The Eclipse Foundation Releases Results from the First Annual Cloud Developer Survey Report

Thursday, October 14, 2021 - 07:00 by Jacob Harris

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BRUSSELS -– October 14, 2021 –  The Eclipse Foundation, one of the world’s largest open source foundations, along with the Eclipse Cloud DevTools Working Group, today announced the availability of the first annual Cloud Developer Survey Report. The report was commissioned by the Eclipse Cloud DevTools Working Group and is the result of more than 300 interviews conducted by an independent analyst organization. Participants consisted of software developers, as well as DevOps, IT and development leadership. Primary survey objectives were to gain a better understanding of cloud-based developer trends by identifying the requirements, priorities, and challenges faced by organizations that deploy and use cloud-based development solutions, including those based on open source technologies. 

“Cloud-based software developer tools are still very much in their infancy, but are gaining significant interest and momentum. Naturally, the majority of these new platforms are built on top of open source software,” said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. “This research demonstrates that there is solid traction for cloud development tools, that developers do have a strong appetite for making the transition, and that the Eclipse Foundation and the Cloud DevTools Working Group are at the forefront of this transition. Eclipse Foundation projects like Eclipse Open VSX, Eclipse Theia, and Eclipse Che are leading the way by providing the community-led open source technologies that developers want.”

Survey participants represent a broad set of industries, organizations, and job functions. Five of the top conclusions drawn from the survey data include:

  • Developers are open to new tools and strategies, but often prefer the tools they know and understand - Developers will not shy away from trying new solutions. 
  • Cloud developers love open source solutions - Developers prefer open source because it allows them 1) to customize their tools; 2) to plug into their existing environments; 3) experiment with something unfamiliar.
    AI/ML are attracting significant interest from developers - There is increased use of AI/ML, and much of this is happening at the edge by front-end developers. These highly skilled developers are interested in technologies that tend to be more advanced and cutting edge. 
  • Open source software is driving innovation - As more is asked of developers and technology continues to be the source of growth for companies, developers are being pushed to learn and do more. A lot of this learning and innovation is happening in the OSS community.
  • Developers need to do more "non-developer" things...but can't afford the time - Developer productivity demands greater and additional API integration (especially into IDEs) of the ever-growing tools developers are required to use.

In addition to these findings, the survey report provides detailed analyst recommendations for cloud  developers, employers, and other ecosystem participants.  The 2021 Cloud Developer Survey Report is now available to all interested parties and can be downloaded for free here.

To learn more about getting involved with the Eclipse Cloud DevTools Working Group, please visit us at https://ecdtools.eclipse.org/, or email us at membership@eclipse.org. Developers and other interested parties can also join the Cloud DevTools Working Group mailing list to stay informed about working group projects and progress. 

About the Eclipse Foundation

The Eclipse Foundation provides our global community of individuals and organizations with a mature, scalable, and business-friendly environment for open source software collaboration and innovation. The Foundation is home to the Eclipse IDE, Jakarta EE, and over 400 open source projects, including runtimes, tools, and frameworks for cloud and edge applications, IoT, AI, automotive, systems engineering, distributed ledger technologies, open processor designs, and many others. The Eclipse Foundation is an international non-profit association supported by over 330 members, including industry leaders who value open source as a key enabler for their business strategies. To learn more, follow us on Twitter @EclipseFdn, LinkedIn or visit eclipse.org.

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Jay Nichols
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