DevOps Next:

2024 and Beyond

MITCHELL ASHLEY
Chief Technology Advisor
and CTO
CONTENTS
THE IMPACT OF DEVOPS..................................................................................................................... 3

DEVOPS NEXT: THE FUTURE OF DEVOPS........................................................................................... 4

A VIEW INTO DEVOPS INVESTMENT................................................................................................. 6

THE VALUE DELIVERED BY DEVOPS................................................................................................... 8

DEVOPS ADOPTION AND MATURITY...............................................................................................11

AI USE IN DEVOPS...............................................................................................................................13

DEVOPS ACROSS THE SDLC................................................................................................................15

FROM CI/CD TO PLATFORMS............................................................................................................ 16

CLOUD NATIVE’S PARTNERSHIP WITH DEVOPS............................................................................. 18

THE RISE OF PLATFORM ENGINEERING.......................................................................................... 19

DEVOPS AND SUSTAINABILITY.........................................................................................................21

XOPS: THE LONG TAIL OF DEVOPS................................................................................................... 23

SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS.................................................................................................................. 25

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND TECHSTRONG RESEARCH.................................................................... 26

2
 Introduction | DevOps Next

The Impact of DevOps

DEVOPS, once a novel idea, has now become a improvement, smaller

widely adopted practice, significantly changing

units of work, shorter
cycles, continuous
youtube
how we approach software creation. It has workflow, removing What is the history of DevOps?
Watch a video by Damon
successfully navigated the storms of inflated roadblocks and cross- Edwards, one of a handful of

expectations and the trough of disillusionment, functional collaborative early leaders and eyewitness
of DevOps evolution
teams.
proving its applicability throughout the Software
Development Lifecycle (SDLC). Since its humble beginnings, DevOps adoption hasn’t
occurred linearly, often beginning with a few organic
DevOps began with the desire to close the divide between projects in an organization or at the launch of software
development and operations and eliminate decades of startup companies. Progress has been steady, as evidenced
“over-the-wall” software delivery to Operations. DevOps’ by this study and other research, including DORA. DevOps
originators knew there must be a better way. has seen adoption ranging from enterprise-scale to small
software teams. Four out of five DevOps Next survey
DevOps, often misconstrued as a technology or a set of tools, respondents from small (19.9%), medium (23.8%), and large
is in fact a philosophy that fosters a culture of collaboration. businesses (56.3%) state using DevOps is a given or is used
It guides how we develop software, breaking down job role regularly, with some specific exceptions.
and organizational boundaries. In essence, DevOps is not
about tools, but about fostering a collaborative environment, Because of DevOps’ emphasis on automation, support
much like how carpentry is about the craft of designing and for smaller units of work, continuous integration and
creating quality wood objects. deployment (CI/CD) and workflow pipelines, DevOps rise,
paralleled the move to cloud native software architecture
DevOps was built and has matured upon a collection comprised of microservices, containers, container
of principles and concepts borrowed from Agile, Toyota orchestration and distributed workloads. Implementing
manufacturing, Deming’s Total Quality Management, cloud native applications without DevOps would be difficult,
Lean manufacturing and Eliyahu M. Goldratt’s Theory if not impractical.
of Constraints (to name a few). DevOps implemented
concepts like shortened feedback loops, continuous But DevOps isn’t finished evolving just yet.

3
 DevOps Next

DevOps Next: The Future of DevOps

Since its early beginnings, DevOps has evolved How would you describe the future for DevOps?
from the concepts that brought together dev and
Very positive
ops and reshaped the work of software creation
and delivery into an umbrella set of shared 50%
principles for a growing family of XOps technical Positive
and business disciplines. 38%
Neutral
The principles that have made DevOps successful
10.5%
are not limited to DevOps. They have fostered
the creation of new disciplines, demonstrating Negative
the adaptability of DevOps to the changing 1%
needs of software, operations and the business. Very negative
DevOps-influenced disciplines include platform 0.5%
engineering, System Reliability Engineering,
DevSecOps, DataOps, FinOps and AIOps. Page x
(XOps: The Long Tail of DevOps)
DevOps is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s imperative
DevSecOps began by shifting left and placing for business. Agile organizations that have
more of the security burden on developers. As mastered DevOps methodologies and leveraged
organizations continue to embrace cloud-native agile software, automation, and CI/CD pipelines
architectures, microservices, and continuous are seeing a dramatic uptick in release velocity.
delivery pipelines, building security seamlessly
DevOps is the cornerstone of modern software
into every stage of the development process is
development lifecycles, enabling rapid innovation,
essential. APIs, development tools and software
improved quality, and increased time-to-market.
developers are target-rich attack vectors.
DevSecOps must evolve beyond application Organizations that fail to embrace DevOps will
security to address security holistically, including find themselves at a distinct disadvantage as
the underlying toolchains, workflows throughout competition intensifies.
the SDLC and software supply chain security. —Paul Nashawaty, Practice Lead for
Application Development, The Futurum Group

4
 DevOps Next

AI significantly impacts DevOps and software development How valuable is AI-augmented DevOps in terms
today by enhancing productivity, code quality, and of improving teams’ ability to achieve DevOps
intelligent automation. Page x (AI Use In DevOps) Soon, AI/ goals?
ML will analyze historical data to optimize CI/CD pipelines
and predict build failures, suggest efficient configurations,
validate changes before deployment, and optimize all types 50
of resources. With the importance of edge computing, 41.1%
40
DevOps practices are expanding to these distributed
architectures and platforms, delivering consistent and 27.3% 30
reliable deployment pipelines across environments. 21.5%
20
DevOps practitioners report that DevOps increases the 7.6% 10
velocity and frequency of delivering new capabilities into 2.5%
production. Overall, they see a positive future for DevOps,
with 81.1% of respondents seeing DevOps’ future as square Extremely square Very square Somewhat square Not very square Not at all
positive or very positive. For all these reasons and more,
our research shows DevOps is entering its next era of
evolution, what we call DevOps Next.

5
 DevOps Next

A View into DevOps Investment

The DevOps market is sizable and growing substantially, from USD $10.4 billion in 2023 to an estimated USD $25.5 billion by 2028
(DevOps Market Report 2028, Markets and Markets). To understand where DevOps practitioners plan to invest or pull back in
2024 and 2025, we examined five areas: tools and platforms, testing, cloud native, observability, infrastructure as code (IaC) and
application security.

Our data clearly shows modest to significant investment in DevOps technologies and services across all five categories over the
next 12 to 24 months, with very few respondents decreasing spending during this time period. Development (41.5%) and testing
(43.8%) lead the areas of modest investment, where those investing significantly in DevOps showed small variances across the
five categories (19.7% to 22.4%)

The accelerated move to digital products and experiences, the need to use software to compete and reach customers and
partners, the near-ubiquitous cloud, accelerated development processes (DevOps), and AI-augmented development and testing
technologies are some drivers of these investments.While no one technology category stood out far above the others in our
study, the continuous growth of investments in DevOps across the SDLC is a reason to maintain a positive DevOps outlook.

Average Investment by Technology Category

50 50 50
40 40 40
30 30 30
20 20 20
10 10 10

Dev and DevOps Platforms/Tools Test – Automation & AI Testing Containers & Orchestration Ops – Observability

square Significant Increase square Modest Increase square No Change square Modest Decrease square Significant Decrease

6
 DevOps Next

Average investment by Technology Category

50 50
square Significant Increase
40 40
square Modest Increase
30 30
square No Change
20 20
10 10
square Modest Decrease
square Significant Decrease
Code/Artifact Repositories Internal Developer Portals DevOps Platforms

50 50 50
40 40 40
30 30 30
20 20 20
10 10 10

CI/CD Automated Deployment Automated Test Suites/Tools Testing Tools for AI/ML/GenAI

50 50 50
40 40 40
30 30 30
20 20 20
10 10 10

Containers Container Orchestration Observability AppSec

50 50 50
40 40 40
30 30 30
20 20 20
10 10 10

Code Vulnerability Scanning API Security Infrastructure as Code Test case, library or results analysis

7
 DevOps Next

The Value Delivered by DevOps

Software teams are How has DevOps impacted the value your organization delivers to the business?

41+6+746s 42+11+938s 44+8+741s

constantly pressured to
deliver new capabilities
through software. Our 46% 41% 38% 42% 41% 44%
research examined nine
critical areas of software
creation to better
understand where using
7% 6% 9% 11% 7% 8%
DevOps lives up to its Increased delivery velocity of new Faster time to market Quicker patch/fix releases
capabilities into production
potential.

40+11+841s 46++830s16 43++1230s15

One of this report’s most
significant findings is 40.5% 40% 30% 46% 30% 43%
that nearly half (45.6%) of
software organizations
say DevOps increases 8% 11.5% 8% 16% 12% 15%
their velocity to deliver
new capabilities into Increased frequency of software Managing complexity Collaboration between siloed
releases organizations

46+12+735s 43++837s12 43++1034s13

production. When
considering both high
and medium responses,
35% 46% 37% 43% 34% 43%
the value DevOps delivers
to increasing software
delivery velocity jumps to
an impressive 81.1% of 7% 12% 8% 12% 10% 3%
respondents.
Developer productivity Software quality Software security

square High square Medium square Low square No change

AIOps helps teams meet goals

8
 DevOps Next

The Value Delivered by DevOps (continued)

Additionally, DevOps increases the frequency of software How frequently does your organization release
releases (40.6%) and the speed of delivering software fixes new code into production?
(41.2%) from respondents assessing DevOps impact as high
in these areas. DevOps software teams are releasing code Daily
more frequently, with software delivered into production on
a daily (11.8%), weekly (34.1%) and monthly (29%) basis.
12%
When considering all nine critical areas of software
creation together, the average score of respondents who Weekly

34%
rated DevOps impact as high was 36.85%, and medium
was 41.3%. It is also important to note that DevOps must
operate in a complex ecosystem of technologies, appsec,
dynamic infrastructure, DevSecOps, platforms and system Monthly
reliability engineering.

29%
Back in the earliest days of DevOps, our attention was Quarterly

9%
limited to a symptom — namely, the frequent clashes
between Dev and Ops. Little did we know that the
threads we were collectively pulling on would change
how we build, deliver, and operate high-performing Once or twice per year

3%
software systems. We’ve seen leaders achieve speed
and scale that we previously could only imagine. Now
the advances continue as we see organizations finding
better ways to improve how they work. Ad hoc – whenever it’s ready

13%
—Damon Edwards,
Early Organizer of DevOps Days

9
 DevOps Next

The Value Delivered by Which of the following does your organization

regularly practice?
DevOps (continued) Continuous Integration (CI)
71%
Still, DevOps still has room for improvement. Respondents Continuous Delivery (CD) to test or production
rated DevOps’ impact as low in managing complexity
65%
(16.3%), increasing collaboration between silos (14.8%) and
improving software security (13%). Automated testing following build/integration
59%
The bottom line; Few investments in technology, software Code scanning for vulnerabilities during development
methodologies or processes deliver the same or greater 54%
tangible value than DevOps has achieved.
Infrastructure as Code
51%
Continuous Deployment – in test or production
49%
Observability
47.5%
DevSecOps
47%
Security Testing (SAST, DAST, etc.)
40%
System Reliability Engineering (SRE)
35.5%
Platform Engineering
34%
Testing in Production
29%
Feature Flags
18%

Advanced observability is faster

10
 DevOps Next

DevOps Adoption and Maturity

Since DevOps’ humble beginnings at the first gathering 2023 showed a drop in respondents (8.2%) who began
in Ghent, Belgium (2009), our 2024 research of using DevOps, though slightly more (8.6%) began
organizations practicing DevOps shows broad adoption using DevOps in the first half of 2024. 2024 will likely
and continued growth. Years 2020 (13.5%) and 2021 end up with an equal or greater number of people
(12.3%) show the highest adoption of DevOps amongst taking their first steps towards using DevOps in their
our DevOps Next survey respondents, reflecting careers. It’s also important to consider that the practice
the industry’s expanding interest in more effective of DevOps has expanded into new roles responsible
approaches to creating software. for implementing and supporting DevOps, specifically
platform engineering, system reliability engineering
However, the real success story lies in that 60.4% of (SRE), DataOps and AIOps.
DevOps practitioners in our study have been applying
DevOps for five or more years, having adopted DevOps Over half of our respondents (55.8%) have reached
in 2019 and earlier. These practitioners built a body of higher levels of DevOps maturity. This respectable
knowledge and experience for others who followed, a percentage reflects their confidence in the effectiveness
testament to the community of DevOps practitioners. of DevOps. Within this group, 34.4% are standardizing

Approximately what year did you begin

using DevOps in your career?

