What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Spotify Plugins for Backstage is that I have been using a lot of connectors like the GitHub plugin, I have GitHub Actions, and I have a lot of different connectors that are using the plugins for Backstage.
In addition to my main use case, we also run GitHub Actions through the connector, so if there is a deployment that needs to happen for one of the repositories, then the GitHub Actions connector is used to trigger the action and that is how we control in Backstage through the plugin.
What is most valuable?
The best features Spotify Plugins for Backstage offers include great integration with GitHub so that you don't have to build custom tools and technologies, making it less to maintain and more to achieve using these Spotify Plugins.
This integration makes things easier for my team as it is a low-code solution where we get pre-built plugins so that we don't have to work on building all these custom plugins when we need to integrate it with GitHub Actions, GitHub repositories, and everything comes out of the box, with all we have to do being to create an integration point, connect with the repositories, and we are all set.
I would add that it also gives us a way to have role-based access control (RBAC) which can prevent and create a role-based access control, so if I want an engineer to have access to specific repositories, I can provide that right in the plugin and there can be different roles set for admins, engineers, and read-only for someone who just needs to see what all exists, so it has pretty good security features as well in-built.
Spotify Plugins for Backstage has impacted my organization positively because, as I mentioned previously, it has less maintenance to do and gives out-of-the-box support with integration, so our efficiency has increased, our performance has increased just because of using Spotify Plugins for Backstage, and we have Backstage integrated with a lot of different ecosystems as well, helping a lot in terms of delivering products.
What needs improvement?
I think the observability is something that we are looking for in Backstage plugins, where if something fails, we need the OpenTelemetry observability to be shipped to a custom platform, which is missing as of now, but there are some base-level observabilities that are present, which we can utilize.
The main drawback of using the plugin is about using the OpenTelemetry ecosystem, so in our company, we have a lot of OpenTelemetry, and that is where Spotify Plugins for Backstage is not able to support the OpenTelemetry exporting it to custom platforms, which is where it lacks most.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Spotify Plugins for Backstage for one year, probably.
What other advice do I have?
I can share specific outcomes and metrics, including time saved; we have saved a lot of time in terms of time saved, it is almost three hours per configuration of a single pipeline, and we have hundreds of pipelines that regularly go into deployments with new pipelines coming in, so these plugins help us a lot with new integration as well as existing integrations, and it also reduces the error rate in terms of if we compare it with custom development, as we have to take care of a lot of different rules, regulations, APIs, and security, but when we use the plugin, everything comes out of the box in terms of security and error rate.
Regarding Spotify Plugins for Backstage's AI capabilities, I think they have pretty tight governance and security because they have an RBAC which makes sure that the roles and permissions that you have assigned to a user are adhered to, and we can have read-only, write to specific repositories, which is a good feature about it.
Regarding Spotify Plugins for Backstage's AI capabilities, I find it to be pretty accurate because it is able to get the data from the knowledge base and respond very quickly as well as with accurate answers.
My advice to others looking into using Spotify Plugins for Backstage is that it is really nice when you are looking for some integrations with GitHub, Jenkins, or any other tools that require deployment or anything related to code, as it really gives a good option for out-of-the-box integration, so there is less maintenance, more control over what you provision, and a lot of good AI features as well where you can have a conversation with them, ask about inventories, and trigger pipelines; it has amazing capabilities that companies can use to increase their efficiency and also track their inventory. I would rate my overall experience with Spotify Plugins for Backstage as an 8 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
