In the world of cloud-native technologies, where innovation is key, the Backstage platform stands out as a promising project.

Backstage is a portal that seamlessly integrates the vast web of developer tools, documentation and templates, all within easy reach of every developer’s fingertips. The platform is open-source and serves as a developer portal for all the tooling, services and documentation within an organization.

“This is another project we are we are supporting at KubeCon,” said Balaji Sivasubramanian (pictured, left), senior director of product management, developer tools, at Red Hat Inc. “We are a big contributor to Kubernetes, Linux and everything else.”

Sivasubramanian and Ignacio Riesgo Pablo (right), senior director of developer marketing and strategy at Red Hat Inc., spoke with theCUBE industry analysts Rob Strechay and Savannah Peterson at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how Backstage is revolutionizing developer productivity and how Red Hat is shaping the future of this transformative project.  (* Disclosure below.)

The Backstage project: A rising star in CNCF’s galaxy

At KubeCon, one project in particular is creating a buzz within the Cloud Native Computing Foundation community — developer productivity platform Backstage.

The platform serves as a portal that integrates various tools, documentation and templates to streamline developer workflows. It addresses the challenges that developers face when navigating a complex web of resources within an organization and has seen a growing importance in simplifying the lives of developers and enhancing their productivity.

“You need to put two things together. One is the developer productivity,” Riesgo Pablo said. “That is a hot topic right now. We have one number that is 76% of developers struggle with the cognitive load. There [is] so much documentation, so many templates, so many things that they need to learn about. What are the right tools, the right people to connect?”

Red Hat’s role in shaping the future of developer productivity

Red Hat, for its part, is committed to supporting the Backstage project’s growth, according to Sivasubramanian. One remarkable milestone is the open sourcing of a role-based access control plugin, a crucial step in making Backstage more accessible to enterprises. This move simplifies access control and enhances security within the platform.

Another significant contribution from Red Hat is the introduction of Dynamic Plugins, allowing for the easy addition of new plugins without the need for complex code changes. This innovation addresses the challenge of integrating new tools, making it more efficient for large enterprises to adopt Backstage.

“What we [are] contributing is another thing called Dynamic Plugins that allows you to do one click deploy, adding of new plugins to this thing,” Sivasubramanian said. “Backstage is just a shell. At the end of the day, developers want the [integration] with their tools to be productive.”

The is a growing importance for developer productivity, especially in the context of complex tools and documentation. There is also a need to empower developers and create internal developer platforms within companies to boost productivity, according to Riesgo Pablo.

“Things are not getting easier; things are getting more complicated,” he said. “Also, you have the people creating the platform for those developers. The people developing those platforms are the critical people. We call it the developer’s developer.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA. Neither Red Hat Inc. and CNCF, the main sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE