Backplane
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Roadmap

Backplane started life as a project called Skybridge. Skybridge was a way to 'bridge' multiple clouds together so they could be governed in a single heterogeneous way through a single abstraction API. Simplify the concerns of Cloud Account provisioning and retrieval of Cost, Access and Policy data. The Cloud Abstraction API is now free and open sourced under Backplane.dev, below shows the development of the MVP.

Backplane API Released

  1. Public Preview of MVP release candidate

    Backplane project is released to Platform Engineering community.

    Demo Server

  2. Private Previews

    Validation of functionality with private preview team.

  3. Cloud Console UI

    API refactored for HTML as part of HATEOAS. Now returns HTMX in addition to JSON.

  4. Testing, Documentation & Publishing to NPM documentation

    @backplane-software/backplane-azure, -gcp and -aws for separation of concerns.

  5. Development of Prototype/MVP API

    The MERN (Mongo, Express, React & Node.JS) stack was chosen for speed of prototyping.

    Completed Features

    1. API Data Model Design design

      Implemented /org /platform /product /app in backend and CLI

    2. Authentication Middleware (AuthN) middleware

      Implemented BCrypt and JWT tokens for Authentication middleware and /users endpoint

    3. Command Line Interface CLI

      Developed CLI with Node.JS and Commander for Linux, Mac and Windows

    4. Account Provisioning integration

      Implemented Azure and GCP

    5. Authorization Middleware (AuthZ) middleware

      Implemented AuthZ Middleware to provide RBAC. API endpoints added: /teams /roles /assignments

    6. Approval Workflow Engine feature

      For business processes of Approval - Implemented /requests /services

    7. App Templates feature

      Controlling environments created and services onboarded e.g. Sandbox has no Repo, Production contains Test/Dev environments and Github Repo

    8. Open API (Swagger) documentation

      Implemented /org /platform /product /app in backend and CLI

    9. Logging middleware

      Implemented Logtail / Betterstack logging provider

    10. Access & Policy integration

      Azure & GCP Access & Policy retrieval

    11. AWS integration

      Account provisioning, Access & Policy retrieval

    12. Service Integration feature

      /services endpoint added for service onboarding

    13. Cost Sync Engine finops

      Cost Sync Propagation from App to Product to Platform to Org

    14. Budget Management finops

      Set Org Budget, request workflow for Platform and Product Budgets

    15. Oracle Cloud integration

      Account provisioning (i.e. compartments)

    Product Feature Backlog

    1. Alibaba Cloud integration

      Account provisioning, Access & Policy retrieval

    2. Oracle Cloud integration

      Account provisioning, Access & Policy retrieval

    3. Digital Ocean integration

      Account provisioning, Access & Policy retrieval

    4. Private Cloud integration

      Account provisioning, Access & Policy retrieval

    5. Policy Exemption Management feature

      Raise Request for exemption from Policy and put in place exemption

    6. RBAC Proxy feature

      Add and Remove RBAC assignments across cloud platforms

    7. Cloud Graph feature

      Universal Cloud Graph for Resource querying

    8. Extension Marketplace feature

      Community Extensions to augment Backplane

    9. Cost Optimisation Engine feature

      Community Extensions to augment Backplane

    10. Platform-Level Cloud Credentials enhancement

      Cloud Credentials are set at Org level. Platform Level aligns to least privilege.

    11. Cost Extraction Engine design

      Extraction, Transform and Load (ETL) of Cost Data from Cloud Service Provider and aligned to FinOps FOCUS spec.

    12. DC Migration Factory design

      Easily move workloads from on prem data center into cloud

    13. Workload Placement Engine design

      Asset workload placement on criteria of performance, resiliance and cost.

  6. Project Backplane accepted for Microsoft for Startups incubation hub

    Backplane was founded and the following domains registered: backplane.software backplane.cloud getbackplane.io backplane.dev