As container hype levels off, developers looking to reduce complexity, study finds

Developers gain clout as enterprise IT environment becomes more complex

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23 October 2019

As enterprise IT and cloud environments become more complex, developers have taken development strategies into their own hands by adding levels of abstraction and decreasing complexity, according to the newest Cloud Foundry Foundation Global Perception Study (GPS).

Conducted by ClearPath Strategies, the survey involved 505 IT professionals and executives from China, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and the US.

GPS found that 60% of large enterprises host IT infrastructure in an increasingly complex multi-cloud environment. Plus, 59% have given developers more authority to choose the tools they use to address the new demands. This shift in decision-making has led to greater levels of abstraction and has given developers more control over their tools.

Underscoring this increasingly prominent role, just 48% of developers are expected to provide details of security features to leaders.

Container hype levelled off

GPS also indicated that container hype has levelled off. PaaS usage jumped from 41% to 47% in six months, while serverless and container usages are 14% and 37%, respectively. However, while container adoptions seem to have stabilised, those using containers are deepening their deployments.

“Developers are being asked to contribute to high-level discussions about technology acquisition and adoption and are increasingly choosing to add abstraction to reduce complexity,” said Abby Kearns, executive director at Cloud Foundry Foundation. “Cloud Foundry continues to be well-positioned for this abstraction across multiple technologies, delivering the features that developers need most: maturity, security, flexibility and integrations with existing technology stacks.

“Enterprises that actively engage their development teams in their digital transformation initiatives will be successful.”

The survey also revealed that productivity and flexibility are key drivers for developer tool selection. In fact, 46% of developers said they want to feel ‘productive’ when using a tool or technology. Additionally, 63% said that the ability to integrate with the environment is the hallmark of a good piece of technology.

TechCentral Reporters