an Afterthought

Hey folks,

Plenty of organizations don't like to invest in their platforms. They see it as a cost center and put as little money into it as they can.

But really they're dropping the ball.

Investing in your platform gets you some damn important things:

1. Speed. Want to fix that major bug that someone just found at 4 o'clock on a Friday? If you haven't invested in your ability to deploy and test reliably (platform concern) then you're going to have a bad time.

2. Reliability. Outages are expensive. A strong platform means fewer failed deployments, more predictable infra, and higher uptime. Reliability has to be engineered into your pipelines and infrastructure.

3. Observability. When something goes sideways, do you want to spend hours spelunking through logs and guessing? Or do you want the dashboards, traces, and metrics in place so your team knows exactly what happened and how to fix it? That requires platform investment.

4. Security. Every org says security matters… but if your code and infrastructure doesn't have automated scans then you’re playing with fire. Platform investment is what shifts security from “afterthought” to “always on.”

A bit more about point #4, which deserves more focus because of the rise of AI.

Personally, I'm worried about a new wave of hacking attempts that are AI driven. Not just humans poking at your APIs or networks, but AI-driven agents that are continuously trained, endlessly looping through new vulnerabilities, and probing your systems forever. That feels like it's coming fast.

With that on the horizon, "good enough" security practices won't cut it. Organizations will need deep investment into their platform’s security and exposure. Continuous monitoring, automated remediation, and security integrated into workflows. I think a lot of orgs aren't ready for that.

Proper platform security isn't easy. But as we begin 2026, I expect we'll see organizations quickly learn that security can't be treated lackadaisically.

Security is going to be a requirement.

It never has been optional, but I suspect it's going to be a new core of platform engineering.

In general, platforms are leverage.

They’re not a cost center y’all, they’re a multiplier.

When you treat them that way, you unlock speed, security, reliability, and resilience. Also, you get teams that can actually move fast without lighting everything on fire.

May your organization see the wisdom of platform investment,

Matt @ Masterpoint

PS If you want to chat about the benefits of investing in platforms, grab some time on my calendar here. Also, did you know we have a referral program where you can make some extra cash? Intro us and help out Masterpoint, a colleague, and yourself at the same time.