Why This Matters If You Run a Serious Business
Cloud projects often drift, budgets balloon, and timelines stretch. This one did not. Two engineers walked into HSBC and built what is possibly the largest Google Cloud platform on the planet, then beat an 18 month growth plan by 12x. If you are building systems in the cloud, or leading a technology team in a £5M to £20M firm, this is worth three minutes.
- You stop firefighting infrastructure problems and start building on stable, secure patterns
- Your developers move faster without opening security holes to the world
- You scale 12x faster than your original plan without chaos or costly rework
- Your platform becomes self service, cutting bottlenecks and delays across teams
- You build trust with stakeholders through consistent, repeatable delivery
Key Ideas In This Video
Most cloud projects drift. Requirements change, teams move slowly, and infrastructure becomes a patchwork of quick fixes. HSBC needed something different: a self service platform that let developers build fast, but with guardrails.
The Platform Engineering Approach
The solution was not ad hoc DevOps. It was platform engineering done properly. The team built a self service system with GitOps at its core. Developers could push secure patterns out. Firewall rules came with guardrails built in, so teams could move fast without accidentally exposing 0.0.0.0 to the internet.
This is the difference between chaos and control. Ad hoc DevOps means every team solves the same problems differently. Platform engineering means you solve it once, properly, and everyone benefits. The result: developers stay productive, security teams stay calm, and leadership sees consistent delivery.
GitOps: Configuration as Code
GitOps is simple in concept: your infrastructure lives in Git, changes go through pull requests, and deployments happen automatically when code is merged. This is not new, but most firms struggle to implement it properly across large teams.
At HSBC, GitOps became the spine of the entire platform. Every change was tracked, every deployment was repeatable, and every configuration was auditable. This mattered at scale. When you are managing one of the largest Google Cloud environments on the planet, you cannot afford manual processes or unclear change histories.
Secure Patterns, Not Security Theatre
Security in cloud platforms often becomes theatre. Teams add firewall rules, lock down ports, and create approval processes, but the underlying patterns remain weak. HSBC took a different approach: build secure patterns into the platform itself.
Firewall rules came with guardrails. Developers could move fast, but they could not accidentally open the entire system to the internet. This is quiet authority in action. You do not shout about security, you build it into the foundation so teams cannot make catastrophic mistakes.
12x Growth Without 12x Effort
The original plan assumed 18 months of growth. The platform beat that by 12x. This is what happens when you build systems that scale horizontally without manual intervention. More teams, more projects, more deployments, all running on the same stable foundation.
This is not about working harder. It is about building systems that multiply effort. One platform team enabled dozens of development teams to move faster, safer, and with less friction. The ROI on platform engineering is not always obvious in month one, but by month twelve, the difference is undeniable.
Why Platforms Beat Ad Hoc DevOps
Ad hoc DevOps means every team solves infrastructure problems from scratch. One team uses Terraform, another uses manual scripts, a third uses the cloud provider console. This creates inconsistency, security gaps, and wasted effort.
Platform engineering centralises the hard problems. You build a secure, scalable foundation once, then let teams build on top. This is how serious firms operate. They do not reinvent infrastructure for every project. They build platforms that compound over time.
What This Means for Your Business
If you are running a technology team, or leading a business that depends on cloud infrastructure, this approach matters. Platform engineering is not a buzzword, it is a shift from reactive firefighting to proactive system building.
The question is not whether you need better infrastructure. The question is whether you are building systems that scale quietly, or systems that require constant intervention. HSBC chose the former, and the results speak clearly.
Less noise, more discipline, better outcomes.
About Gareth from Mesoform
Gareth is a platform engineer who understands how to build systems that scale without drama. Mesoform specialises in cloud platforms, security, and infrastructure that does not break when you need it most. This is the kind of work that does not make headlines, but it keeps serious businesses running.
If your infrastructure feels fragile, or your teams spend more time fixing systems than building products, platform engineering might be the answer. Start with the foundation, not the features.
If you want a quiet system like this running in the background, book a Reputation Review with LPV.Agency.
