Digital agencies and devs | Boost productivity and slash risks

Video transcript

We utilized ChatGPT to enhance the grammar and syntax of the transcript.

Greg Qualls: Welcome! On this fine Thursday—I had to check my calendar real quick to confirm that—it’s Thursday. Today, we’re going to have a great time talking about agencies and how to boost productivity while slashing risks in 2025. A quick disclaimer before we jump in: if you’re here for a technical demo on how to use Platform.sh, we won’t be doing that. I don’t even think we’ll touch the console much. Instead, this is going to be a high-level business conversation about how a cloud application platform like Platform.sh or Upsun can improve productivity and reduce risks for your agency, your clients, and their customers.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Greg Qualls, and I’m based in San Antonio, Texas, in the United States. I’ve been married for over 20 years now, in a relationship with the same wonderful woman for over 22 years—yes, I recently did the math. I love Dungeons and Dragons. If I could swivel my camera right now, you’d see a shelf full of books and miniatures. It’s my escape into another world.

As for why you might want to listen to me today: I have 20+ years of experience in business-to-business sales, across multiple industries. I’ve spent over 10 years in leadership development and business consulting, working with small to medium-sized businesses to help them grow, reach new clients, and achieve their goals.

But it’s not just me here today. Joining me is my partner in crime, Paul Gilzow. Paul, could you please introduce yourself?

Paul Gilzow: Thanks, Greg. I’m Paul Gilzow, a Developer Relations Engineer based in Columbia, Missouri—right in the middle of the state, between St. Louis and Kansas City. I’m a former Platform.sh customer. After migrating about 400 sites to Platform.sh and setting up all the automations, I decided I didn’t want to stop working with the platform. That’s when I joined the company as a Developer Relations Engineer.

I’ve been in development for over 20 years, moving from “the server under your desk” days to full cloud integration. It’s been an incredible journey.

Greg Qualls: Working with Paul has been fun, especially since I knew him before joining Platform.sh. Now we get to collaborate daily, sharing insights and occasionally spilling the behind-the-scenes tea.

Today, we’re diving into how agencies can boost productivity and mitigate risks. To start, let’s discuss why this matters to agencies specifically. For agencies, it’s all about delivering value—not just to themselves but to their clients. Whether you’re designing websites or creating marketing campaigns, your value comes from solving specific challenges that your clients can’t handle on their own.

Let’s start by defining value. Often, people think value is tied to features—what a product offers. Early in my sales career, I made the mistake of feature-dumping in client meetings. I’d spend 20–30 minutes listing every feature we offered, and the clients would smile and nod. But then my trainer asked me, “What does that customer do?” I had no clue. I realized I wasn’t focusing on the client’s challenges or goals.

Value starts when you align your client’s challenges or objectives with your features. But that’s not the whole story. There’s a third piece: price. Value exists at the intersection of challenges, features, and price. For example, I might need rest and relaxation, and the perfect solution might be a year-long retreat to Belize. But if I can’t afford it, it’s not a viable option.

When all three components—challenges, features, and price—align, that’s where true value is created. Today, we’ll discuss how a cloud application platform like Platform.sh can provide value to your agency and your clients by improving productivity and reducing risks. This is the “why” behind using such a platform.

Think of it this way: your clients come to you because they need your expertise. They could try to solve their problems on their own, but it’s not their core competency. Similarly, building and maintaining your own platform isn’t your core competency—it’s ours. Using a cloud application platform allows you to focus on what you do best and pass that same value on to your clients.

So now that we’ve covered the importance of value, let’s dive deeper into how agencies can communicate that value to their clients. One challenge agencies face when selling their services is demonstrating value not just to their direct clients but to their clients’ customers. For instance, if you’re working with an e-commerce company, they’re focused on their consumers. If you’re working with a university, they’re focused on attracting students and securing research grants. Your role as an agency is to support their objectives while meeting your own goals.

This is where understanding your value proposition becomes critical. As an agency, you’re either reselling or referring Platform.sh—or a similar cloud application platform—to your clients. You need to clearly articulate why you’ve chosen this platform and how it directly benefits them.