12% 5.5% 2.5% 7% 9% 11% 13.5% 12% 10.5% 8% 9%

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
or earlier

11
 DevOps Next

DevOps Adoption and Maturity (continued)

DevOps on projects across their organizations, and 21.5% Which of the following best describes your
indicate they have reached a mastery level of DevOps, organization’s current level of DevOps maturity?
demonstrating high competence in applying DevOps
today. Getting started — using or piloting DevOps on a few projects

DevOps use continues to grow, with a healthy 18.1%

indicating they are piloting DevOps on a subset of
18%
projects, and 21.8% are applying DevOps learnings Operationalizing — applying learnings across multiple projects
across multiple projects. 3.9% indicate they plan to start
using DevOps in the next 12 months. We suspect this
small percentage of DevOps newcomers is one indicator
22%
of widespread adoption of DevOps across the industry Standardizing — expanding DevOps on projects across the organization
or a division of DevOps efforts into multiple disciplines
(platform engineering, SRE, SecOps, etc.)
34%
Organizational size does influence the maturity levels
Mastering — highly competent in DevOps today
seen, but only slightly. Organizations with over ten
thousand employees show advanced levels of DevOps
maturity at 57.1%, while those in organizations under 21%
ten thousand dip slightly to 53.4%. Of the respondents
in our survey, a little under a third (30.2%) are in larger Haven’t started — We plan to start doing DevOps in <12 months

4%
organizations and just over two-thirds (69.8%) are in
smaller enterprises, medium and small businesses.

N/A — We don’t plan to do DevOps

1%
Alert storms

12
 DevOps Next

AI Use in DevOps
AI/ML, particularly generative AI, dominates the current
conversation about software development and testing.
Our research shows AI’s time has arrived, and contributors
across the software development lifecycle (SDLC) have
quickly begun experiencing tangible gains in productivity,
software quality, and career advancement. (See “AI-
Augmented DevOps” callout).

Organizations are using AI in development today (32.7%)

or are considering using AI in development (41.5%). A
smaller portion is waiting it out and does not use AI in AI-AUGMENTED DEVOPS
development today (16.2%) and has no plans to consider “AI’s productivity gains are most significant in
development and testing, with 60% reporting that
using AI (5.7%).
developers are more productive due to AI and 42%
reporting productivity gains in testing and QA.”
Among mature “DevOps unicorns” or those broadly — AI-Augmented DevOps: Trends Shaping the
standardizing DevOps across their organizations, software Future, Techstrong Research, 2024
teams using AI are significantly (30%) more likely to rate
their team as extremely or very effective.* GET THE REPORT

While AI has already made significant strides in

development, it’s important to note that we are still in
the early stages of its use in software development,
testing, and DevOps. We anticipate a continuous stream
of innovations and advancements as technology vendors
explore and develop new applications for AI in DevOps.
The future promises even greater potential.

Open Telemetry

13
 DevOps Next

AI Use in DevOps (continued)

Is your organization using AI in development to Have you integrated AI workflows into your
build software? DevOps pipelines?

Yes Yes, fully

33% 9%
No Partially
16% 22%
Considering it Only for new AI workflows or new projects
42% 13.5%
No plans at this time No, but we will in the next 12 months
6% 28%
I don’t know No plans at this time
4% 22%
I don’t know
5.5%

In the realm of DevOps, we’re in the initial stages of integrating AI, analogous to the crawling phase of the crawl-walk-run
progression. This early period is marked by foundational experimentation, development, and testing. As we advance, AI’s role
in DevOps will grow more sophisticated. Eventually, we will reach a stage where AI significantly optimizes and improves the
DevOps experience.
—John Willis, author

14
 DevOps Next

DevOps Across the SDLC

DevOps principles and practices are applied across all What aspects of your software development
Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) phases. While projects typically apply DevOps?
the adoption of DevOps is significant, it’s intriguing
to understand how the use of DevOps is faring across
software projects within organizations. 79% 74%
65% 70%
64%
47% 42% 48%
Our study data shows that DevOps is used across large
numbers of projects in software organizations, with nearly
three-quarters (72.7%) using DevOps on 50% or more of
their projects. It’s notable that 18.7% of respondents use Plan Code Build Test Release Deploy Operate Monitor
DevOps on all projects, and 32.8% use DevOps on three-
fourths of their projects.
What percentage of your projects are applying
The heart of DevOps is the software build step, where DevOps in their software development lifecycle?
software components are integrated together, or
“continuously integrated,” through the Continuous
Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) process, resulting 100+O
100% 19%

75+25+O
in executable code. As expected, the Build and Test SDLC
phases show the highest use of DevOps at 78.6% and 75% 33%
72.4%, respectively.

