Platform Engineering Labs is an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) company that recently launched formae, its groundbreaking open source platform built for the future that empowers engineers to automate, unify, and evolve infrastructure at scale—without the usual complexity or risk. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Platform Engineering Labs co-founder and CEO Pavlo Baron to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Pavlo Baron’s Background
Pavlo, could you tell us more about your background? Baron said:
“I am a veteran in the space, having served in all kinds of roles throughout my career that spans more than 35 years. I was the co-founder, CTO and major inventor at an observability startup Instana that was acquired by IBM in 2020. I was also a frequent conference speaker and author of several books in my earlier life. Now I’m focusing on creating things that didn’t exist before.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Baron shared:
“For too long, we’ve witnessed a critical problem in the broader infrastructure space: everything sucks, and nothing helps. Stifled innovation, too many tools, enormous complexity, massive cognitive overload, critical bus factors, disempowered teams and individuals, endless stream of unnecessary work and human error, and ultimately frustration and burnout. And the advances in AI technology cannot be properly applied for numerous reasons. We decided to change that.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Baron reflected:
“Our history is short so far, but the most memorable moment was when I showed the early version of our tool to the first guy outside our team. I remember that silence, and that “what did I just witness?” expression on their face. Unforgettable.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Baron explained:
“The company will work on different tools in the space, but the first one is formae. It is the next generation of infrastructure-as-code (IaC), basically the only IaC tool that really treats every infrastructure resource and change as code, no matter where these changes happen.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Baron acknowledged:
“We are an early stage startup. Every day is a battle, and the opponents we are disrupting are big and mighty. But we are small and versatile, and we are happy to take on that David vs. Goliath story.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Baron cited:
“We are just launching our first tool. But we are shipping big updates weekly, so every week is a significant milestone for us and our users.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Baron affirmed:
“We are dissatisfied with the status quo, and we don’t want to pull more tools over the outdated and partly broken foundation like many others in the industry do. We are reworking the foundation, and this allows us and others to build for the future.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the future company goals? Baron concluded:
“Succeed with our first tool, get a chance to tackle more challenges in the industry, and of course survive as a startup.”
