Complexity gives developers clout

As more large enterprises (60 percent) report hosting their IT infrastructure in an increasingly complex multi-cloud environment, the majority (59 percent) are giving developers more authority to choose the tools they use to address these new demands. This shift in decision-making is leading to higher levels of abstraction that enable developers to gain greater control over the tools they use to deliver new technologies. 

The report also provides an indicator for the hype cycle timeline for containers. PaaS usage has jumped six percentage points in six months (41 percent to 47 percent), while serverless usage and container usage are leveling at 14 percent and 37 percent, respectively. While container adoption seems to be stabilizing, it’s important to note that those who are 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. 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,” said Abby Kearns, executive director at Cloud Foundry Foundation. “Enterprises that actively engage their development teams in their digital transformation initiatives will be successful.”

Additional Highlights from the Report

• Productivity and flexibility are key drivers for developer tool selection. When asked how they want to feel when using a tool or technology, 46 percent of developers choose “productive.” Almost two thirds, or 63 percent, of respondents say that a technology’s ability to integrate with their environment is the touchstone that makes technology better.

• Underscoring the increasingly prominent role developers are playing throughout the enterprise, 48 percent of the developers surveyed say leadership expects them to provide details around security features, and a little more than a third say they must establish proof of concepts and provide specific business use cases for new technologies to the executive suite. 

• Developers place their highest value (69 percent of respondents) on a proven, mature platform. Sixty-five percent say they place the most value on a platform that delivers a consistent experience. Fifty-nine percent said a platform that integrates new innovations is of the greatest value to their team’s ability to develop software applications.