In my experience, every business conversation boils down to four core areas of value. I call these the value levers:

1. Expenses – Cutting costs.
2. Revenue – Increasing income.
3. Risk – Mitigating potential downsides.
4. Productivity – Doing more with less.

These are universal. Every business wants to improve in these areas, and when you can provide solutions that address them, you’re delivering tangible value.

Now let’s break this down. The first two levers—expenses and revenue—are financial. These directly impact a company’s bottom line and are visible on their balance sheet. The other two levers—risk and productivity—are operational. While they may not show up immediately in financial statements, they have a significant impact on long-term success.

Today, we’re focusing on the operational side of things: reducing risks and improving productivity. Why? Because these are areas where a cloud application platform can make a huge difference for agencies. For example:

• Risk Reduction: Security, compliance, scalability, and avoiding downtime are all critical. Nobody wants to deal with a data breach or a website outage during a major event like Black Friday or student registration.
• Productivity Gains: Streamlining workflows, improving collaboration, and enabling faster turnaround times allow agencies to focus on delivering high-value work to their clients.

There’s a quote I always think of when talking about operational impacts: “If a company isn’t continuously improving, it’s slowly dying.” This applies to your agency, your clients, and even to us as a platform. Continuous improvement is essential to growth, productivity, and risk management.

When it comes to risk, here are the key challenges agencies face:

1. Security: No one wants to deal with a hacked website or a data breach. Beyond the financial loss, there’s the reputational damage.
2. Downtime and Outages: A website going down at a critical time can have disastrous consequences. For example, losing access during a medical emergency or an e-commerce sale.
3. Scalability: Growth is great, but it brings its own risks. Scaling too quickly without the right infrastructure can lead to poor user experiences or even system failures.
4. Compliance: Staying compliant with industry regulations is a must, especially in sectors like healthcare or education.
5. Client Dissatisfaction: If clients aren’t happy with your services, it jeopardizes your long-term relationships.
6. Legal Issues: Nobody wants to end up in court over avoidable problems.

Using a cloud application platform can mitigate these risks. For example, Platform.sh’s security-first design includes read-only application containers, limiting potential vulnerabilities. Immutable infrastructure ensures that production environments can be replicated perfectly, reducing the risk of unexpected issues.

Paul Gilzow: I can speak to this firsthand. Before joining Platform.sh, I worked at a university managing multiple websites. Security was a constant concern—we had multiple infections per month. With Platform.sh, security is baked into the infrastructure, significantly reducing these risks.

Now let’s talk about productivity. Here’s how a cloud application platform helps agencies work more efficiently:

1. Workflows: Automating repetitive tasks saves time and allows developers to focus on creative problem-solving.
2. Collaboration: Teams can work together seamlessly, whether they’re in the same office or spread across the globe.
3. Turnaround Times: Faster delivery means happier clients and more projects.
4. Focus: By eliminating distractions and non-value-adding tasks, developers can spend more time on what truly matters.
5. Onboarding: Getting new clients or team members up to speed quickly is essential to maintaining momentum.

Greg Qualls: Here’s a quick example: Imagine telling a client that their project will take four weeks. They’re thrilled when you deliver it in two weeks instead. By leveraging the efficiencies of a cloud platform, you’re able to under-promise and over-deliver—setting yourself apart from the competition.

We’ll dive deeper into specific features and functionalities shortly, but let’s take a moment to address a common concern among agencies: billable hours.

When we talk about increasing productivity, some agencies worry that this means fewer billable hours, which could hurt their revenue. That’s not the case. Increased productivity means spending fewer hours on low-value tasks and more hours delivering high-quality work. This differentiates you in the market and allows you to command higher rates. Clients are willing to pay more for exceptional outcomes delivered efficiently.

Greg Qualls: With that elephant in the room addressed, let’s talk about the specific features that make Platform.sh a standout choice for agencies. Paul, you’ve had the unique perspective of being both a customer and now part of the team. What features stood out to you as game-changers?

