State of DevOps

RESEARCH REPORT JULY 2021 | $499
NE X T
State of DevOps
2021
The chaos of the pandemic and increasing
cyberattacks meant that organizations put some
DevOps adoption plans on hold temporarily.
However, teams that had already embraced
the approach saw efficiency and application
improvements.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS State of DevOps 2021 July 2021
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Table of Contents
4. About the Author Figures Figure 17. Measuring Success
5. Executive Summary Figure 1. Familiarity with DevOps Figure 18. Major DevOps Challenges
5. Key Findings Figure 2. Development Methodologies Figure 19. Integrating Security into DevOps
6. Research Synopsis Figure 3. Use of Agile Figure 20. Critical Tools
7. Introduction Figure 4. Use of DevOps Figure 21. DevOps Purchase Plans
8. DevOps Adoption Slows Figure 5. Timeline to DevOps Figure 22. DevOps Investments
11. Efficiency and Quality Continue to Rise Figure 6. DevOps for New Hires Figure 23. DevOps Cultural Changes
18. Security Takes Center Stage Figure 7. Reasons for Not Adopting DevOps Figure 24. AIOps
21. DevOps Evolves Figure 8. DevOps Drivers Figure 25. Respondent Background Area
24. Looking Ahead Figure 9. Benefits of DevOps Figure 26. Respondent Job Title
25. Appendix Figure 10. Changes from DevOps Figure 27. Respondent Company Size
Figure 11. Improvements from DevOps Figure 28. Respondent Company Revenue
Figure 12. Average Time to Move Application into Figure 29. Respondent Industry
Production
Figure 30. In-House App Developers
Figure 13. Application Failures
Figure 31. Applications Managed
Figure 14. Alerting to Failures
Figure 32. Applications in Production
Figure 15. Recovery Time
Figure 33. Application Upgrades in Production
Figure 16. Time for Infrastructure Change
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Author
Cynthia Harvey
InformationWeek
A frequent InformationWeek contributor, Cynthia Harvey is a freelance writer and editor based
in the Detroit area. She has been covering the technology industry for more than 20 years, and
her areas of expertise include DevOps, Agile development, IT infrastructure, cloud computing,
artificial intelligence, data analytics, and IT employment issues. On Twitter, she is @ckharvey.
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Executive Summary
In a year filled with crisis and change, many organizations seem to be postponing their DevOps projects. Familiarity with and adoption
of DevOps both declined from the previous year, with respondents citing lack of resources and other priorities as key reasons that
some haven’t yet embraced the approach.
On the other hand, Agile development methodologies are on the rise. And organizations that had already begun using DevOps
approaches prior to the pandemic saw some gains in efficiency and in the quality of their applications.
Also on the rise is DevSecOps. Organizations are more concerned than ever about security, and that’s changing their perspective on
what tools and processes are most important for DevOps.
Time will tell if these changes last after the pandemic winds down and if organizations return to their earlier levels of enthusiasm for
DevOps.
Key Findings:
• Familiarity with DevOps declined slightly in 2021, with 29% of respondents claiming to be “expert” or “very familiar” with the
approach, compared to 45% in 2020.
• The number of respondents who said that their organizations had already deployed DevOps dropped from 32% to 20%.
• Agile software development continued to rise, as the number of respondents using Agile methodologies climbed from 63% in 2020
to 67% in 2021.
• The No. 1 challenge to DevOps, cited by more than a quarter of respondents (27%) was security.
• A majority of organizations (60%) are either discussing DevSecOps or are already using the approach.
• A quarter of respondents (25%) said that they require new hires to be familiar with DevOps, and another 38% plan to do so in the future.
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Research Synopsis
Survey Name: State of DevOps Survey
Survey Date: June 2021
Primary Region: North America
Respondent base: 120 IT and business professionals who are involved in the purchasing of technology at their companies. The
margin of error for the total respondent base (N=120) is +/- 8.8 percentage points.
Methodology: InformationWeek surveyed technology decision makers at primarily North American companies to gauge their
DevOps progress in the last year.
The survey was conducted online; respondents were recruited via emailed invitations containing an embedded link to the survey.
The emails were sent to a select group of Informa Tech’s database; Informa is the parent company of InformationWeek, Network
Computing, Interop, and ITPro Today, among other brands. Eighty-seven percent of respondents have an IT-related background
including consultants. More than one-quarter (26%) of respondents are IT directors or managers, 24% hold executive-level IT
positions such as CIO, CTO, CSO, or vice president of IT. Forty-one percent work at large companies with 1,000 or more employees,
and 26% at companies with 100 to 999 employees. Informa Tech was responsible for all aspects of survey administration, data
collection, and data analysis. These procedures were carried out in strict accordance with standard market research practices and
existing US privacy laws.
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Introduction
Over the past year, IT teams have faced extraordinary challenges as they worked to quick-
ly adapt to the radically different circumstances presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
DevOps has long promised to make IT organizations more Agile and better able to respond
to change, and the coronavirus put that claim to the test.
Overall, the results of the 2021 State of DevOps survey indicate that for the past 12 to 15
months, DevOps adoption took a backseat to other priorities, like supporting a newly re-
mote workforce and countering a rapid rise in cyberattacks. Organizations that hadn’t yet
adopted DevOps widely put their energy elsewhere, and understandably so.
Encouragingly, organizations that had already embraced DevOps saw small but steady
improvements, despite the unprecedented events. They also seem to have modified their
DevOps philosophies slightly, with different types of tools, particularly security, becoming
more important. In addition, they became more interested in DevSecOps. This evolution
may continue as organizations resume the DevOps adoption projects that they temporarily
put on hold.
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PREVIOUS NEXT DevOps Adoption Slows When asked about their familiarity with Interestingly, while DevOps adoption seems
DevOps, fewer respondents described to have decreased, the number of compa-
In 2020 and 2021, most IT organizations
themselves as “expert” or “very familiar” nies embracing Agile development meth-
were forced to start supporting remote
with the concept, although significantly odologies, which are closely related, rose
workforces overnight. At the same time,
more people said they “understand the de- slightly. Respondents’ use of Agile method-
cyberattacks increased dramatically. This
tails.” The number of people who were less ologies climbed from 63% in 2020 to 67%
put tremendous pressure on IT teams, and
familiar with the topic or really didn’t know in 2021 (Figure 2).
under these circumstances, educating the
anything about it at all ticked up slightly, Figure 2.
IT staff about the intricacies of the DevOps
though perhaps not as much as you might
philosophy doesn’t seem to have been a
expect given the circumstances (Figure 1). Methodologies Used by In-House
high priority. Developers
Figure 1. What methodologies do your in-house app
developers use? 2021 2020
Agile (Scrum, Extreme Programming,
Familiarity with DevOps Concept Rational Unified Process)
How familiar are you with the DevOps concept? 4% 7% 67%
6%
63%
Expert; I could write a book about it 8% Mix
9% 40%
Very familiar 10% 44%
I understand the details
6%
23% Waterfall
26%
Familiar; I understand the basics 9%
38% 31%
Somewhat familiar Custom
24%
I have a general idea of what it’s about 19%
17% 21%
Not at all familiar 27%
Other
12% 5%
4%
Don’t know
2021 2020
4%
4%
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers in June 2021, and 100 in June 2020
Note: Multiple responses allowed