While most software teams begin applying DevOps in CI/ 50+50+O

50% 21%

CD, research data shows that DevOps is also heavily used

in the Code, Release and Deploy SDLC phases, at 62.8%, 25+75+O
25% 12%

10+90+O
62% and 66.9%, respectively.
10% 10%

100+O
0% 3%

15
 DevOps Next

From CI/CD To Platforms

The heart of DevOps is the continuous integration /
continuous deployment, or CI/CD, where software is built,
integrated and deployed by every DevOps toolchain. CI/CD
is where most DevOps adoption efforts start, as it benefits
greatly from automation and integration as developers
check code into the project repository.

In our survey, 29.6% of respondents reported using 4 or

more CI/CD solutions in their organizations. This often
happens because the adoption of DevOps is uneven across
different parts of the organization, and projects often
need to support diverse technical requirements such as
programming languages, configurations, and testing.

Will you move to an integrated DevOps platform

solution over the next 12-18 months?
What is your organization’s most common
approach to using DevOps solutions and Yes
technology? 16%
Primarily individual or standalone DevOps solutions requiring integration Currently Investigating
24% 29%
An equal combination of an integrated DevOps platform with individual DevOps solutions Already on a DevOps platform
39% 37%
Primarily an integrated DevOps platform with some individual DevOps solutions No
32% 9%
I don’t know I don’t know
5% 10%

16
 DevOps Next

From CI/CD To Platforms (continued)

Today, we are witnessing a new era of DevOps technologies that surpass the individual toolchain point solutions of its early years.
DevOps tools are purpose-built for DevOps environments and increasingly are delivered as a platform, spanning the functions
across phases of the SDLC, bolstered by software control planes, data management, security, and AI. 32.3% of respondents
primarily use DevOps delivered as a platform while 39% use a combination of platforms and integrated toolchains. The need for
integration, efficiency, centralized management, scalability, security, and cost-effectiveness drives the growing preference for
DevOps platforms over individual tools.

As DevOps offerings continue to evolve, platforms offer comprehensive, modular, and scalable solutions and are likely to
remain the top choice for practitioners aiming to optimize their development, testing and deployment workflows. 15.8% of
respondents say they will switch to the DevOps platform approach, and another 2.86% say they are in the investigation stage. A
comprehensive platform approach lessens DevOps administrative duties for integrating and maintaining multiple DevOps tools,
integrations and technologies.

27+13+2832s
Are you How many CI/CD platforms or solutions does
considering
32% 27% your organization use?
replacing or
upgrading one 25%
or more of your 28% 13% 20%
CI/CD solutions 15%
in the next 12-18 square Yes
10%
months? square No 5%
square I don’t know
Currently reassessing needs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+

I don’t know
square

17
 DevOps Next

Cloud Native’s Partnership With DevOps

56+4+51322s
DevOps and cloud native software architecture (microservices, Has Your organization
containers and orchestration) are mutually beneficial. It deployed cloud-native 22% 56%
can even be argued that delivering microservice software applications utilizing
components at velocity isn’t possible without utilizing DevOps. microservices? 13%
square Yes square No square Considering 5%
The two are a natural fit because hundreds, even thousands, square No plans square I don’t know 4%
of an application’s microservices are created and updated in
frequent development and test cycles. DevOps automation,
particularly in CI/CD and software testing automation, enables Does your organization utilize observability
microservice development cycles to occur very rapidly and tool(s) in these parts of the business?
more frequently. square Yes square No square We are planning to in ±12 mos square I don’t know
75
An impressive 56% of respondents to our research have cloud 60
native applications deployed in production today, and 21.9% 45
are considering the move to cloud native. While DevOps 30
applies to almost any software architectural approach, cloud- 15
native is likely the most dependent upon DevOps.
Operations Security
In parallel with DevOps, observability technologies (commonly 60
defined as alerts, logs and traces) gained traction is 45
operational environments. Some of observability’s benefits 30
traditionally fall outside the realm of DevOps, cloud native 15
is particularly reliant on distributed tracing capabilities to
diagnose and resolve problems in a dynamic and ephemeral Development Testing
microservices application. 45
30
Observability has also gained significant traction in SecOps 15
organizations and is increasingly utilized in development,
testing and other areas of the SDLC. Customer Experience Business PKIs