Paul Gilzow: Great question, Greg. When I was a customer, several features stood out to me as essential. These include version control, security, compliance, CI/CD pipelines, and immutable infrastructure. Let me break these down:

• Version Control: This was critical for collaboration and auditing. At the university, we had a distributed team of developers. Being able to track what changed, who changed it, and when was indispensable—not just for productivity but also for security.
• Security: Before moving to Platform.sh, security breaches were a constant issue. Anything that reduced our exposure to vulnerabilities was a huge win. Platform.sh’s read-only containers, for example, are a game-changer. You can specify which directories are writable and ensure that even there, scripts can’t execute.
• Compliance: Whether it’s GDPR, PCI, or HIPAA, compliance is non-negotiable in many industries. Platform.sh provides built-in compliance, which saved us countless hours of manual configuration and auditing.
• CI/CD Pipelines: Automation was key to optimizing our workflows. With CI/CD, we minimized the time spent on deployments, testing, and bug fixes.
• Immutable Infrastructure: This ensures that environments can be replicated exactly, which is essential for testing and staging. It eliminates the “it worked on my machine” problem.

Greg Qualls: It sounds like those features are the baseline for any cloud application platform. They’re the table stakes, so to speak. But what about the features that differentiate Platform.sh? How does it go beyond the basics to provide unique value?

Paul Gilzow: Great point, Greg. While many platforms offer some of these features, Platform.sh stands out because of the breadth and depth of what it offers. Let me highlight a few:

• Polyglot and Multi-Framework Support: This is a big one. Platform.sh supports multiple languages and frameworks. For example, you could have a Python microservice alongside a PHP backend and a Node.js frontend—all in the same environment. This flexibility is rare and extremely powerful.
• Multi-Cloud Capability: With Platform.sh, you’re not locked into a single cloud provider. Whether it’s AWS, GCP, or Azure, you can deploy to the cloud that makes the most sense for your client. This is especially important for data sovereignty or clients who avoid certain providers for competitive reasons.
• Green Hosting Options: Sustainability is becoming a key consideration, especially in Europe. Platform.sh provides detailed reporting on carbon usage and even offers discounts for clients who prioritize green hosting.
• Customizable Workflows: Unlike other platforms that impose specific workflows, Platform.sh is incredibly flexible. It adapts to your existing workflows rather than forcing you to change how you work.
• Full-Stack Preview Environments: This is probably the feature that impressed me most as a customer. Let’s dive into that.

Greg Qualls: Paul, for anyone unfamiliar with the concept, can you explain what we mean by “full-stack preview environments”?

Paul Gilzow: Absolutely. Full-stack means replicating the entire stack—everything you need to run your application in production. This includes the database server, web server, additional services like Redis or Memcached, message queuing systems, and more. It’s the full infrastructure.

A preview environment is an exact clone of this stack that you can use for development, testing, or staging. Unlike some platforms that only give you a subset of the infrastructure, we replicate everything—bit for bit—so it behaves exactly like production.

Greg Qualls: That’s a game-changer for reducing risk. If you’re testing in an environment that’s identical to production, you can catch issues long before they reach your end users.

Paul Gilzow: Exactly. Fixing bugs in production is far more expensive and time-consuming than catching them early. With full-stack preview environments, you’re testing in conditions that mirror production, so you have a much higher level of confidence in the results.

Greg Qualls: Let’s make this tangible. Paul, do you have a real-world example of how full-stack preview environments helped you?

Paul Gilzow: Definitely. Back when I was at the university, we had a developer who once took down the School of Business website during enrollment—our busiest time of year. The problem was, we didn’t have a proper preview environment. The developer made changes directly in production, and those changes caused a major outage.

If we’d had full-stack preview environments, the developer could have tested those changes in isolation, ensuring they worked before pushing them to production. This would have completely avoided the downtime and the associated financial and reputational damage.

Greg Qualls: That’s such a clear example of the risks we’re talking about. And it’s not just about avoiding disasters. Full-stack preview environments also open up opportunities for innovation. For instance, you could test a new feature or framework without any risk to your live site.