Base: Respondents at organizations with in-house app developers
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers in June 2021,
and 100 in June 2020
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PREVIOUS NEXT For the question that asked about the ex- Figure 3.
tent to which companies had deployed Ag-
ile practices, InformationWeek changed the Organizations’ Use of Agile
What is the status of Agile in your organization? 2%
answer options between 2020 and 2021,
so it’s a little difficult to compare. However, Already in production company-wide
8% 14%
the number of respondents who said that In limited use (selected business units

or trial)
Agile was not in use at their company de- 21% 28% 34%
Being used somewhat or widely, but

clined from 28% last year to 21% this year not everywhere
(Figure 3). 24%
Being rolled out company-wide
Not in use 7%
It could be that Agile’s emphasis on short 12%
Don’t know 24%
development cycles was well-suited to a 26%
year marked by tremendous change. And
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision
because Agile involves only developers, it makers in June 2021, and 100 in June 2020
2021 2020
can be easier to roll out Agile alone than
to embrace a full DevOps strategy, which Figure 4.
requires close collaboration between de-
DevOps Approach to Software Development
velopers and operations. How would you characterize your company’s adoption of a DevOps approach to software development?
While the number of respondents who said We use DevOps exclusively 4% 4%
their organizations use DevOps exclusively ore than half of our development
M
employs DevOps
stayed steady at 4%, the number of respon- 22% 22%
One-quarter to one-half of our
13%
dents who said more than half or their or- development employs DevOps 22%
ganization uses DevOps dropped by nearly Less than a quarter of our development
11%
half, from 22% to just 13% (Figure 4). At the employs a DevOps strategy
same time, the number who said less than So far, none of our development
21% 12%
employs a DevOps strategy, but we’re 24%
a quarter of their team uses DevOps and planning to
26%
19%
those who don’t use it at all yet saw small No use of DevOps and no plans to
but significant increases. Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision

makers in June 2021, and 100 in June 2020
2021 2020
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PREVIOUS NEXT Along the same lines, when asked about Figure 5.
their timeline to adopt DevOps, the num- Expected Timeline to Adopt DevOps
ber who said they had already done so What is your expected timeline to adopt DevOps principles in your organization?
2%
dropped from 32% to 20% (Figure 5). Per-
We have already done so
haps most significant in the answer to this 14%
Less than six months 20%
question is that the number of people who 18%
Six to 12 months 32%
answered “don’t know” climbed from just
More than a year but less than 2 years
2% in 2020 to 14% in 2021. This too sup- 20% 6%
2 years or more 13%
ports the conclusion that DevOps adoption
No plans
just wasn’t top of mind for most IT teams 14%
Don’t know 9%
over the past year. 13% 19%
1%
19%
But organizations do seem to intend to re-
turn to their DevOps projects in the future. Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology
decision makers in June 2021, and 100 in June 2020 2021 2020
When asked if they require new hires to be
familiar with DevOps, the number who said
Figure 6.
“yes” dropped from 37% to 25% (Figure 6).
But the number who said “not yet, but it DevOps Expertise
will be soon” was nearly flipped, climbing for New Hires
from 28% to 38%. Instead of going away, Is DevOps expertise on your list
of must-haves for new hires in 25%
DevOps may have been merely temporarily
development and admin roles?
postponed. 37% 35% 37%
Yes
Not yet, but it will be soon
No, and no plans

38% 28%
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision

makers in June 2021, and 100 in June 2020 2021 2020
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PREVIOUS NEXT When asked why they weren’t adopting Figure 7. Figure 8.
DevOps, the top answers were that compa- Reasons for Not Adopting DevOps
nies didn’t have enough resources to evalu- Methodology Driving the Need for DevOps
What are the top three reasons your organiza- What is driving the need for DevOps?
ate the approach or that other priorities were tion might not or won’t adopt a DevOps meth-
odology or tools? 2021 2020
taking precedence. In a year when IT depart-
2021 2020
ments were stretched thin and faced tremen- Lack of resources to evaluate Need to improve quality and performance of the applications
27% 42%
dous obstacles, both answers make a lot of 30% 49%
Other technology or business priorities take precedence
sense (Figure 7). 26%
Need to improve the end customer experience
32%
34%
34%
Confusion and lack of definition around the overall concept
Efficiency and Quality Continue to 23%
The increasing need to develop and deploy cloud applications
Rise Lack of resources to implement

22%
27%
31%
Pressures to release applications more quickly

The good news for teams that had already 22%
43% to meet customer demand or enter new markets
adopted DevOps before the pandemic was We don’t have the expertise 29%
31%
21%
that the DevOps approach seems to be 19% The need for greater collaboration between
Immaturity of tools and methodologies development and operations teams
spurring more efficiency and higher qual- 19% 29%
ity. When asked why they were utilizing 16% 32%
No demand from the business for what DevOps promises Need to reduce IT costs
DevOps approaches, the top two answers 19% 23%
31%
were the same as in past years — “need No business case for DevOps
29%
A greater need for simultaneous deployment
to improve quality and performance of the 19% across different platforms
N/A
applications” and “need to improve the end We don’t see the value
21%
30%
customer experience.” 15%
19%
An increasingly complex IT infrastructure that is part
physical, part virtualized, and part cloud
Lack of willingness by both development and operations teams
19%
But after that, the answers were somewhat to cooperate
31%
7%
different than in past years with more re- 16% The need to improve morale in the ops/maintenance team
Lack of willingness by developers to cooperate 3%
spondents citing the cloud, which may be 7% N/A
related to the more remote workforce. And 10% There is nothing driving the need for DevOps
Lack of willingness by operations to cooperate 24%
fewer said they needed to reduce costs, 4% 13%
8%
which like DevOps, wasn’t as big a prior- Note: Multiple responses allowed
Base: 96 respondents who have not already adopted DevOps principles
ity in a pandemic year. Strikingly, the num- Note: Maximum of three responses allowed
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers
in June 2021, and 100 in June 2020
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers in June 2021,

ber who said nothing was driving DevOps and 100 in June 2020
climbed from just 13% to 24% (Figure 8). 11

