The communities defining annual report, The State of Platform Engineering Vol.4 is live in all its glory. Almost 60 pages of platform engineering knowledge including data from 518 platform engineers, and insights from conversations with platform leaders across every geo, business size, and industry you can imagine.

And the data this year reveals some pretty sad realities… 

Or does it? Journey through these 5 depressing stats with me, and join at the end while I make my argument why they tell a more positive story than you’d think.

1. Platform engineers STILL aren’t measuring.

30% of platform teams, “DO NOT MEASURE”. Yet somehow in this multiple choice, some seem to measure and simultaneously not measure. With that chaos, it’s no surprise that at events, and workshops industry wide - measurement is the biggest topic of challenge for most teams.

2. 1/3 of all platforms still rely purely on mandates to drive adoption

3. A quarter of platform teams, aren’t actually doing platform engineering

The fundamental differentiator of platform engineering is the “Platform as a Product” mindset. The introduction of product management principles into operations is a key change in delivering the impact and value of platform initiatives. If you don’t have a product mindset, it’s extremely hard to argue that you are actually doing “platform engineering”. Yet, there are many with the title “platform engineer” running “platform” initiatives.

4. Platform engineer salaries collapsed in 2025

The salary of a platform engineer plummeted in 2025. North America fell from about $193k to $160k, and Europe from roughly $118k to $104k. This is a huge drop compared to the salary increases we’ve seen every year since 2022.

5. Platform teams are operating based of vibes

If 29.6% of platform teams do not measure. Why have only 18.3% of teams answered that their time to value is “ not yet measurable”. This same trend repeats itself throughout the data. Teams report that their metrics have improved in one section, while simultaneously reporting that they do no measurement at all. So how do they know they’ve improved? The answer time and time again - is vibes.

So why aren’t I freaking out? This is why.

We are still at the beginning of this journey.

Over 50% of platform engineering initiatives are still in their startup phase with budgets of $1m or less. That means almost half of platforms in the industry are still exploring, still learning, and still growing.

The discipline might have grown meteorically over the last 3 years, with 90% of enterprises starting IDPs, and the number of people calling themselves platform engineers & readers of this newsletter growing 20 fold - but the reality is; most actual practice in the discipline is still in its early exploratory stages.

There is a reason the community courses, built around the challenges in this report, are the most successful initiative we’ve ever launched. 100s of students every day are digging into how to measure effectively, how to ensure security or observability by design, where does AI fit into the platform, or simply what a platform engineer actually does.

Over the coming 18 months, we still need a gigantic amount of these $1m platform initiatives to complete their Minimum Viable Platforms, start proving value and growing.

We might be at the end of the hype cycle, but we are at the very beginning of the tidal wave.

Come learn with me. Secure those extra millions in budget. And let’s goooo!