Paul Gilzow: Exactly. Developers can experiment freely, knowing they won’t impact production. For example, if you want to try replacing part of your application with a Python microservice, you can create a branch in Git, spin up a preview environment, and start testing right away. If it doesn’t work, no harm done—you just delete the branch.

Greg Qualls: And because everything is API-first, you can automate much of this process, saving even more time. Let’s continue diving into the specific risks and productivity gains that come with full-stack preview environments.

Greg Qualls: Let’s circle back to risks and productivity and connect them directly to full-stack preview environments. First, let’s start with risks. Paul, you touched on a few areas like security and downtime. Can you elaborate on how preview environments help agencies reduce risks?

Paul Gilzow: Sure. Let’s start with security. Because preview environments are exact replicas of production, you can perform automated testing—like static and dynamic security analysis—on them. This allows you to catch vulnerabilities early, ensuring they never reach production. And since the infrastructure is immutable, you know the production environment will behave exactly as the preview environment did.

Greg Qualls: How about downtime?

Paul Gilzow: Downtime is a big one. Without proper testing environments, many developers are forced to make updates directly in production. At my university, this led to a developer accidentally taking down a major site during our busiest season. With preview environments, you can test updates in isolation, ensuring they work before deploying them to production. This minimizes the risk of outages.

Scalability is another area where preview environments shine. You can test load handling in a preview environment, simulating real-world traffic to ensure your infrastructure can handle spikes. For example, we ran a load test on a preview environment for a client’s Black Friday sale. We could confidently say, “Yes, this will hold up under peak traffic,” because the environment was identical to production.

Greg Qualls: That’s such a powerful way to eliminate the “what ifs” before a high-stakes event. Let’s shift gears and talk about productivity. How do preview environments streamline workflows for developers and agencies?

Paul Gilzow: There are so many ways. Let’s start with approvals. In traditional workflows, getting client approvals can be a nightmare. Clients don’t understand placeholders or incomplete features. With full-stack preview environments, you can show clients exactly what the final product will look like—real data, real functionality. This eliminates confusion and speeds up approvals.

Greg Qualls: And it’s not just about approvals, right? I imagine it helps avoid what you call “subway tunnel” workflows, where you work for weeks only to find out you were heading in the wrong direction.

Paul Gilzow: Exactly. With preview environments, you can share progress with clients frequently, ensuring alignment every step of the way. This iterative approach saves time and prevents costly rewrites.

Greg Qualls: What about onboarding? How do preview environments make onboarding smoother for clients and developers?

Paul Gilzow: Onboarding is another area where preview environments are invaluable. When handing over a project to a client, you can clone the production environment into a sandbox version. This allows the client to explore, make changes, and even break things without affecting the live site. It’s a safe space for them to learn and get comfortable with the platform.

For developers, setting up a new environment can often take days—or even weeks. With Platform.sh, spinning up a new development environment takes minutes. This drastically reduces onboarding time for new team members and accelerates project timelines.

Greg Qualls: That’s a huge time-saver. I’ve heard stories of organizations where setting up a dev environment takes weeks due to bureaucracy and manual processes. With a cloud application platform, that’s no longer a bottleneck.

Paul Gilzow: Another big productivity win is for developers. By leveraging preview environments, developers can experiment and iterate quickly. Let’s say you’re considering introducing a new framework or service. You create a branch in Git, configure the infrastructure as code, and test your changes in an isolated environment. If it works, great. If not, no harm done—you just delete the branch and move on.

Greg Qualls: And because Platform.sh is API-first, you can automate much of this process. That ties into your earlier point about reducing manual, repetitive tasks. With automation, developers can focus on delivering value rather than setting up infrastructure.

Paul Gilzow: Exactly. At my university, we automated much of our environment setup using Platform.sh’s robust API. What used to take weeks was reduced to a five-minute process. Automation doesn’t just save time—it frees up developers to work on meaningful tasks that bring value to clients.

Greg Qualls: That’s a great segue into how agencies can use this time savings to differentiate themselves in the market. By focusing on high-value tasks, agencies can deliver better results in less time, setting themselves apart from competitors.