PREVIOUS NEXT The perceived benefits of DevOps in 2021 Figure 9.

were noticeably different than in 2020. This
year, organizations were spending less Benefits of DevOps
What benefits have you seen or do you anticipate seeing from implementing DevOps in your organization?
time on bug fixes and maintenance, and
A reduction in time spent fixing and maintaining applications 2021 2020
they were able to push out releases more 34%
frequently (Figure 9). 32%
Increased frequency of deployments of our software/services
32%
35%
Increased collaboration between departments
31%
46%
Improved quality and performance of our deployed applications
30%
29%
Our software/services made available across more platforms
26%
23%
New software/services that would otherwise not be possible/explored
25%
24%
Reduced time-to-market for our software/services
24%
32%
An increase in revenue
23%
19%
A reduction in spend on development, testing, or operations
16%
22%
Increased numbers of customers using our software/services
13%
21%
Fewer employees working on developing and deploying our software/services
12%
11%
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PREVIOUS NEXT They also saw greater collaboration and Figure 10.
were able to improve quality and perfor-
mance of their applications (Figure 10). Changes from DevOps Adoption
How would you quantify the change for each of the following as a result of your DevOps adoption?
In a year when IT teams had to do a lot more Significant Moderate Insignificant No change
work with limited resources, these sorts of improvement improvement improvement
efficiency gains could be very helpful. A reduction in time spent fixing and maintaining 24% 47% 7% 22%
applications
Increased collaboration between departments 24% 46% 8% 22%
Improved quality and performance of our deployed 22% 46% 10% 22%
applications
Increased frequency of deployments of our software/ 22% 43% 13% 22%

services
Reduced time-to-market for our software/services 20% 40% 12% 28%
New software/services that would otherwise not be 16% 39% 14% 31%
possible/explored
Increased numbers of customers using our software/ 15% 35% 17% 33%
services
Our software/services made available across more 13% 41% 13% 33%
platforms
An increase in revenue 11% 34% 20% 35%
A reduction in spend on development, testing or 11% 38% 19% 32%

operations
Fewer employees working on developing and deploying 8% 42% 18% 32%

our software/services
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers, June 2021
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PREVIOUS NEXT When asked about the level of improve- Figure 11.
ment they had seen, respondents were
somewhat less likely to have seen improve- Improvements Gained from Adopting DevOps
For each of the following, what level of improvement have you experienced, or do you expect to gain from
ment in application deployment speed, se- adopting DevOps?
curity, or infrastructure stability, and more
Significant Some No Too soon to N/A
people said that these questions didn’t ap- improvement improvement improvement tell
ply to their situation (Figure 11). This seems Application deployment speed 26% 39% 5% 10% 20%
to correspond to the fact that fewer orga-
IT infrastructure stability 23% 34% 12% 11% 20%
nizations were prioritizing their adoption of
DevOps. Security 18% 38% 14% 10% 20%
Drilling down into the details, organizations Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers, June 2021
seem to be taking less time to move ap-

plications into production. About half as Figure 12.
many said it would take a day (9% in 2021
down from 18% in 2020), while about twice Average Time to Move Application into Production
Once an application completes the development process, how long does it take on average to move
as many said it would take an hour or less,
into production?
but more than 10 minutes (21% and 11% 3% 3%
respectively) (Figure 12). Less than 10 minutes

10%
6%
11%
Up to one hour 12%
One day 10% 21%
More than one day,
but less than a week
18%
12% 9% 15%
One week
More than a week,

but less than a month 12%
23% 13% 22%
A month or more
Don’t know
2021 2020
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PREVIOUS NEXT Application failure rates seemed to hold Figure 13.

