What is the difference between YOUR Platform and other platforms?

We all use other platforms -- operating systems, cloud services, middle-ware, hardware modules, etc.

It is tempting when building a product to piggyback entirely on someone else's platform (AWS, .NET, one of the 100's of IoT Platforms, etc.)

Society tells us -- you can't host your own service, deploy your own updates, design your own hardware, implement reliable systems, etc.

But at a small/medium scale, none of these things are very hard.

If you do them, you can simplify and optimize for your needs.

YOUR Platform is partly the ability to leverage other platforms, but also to build your own -- where you are in control of the critical integration points.