Paul Gilzow: One more thing I want to highlight is the flexibility of Platform.sh. Unlike other platforms that impose rigid workflows, Platform.sh adapts to your existing processes. For example, if your team uses Agile—whether fully or “Agile-ish,” as many teams do—Platform.sh can seamlessly integrate with your workflow.

Greg Qualls: That flexibility is critical. No two agencies are alike, and the ability to mold the platform to your needs rather than the other way around is a huge advantage. Plus, it makes onboarding smoother for teams that are resistant to change.

Paul Gilzow: Absolutely. And the ability to iterate quickly—whether you’re testing a new feature, experimenting with a new framework, or running load tests—is a game-changer. It allows agencies to innovate faster and respond to client needs more effectively.

Greg Qualls: That’s a perfect summary of how preview environments reduce risks and improve productivity. Let’s take a moment to open the floor for questions and dive into any specific challenges the audience might be facing.

Q&A

Question: Are there any plans to enable Platform.sh sync data directly up to production? For instance, if we launch a website and then move to a large phase two with heavy content changes in QA, we’d like to avoid entering content into production while still building in QA. Currently, we’re freezing content, resetting the database, and manually importing updates. Is there a way to streamline this?

Paul Gilzow: Great question. I can’t speak definitively on roadmap plans, but this is a common challenge in the space. Every framework handles data differently, making it hard to provide a universal solution. For example, syncing a WordPress database is vastly different from syncing a Sitecore or Pimcore database. That said, Platform.sh does provide tools for database migration, though they’re designed to overwrite rather than merge data.

If overwriting is acceptable for your use case, tools exist that can streamline the process. I recommend connecting with your account manager or reaching out through our Discord community. We may be able to help you automate some of these steps. However, merging databases while retaining specific changes is typically handled within the application itself rather than the platform.

Greg Qualls: To echo Paul, it’s worth discussing the business case with your account manager. If this is a widespread need, it might inform future development priorities. While I haven’t heard of plans to address this specific challenge in the near term, feedback from customers is a big part of how our roadmap evolves.

Question: Managing more than 50 projects on Platform.sh, we find version upgrades like MariaDB require manual database re-imports because skipping versions risks data loss. Are there plans to eliminate this need or improve the process?

Paul Gilzow: Another great question. Unfortunately, this ties directly to how MariaDB handles its upgrades. The process varies by database system, and MariaDB’s architecture can make certain steps unavoidable. I’m not aware of any immediate plans to address this specific challenge, but we can take it back to the product team for further discussion.

One thing to note: Platform.sh supports automation through its API. If you haven’t already, you might explore scripting the database migration process to save time and reduce manual effort. This won’t eliminate the need for re-imports, but it can streamline the process significantly.

Greg Qualls: It’s worth emphasizing that challenges like this are not unique to Platform.sh—they’re industry-wide. That said, if you have a specific workflow or use case, please share it with your account manager. We’re always looking for ways to improve the developer experience.

Closing Remarks

Paul Gilzow: Before we wrap up, I want to share one last example of productivity gains. At my university, we were spending about 150 full-time equivalent hours each month on updates and project management. After migrating to Platform.sh and leveraging its API to automate tasks, we reduced that time to just five hours per month. That’s a savings of 145 hours we could reinvest in high-value work.

Greg Qualls: That’s a perfect note to end on. The key takeaway here is that a cloud application platform like Platform.sh doesn’t just save time—it allows agencies to deliver more value to their clients, faster and more efficiently.

Greg Qualls: Thank you to everyone who joined us today. If you have additional questions or want to explore how Platform.sh can support your agency, visit our website or join our Discord community. If you’re not yet part of our agency partner program, check it out—it provides access to dedicated partner managers, sales resources, and solutions architects who are ready to help.

Paul Gilzow: And remember, everything we do is API-first. Whether it’s automating tasks or integrating with your existing workflows, Platform.sh is designed to make your life easier. Thanks again for being here, and we look forward to seeing what you build.

Greg Qualls: Have a great day, everyone! Let’s keep the conversation going on Discord or through your partner manager. Take care!