steady throughout the year (Figure 13). Application Failures 3%
And while that might not be noteworthy in How many application failures do you
1% 5%
a normal year, it does seem significant dur- have in a typical month? We define 13% 4%
“failure” as anything that causes an 2% 19% 19%
ing a pandemic. outage, disruption or downtime. 6%
A continuing positive trend: organizations None 8%
were more likely to learn about failures 1 to 10
from their monitoring tools than from angry 11 to 30
customers (Figure 14). 31 to 100 57% 63%

More than 100
Don’t know
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology 2021 2020

decision makers in June 2021, and 100 in June 2020
Figure 14.
Alerting IT to Application Failures

How is IT alerted to application failures? 2021 2020
Availability monitoring
63%
65%
Potentially irate emails or phone calls
48%
54%
Alerting system to network operations center (NOC)
37%
49%
Other
9%
4%
Don’t know
10%
7%
15
PREVIOUS NEXT And recovery times look to be similar or Figure 15.

slightly better than last year (Figure 15). Recovery Time
The same was true when asked about the On average, how long does recovery 2%
1%
time required for infrastructure changes take when an application fails? 3% 8% 3% 7% 10%
(Figure 16). 14%
Less than 10 minutes
10 to 30 minutes 8%
31 to 60 minutes
26% 29%
A matter of hours 27%
18%
A full day
More than a full day, but less than a week
A week or more 21% 23%

Don’t know
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers 2021 2020
in June 2021, and 100 in June 2020
Figure 16.
Time for Infrastructure Change

How long does a typical infrastructure change take from request to implementation?
1%
Less than 10 minutes
7% 6%
10 to 30 minutes 16% 12%
31 minutes to an hour 10%
More than an hour, but less 12%
than a half day
13%
More than a half day, but less 19% 39%
than a full day
15%
A full day 14%
More than a full day 14%
6% 15%
Don’t know
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision 2021 2020

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PREVIOUS NEXT When asked how they were measuring the Figure 17.
success of their DevOps initiatives, the Measuring Success of DevOps Initiatives
number of people who said their organiza- How do you plan to measure the success of your DevOps initiatives?
tions hadn’t decided climbed from 33% to
By looking primarily at internal factors
39% (Figure 17). This is yet another indica- (lower costs, fewer application defects,
improved application performance,
tion that DevOps wasn’t top of mind. improved efficiencies, better ROI,
improved collaboration across
departments, etc.) 39% 33%
43%
By looking primarily at external business
53%
factors (increased revenue, faster
time-to-market, improved competitive
positioning, enhanced customer
experience, etc.)
14%
We have not yet decided how we will 18%
measure success
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision 2021 2020

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PREVIOUS NEXT Security Takes Center Stage Figure 18.
One of the things that is top of mind is Major Challenges to Implementing DevOps
What have been the major challenges to implementing DevOps strategy in your organization? 2021 2020
security. According to Interpol, phishing
Security or compliance concerns
scams rose 59%, malware and ransom- 27%
ware attacks increased 36%, and malicious 23%
Lack of the rights skills within development and operations
domains climbed 22%. IT leaders are well 24%
aware of this problem, and they’ve been 13%
No budget or a lack of clarity over whose budget is responsible for what
scrambling to cope with the threats. 20%
17%
In last year’s survey, respondents said the Organizational complexity – too many people or departments involved, too many interdependencies
19%
biggest challenge to DevOps was organi- 24%
zational complexity. This year, organiza- Difficult to justify from an ROI standpoint
tional complexity has slipped to the No. 4 18%

21%
position while security is at the top of the No time/resources available to develop a strategy or plan for DevOps
list (Figure 18). 17%

18%
Roles and responsibilities across development and operations are not aligned
14%
21%
Pressure to maintain continuous delivery of daily updates to meet customer demand
14%
17%
A lack of understanding of the phases of the entire development lifecycle and who is responsible for which step
10%
15%
Finding the proper collaborative tools to enable the different teams to work together
10%
15%
No support from leadership
6%
11%
Identifying the right consulting firm with a DevOps practice
5%
10%
There are no major obstacles to implementing a DevOps strategy in my organization
Note: Maximum of three responses allowed
16%
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology
9% decision makers in June 2021, and 100 in June 2020
18
PREVIOUS NEXT The concern about security is also reflect- Figure 19.
ed in the number of organizations adopt- Integrating Security into DevOps Process (DevSecOps)
ing DevSecOps approaches. Twenty-nine How would you characterize your company’s efforts on integrating security in the DevOps process
percent of respondents have already em- (DevSecOps)?
braced DevSecOps, and other 31% are We have no plans to
16%
currently discussing it (Figure 19). Since We are discussing/planning to incorporate DevSecOps 24%
DevSecOps is a newer phenomenon than We are incorporating DevSecOps in some applications,
8%
DevOps, it seems significant that 60% of with no plans to expand
organizations are contemplating or deploy- We are incorporating DevSecOps in some applications,
11%
with plans/expectations to expand
ing it in a year when DevOps lost some
We are incorporating DevSecOps in all of our application
ground. development 10% 31%
Don’t know
19
PREVIOUS NEXT Also significant is a major change in which Figure 20.

