A Platform Team’s pocket guide to Cloud Development Environments

A cloud development environment (CDE) is an on-demand development environment pre-configured with the tools, libraries and dependencies needed to write, test and review code. It helps shift a platform team's sphere of influence to the left, enabling them to gain control over development environments. CDEs are designed to facilitate better collaboration between developers, as well as between developers and platform teams. They commonly address pain points for three key categories: standardization, extensibility and security. Benefits of CDEs for platform teams include simplifying the lives of platform teams by addressing key challenges across three categories: standardization, extensibility and security. These benefits include eliminating discrepancies between development environment setups, reducing onboarding time, mitigating environment drift, facilitating collaborative development, enhancing overall security posture, and more. When evaluating a CDE, consider the deployment model and the developer experience it provides. Additionally, while CDEs can integrate with coding assistants through their editors, they are not a replacement for coding assistants themselves. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is not recommended as a standalone solution for development environments but can be used in conjunction with CDEs if remote desktop access is required.