18
 DevOps Next

The Rise Of Platform Engineering

Platform engineering has become an important discipline How would you characterize your organization’s
in software development, cloud and IT operations. 60.9% embrace of platform engineering?
of respondents to our research are applying platform
engineering in some areas or pervasively across IT. 50
40

Many factors likely contributed to the rise of platform 30

engineering; the increasing complexity of modern 20

applications (48.5%), the need for standardization of 10

configurations (57.8%), improving developer productivity

(58.9%) and reducing costs (50.5). At the same time, System square Pervasive adoption square Somewhat in places square Experimenting
Reliability Engineering, which is focused on performance, SQuare Not interested square Not aware of the concept

19
 DevOps Next

The Rise Of Platform Engineering (continued)

reliability, and resilience, has gained a strong foothold Why are you adopting platform
among our research respondents (35.3%). engineering?
Improve developer productivity
While some have claimed that “DevOps is dead” and
59%
platform engineering has replaced the need for DevOps,
many more see them both as important and synergistic. Standardize on a set number of common configurations
58%
By bringing together various functions in IT organizations, Reduce costs
platform engineering strongly emphasizes its customers 51%
in development, operations, infrastructure, and security. Decrease complexity
This customer-centric approach focuses platform 48.5%
engineering's outputs on its respective customers' needs
Improve security
and requirements, contributing greatly to its success.
48%

The lines between where DevOps ends and platform Better manage infrastructure as code
engineering begins vary from organization to organization. 43%
In some cases, platform engineering incorporates the work Deploy applications at a greater scale
of supporting and security technologies that comprise the 41%
DevOps toolchain. Provision dev/text/production environments faster
39%

20
 DevOps Next

DevOps and
Sustainability
Sustainability is becoming increasingly crucial as
organizations recognize the environmental impact of their
technology practices and infrastructure. By integrating
sustainable practices within DevOps, companies aim to
reduce their carbon footprint and promote more efficient use
of cloud and data center resources. This includes optimizing
cloud infrastructure to ensure that only necessary resources
are consumed, thereby minimizing energy usage.

Additionally, automated processes in continuous integration

and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines can be
configured to reduce unnecessary builds and tests, which

The findings reveal that DevOps is leading the way in

sustainability efforts, highlighting its key role in using
resources efficiently. Interestingly, the energy use of AI/
ML and general AI processing isn't yet a major focus,
suggesting that many organizations might not have
fully realized or measured the energy demands of
these emerging technologies.
—Bonnie Schneider,
Sustainability Analyst, EcoTechInsights Editor,
Author and award-winning meteorologist

21
 DevOps Next

DevOps and Sustainability (continued)

conserves computational power and energy. DevOps Does your organization have a
teams are also encouraged to consider the lifecycle of sustainability effort related to:
their applications and infrastructure, focusing on long-
DevOps
term efficiency and resource optimization, which not only
59%
supports sustainability goals but also leads to cost savings.
Operations
Many sustainability principles align well with the DevOps 54%
culture of continuous improvement and innovation. Improving Application Software Efficiency
Sustainable DevOps practices can drive technological 44.5%
advancements by encouraging the adoption of energy- System Reliability Engineering
efficient coding standards and promoting the use of 39%
renewable energy sources for data centers. Collaboration
Migrating to the Cloud
between development and operations teams can lead to
37%
innovative solutions that reduce environmental impact,
such as containerization and serverless architectures, which AI/ML/GenAI Processing Consupmtion
optimize resource use. 29%
Platform Engineering
Ultimately, integrating sustainability into DevOps not only 28%
supports environmental objectives but also fosters a culture None of the Above
of responsibility, innovation, and efficiency. 9%

22
 DevOps Next

XOps: The Long Tail of DevOps

The principles and ideas that define DevOps have significantly influenced the creation of other XOps. At the core of DevOps is the
emphasis on collaboration, automation, and continuous improvement, which has inspired new ways of performing old work, like
GitOps, FinOps, DataOps, and SecOps.

GitOps applies the principles of version control and automation to infrastructure management, enabling teams to manage
infrastructure as code with the same rigor and collaboration as application code, thereby ensuring consistency and reliability.
Similarly, FinOps extends the DevOps ethos of collaboration to financial operations, empowering organizations to manage cloud
costs effectively by promoting visibility, accountability, and real-time insights into spending.