tools respondents say are critical for en- Critical Tools to Enable DevOps
abling DevOps. In 2020, it was functional Which processes and methods do you consider to be most critical for enabling DevOps? 2021 2020
testing, but in 2021, it was enterprise secu- Enterprise security

33%
rity named as most critical (Figure 20). Functional testing
27%
23%
35%
Change/configuration management
20%
12%
Application development lifecycle
19%
21%
Hybrid cloud management
19%
10%
Application performance monitoring
17%
26%
Performance testing
17%
21%
Release automation
17%
16%
Project and program management
12%
10%
Infrastructure management (server/storage)
9%
14%
Capacity management
8%
6%
Service virtualization
8%
7%
Network performance management
4%
7%
Virtual lab management
4%
4%
I do not consider any tools to be critical for enabling DevOps
13%
12%
Note: Maximum of three responses allowed

20
PREVIOUS NEXT DevOps Evolves Figure 21.
A whole lot of things changed during the Purchase Plans for DevOps Technologies and Tools
past year, and DevOps was definitely What are your purchasing plans for the following DevOps technologies and tools?
among them. In addition to being more
Evaluating Already/ Plan to Plan to No plans
interested in enterprise security, organiza- currently purchase purchase
purchasing in next 12 in next 24
tions were also more interested in change months months
and configuration management tools and
Release automation software 24% 15% 14% 5% 42%
hybrid cloud management. Both of these
changes could have resulted from a more Continuous integration tools 23% 23% 10% 6% 38%
remote workforce.
Automated test tools 21% 18% 11% 5% 45%
When asked what they plan to purchase,

Project management tools 20% 32% 11% 4% 33%
more companies are evaluating release au-
tomation and continuous integration tools, Application development platforms 19% 26% 14% 2% 39%
while automated testing and development Issue tracking tools 17% 31% 13% 5% 34%
platforms have dropped lower on the list
(Figure 21). Collaboration and group chat tools 15% 31% 14% 3% 37%
DevOps consulting services 15% 13% 14% 6% 52%
Source control tools 14% 33% 8% 5% 40%
Configuration management tools 14% 29% 11% 8% 38%
21
PREVIOUS NEXT Overall, respondents were less likely to Figure 22.

say that their companies were investing in
Investments for DevOps Implementation
almost all of the categories mentioned in Which of the following is your organization likely to invest in over the next year as part of your
the survey. While some are still redesigning implementation of a DevOps methodology?
processes and investing in training, it is be- 2021 2020
coming less common. And the number of Redesigning processes to drive DevOps approach
people who said their teams were investing 32%
38%
in DevOps tools declined from 37% to 29%
Investing in more training for development and operations personnel
(Figure 22).
31%
35%
Investing in new tools

29%
37%
Hiring new resources with necessary skills

26%
28%
No plans for DevOps

21%
13%
Engaging a consulting firm with a DevOps practice

20%
28%
Changing organizational structure

15%
22%
Other investments
3%
2%
We are not likely to make any new investments over the next year
8%
13%

22
PREVIOUS NEXT Respondents were less likely to say that Figure 23.
DevOps has required most of the types of
Cultural Changes as a Result of DevOps
cultural changes listed in the survey (Fig- What cultural changes has DevOps and its collaboration required in your organization?
ure 23). Somewhat interestingly, they were
2021 2020
more likely to say that development and
operations were co-located – 29% up from Operations is involved in new product/feature development
34%
20%. It is unclear if this means that devel- 40%
opment and operations are all in the same Development is required to take part in application deployments
building or just that development and op- 29%
34%
erations were all in the same time zone and Operations and development are co-located
everyone was working from home. 29%
20%
Development, QA, and Operations share responsibilities and release sign-offs
28%
29%
The management structure has been adjusted to align development and IT
27%
26%
Security staff is integrated with DevOps teams
24%
25%
We’ve included operations in our daily stand ups
19%
25%
We’ve implemented site reliability engineering
16%
19%
Salary and bonus plans for Development, QA, and Operations are aligned
15%
9%
Development, QA, and Operations share the same budget
14%
17%