DataOps and SecOps further illustrate the cross-pollination of DevOps principles. DataOps adapts the DevOps focus on agility
and automation to the field of data management, enhancing the speed and accuracy of data analysis through streamlined data
workflows and continuous integration of data analytics processes. This approach fosters a more dynamic and responsive data
environment, crucial for businesses that rely on real-time data insights. SecOps, or DevSecOps, integrates security practices within
the DevOps workflow, ensuring that security considerations are an integral part of the development and deployment processes.

Across these domains, the infusion of DevOps principles fosters a culture of collaboration, efficiency, and continuous
improvement, driving innovation and enabling organizations to respond more rapidly to changing market demands.

How would you characterize your organization’s Does your organization have a FinOps initiative
embrace of GitOps? to manage cloud spending and other costs?

50
40
30
20
10

square Strong adoption square Somewhat in places square Experimenting square Strong adoption square Somewhat in places square Experimenting
SQuare Planning to in <12 months SQuare Not interested square Unfamiliar with the concept SQuare Planning to in <12 months SQuare Not interested square Unfamiliar with the concept

23
 DevOps Next

Industrial DevOps is not just a transformation of practices but a revolution in how we deliver value across complex
systems. By expanding DevOps to cyber-physical systems, it accelerates innovation by breaking down silos, enabling rapid
iteration, and driving continuous improvement, ultimately leading to a more resilient and adaptive industrial ecosystem.
~ Robin Yeman, Author, Industrial DevOps

24
Survey Demographics
Techstrong Research conducted an IT study of 326 DevOps, software development, testing and
platform engineering practitioners. The survey was conducted during Q2/Q3 2024.

Respondents hold a variety of roles and come from a broad range of organizational sizes:

20% Survey responses came

of respondents came from very small organizations (<100 employees) from a global cross-
section of 62 countries
24% in four major regions:
of respondents came from small organizations (101–1,000 employees)
North America (41%),
21% UK+Europe (19%), APAC
(22%) and LATAM (5%).
of respondents represent medium-sized organizations (1,001–10,000 employees)

19% Twenty industries were

of respondents represent large organizations (10,001–50,000 employees) surveyed, including:

16% Information
34%
Technology
of respondents represent enterprises (>50,000 employees)

Financial Services
17%
41% and Insurance

self-identified as leadership (Manger/Director (25%) or Executive (16%)) Business Services 6%

16% 10%

7%
6%
4%
other roles identified include

3%
Manufacturing 6%

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Healthcare 5%
12% 42% 37% 9%
Boomers Gen X (1965–79) Millennials (1980–95) Gen Z (1996+)
Telecom 5%

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About the author About Techstrong
MITCHELL ASHLEY is a technology executive and entrepreneur
who is an advisor, analyst, product creator and tech leader, Research
bringing 30+ years in cybersecurity, cloud, AI, product
development, software engineering and networking. Mitch is Techstrong Research accelerates the adoption of disruptive
Chief Technology Advisor with The Futurum Group and CTO technologies that drive business outcomes and provide
of Techstrong Group’s platforms covering digital leadership, actionable strategies in rapidly changing markets. We are the
DevOps, cybersecurity, AI, cloud native, cloud infrastructure, only organization serving the needs of IT leaders, practitioners
platforms and ITSM. As a CTO, CIO, and VP of Engineering, and the industry ecosystem with research, analysis, content,
Mitch led the creation of award-winning cybersecurity products events and education. We bring deep knowledge about today’s
utilized in the private and public sectors, including the U.S. leading technologies such as DevOps, cloud, data and AI/ML,
Department of Defense.As CEO and President, Mitch also led security/governance initiatives and supporting infrastructure. We
business and technology for managed PKI services (broadband, offer our customers a holistic business perspective essential to
Wi-Fi, IoT, energy mgmt. and 5G industries), product certification adapt and thrive in the digital economy. The Techstrong Research
test labs and a SaaS business (93m transactions annually) and team has the knowledge, experience and credibility earned by
the engineering of the first video-on-demand, Internet cable working with hundreds of businesses across many industries to
services, national broadband network deployment and multiple provide consulting, thought leadership and research services.
telecom apps.
Techstrong Research is relentlessly focused on the business
Mitch’s analyst research is available on outcomes of disruptive technologies.
TechstrongResearch.com and FuturumGroup.com.
AI & Data
Contact: [email protected]
and [email protected]
DevOps Security
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mitchellashley

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