23
PREVIOUS NEXT Another change that might be coming to Figure 24.

DevOps in the future is the emergence Integrating AI into DevOps Process (AIOps)
of AIOps, which integrates artificial intel- How would you characterize your company’s efforts on integrating artificial intelligence in the DevOps
ligence tools into IT operations. While a process (AIOps)?
majority of respondents still said that they We have no plans to
either had no plans to adopt AIOps or We are discussing/planning to incorporate AIOps 24%
didn’t know about such plans, more than a We are incorporating AIOps in some applications, with no 35%
quarter (27%) were discussing it, and 14% plans to expand
had already adopted AIOps to some extent We are incorporating AIOps in some applications, with 3%
plans/expectations to expand 5%
(Figure 24). This change might become
We are incorporating AIOps in all of our application
more prevalent in the future. 6%
development
37%
Don’t know
Looking Ahead
Two years ago, most industry watchers
would have predicted a continued steady
rise in the number of organizations adopt-
ing DevOps approaches. The coronavirus
altered that trajectory. However, based on
the survey responses, it seems likely that
DevOps adoption will resume as life be-
comes more normal once again.
It’s noteworthy that companies that had

adopted DevOps continued to benefit from
that decision, even during a pandemic.
That could spur more interest in DevOps
as organizations begin to contemplate the
lessons learned from 2020 to 2021 and
prepare themselves for an uncertain future.
24
PREVIOUS NEXT
Appendix
Figure 25. Figure 26. Figure 27.
Respondent Primary Background Area Respondent Job Title Respondent Company Size
What is your primary background area? Which of the following best describes your job How many employees are in your organization in
title? 2% total?
3%2%
4%
9%
8% 5%
26% 24%
35% 6% 33%
12%
7%
17%
11% 22%
17%
19%
26%
12%
IT management Director/manager, IT, infrastructure, networking incl. IT Ops 5,000 or more
Application development IT/IS staff 1,000 to 4,999

CIO/CTO
Systems administration 100 to 999
CEO/president/owner/partner/other senior corp. exec.
Security Fewer than 100
Consultant
Network operations
Security staff
Other Vice president, IT or infrastructure
CSO (chief security officer)/security management
Chief compliance officer
Vice president, non-IT
Director/manager, telecommunications
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers, June 2021 Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers, June 2021 Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers, June 2021
25
PREVIOUS NEXT Figure 28. Figure 29.
Respondent Company Revenue Respondent Industry

What is the annual revenue of your entire What is your organization’s primary industry?
organization?
2% 10%
2% 15%
22% 26% 2%
2%
2%
4% 2%
13%
8% 8% 3%
12% 6% 3%
9% 5% 3%
11%
3%
3%
3% 4% 11%
6%
Less than $6 million
$6 million to $49.9 million Consulting and business services Distributor

IT vendor Energy
$50 million to $99.9 million
Financial services/banking/securities and investments Electronics
Manufacturing/industrial, non-computer Food/beverage
Healthcare/medical Insurance/HMOs
$1 billion to $4.9 billion Government (Federal, State or Local including Military) Logistics/transportation
$5 billion or more Construction/engineering Non-profit
Government/nonprofit Education Retail/e-commerce

Media/entertainment Other
Don’t know/decline to say
Telecommunications/ISPs
Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers, June 2021 Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers, June 2021
26
PREVIOUS NEXT Figure 30.
In-House Developers
Does your organization have in-house app developers?
2%
Yes
9%
No
Don’t know
26%
26%
65% 72%

Figure 31.
Applications Managed by IT Team

How many applications does your IT team manage in a year?
1%
Fewer than 10
8% 11%
10 to 29 8%
30 to 59
3% 8%
34%
60 to 99
7% 38%
6%
100 to 199
200 or more 13% 14%

Don’t know
24% 26%

27
PREVIOUS NEXT Figure 32.
Applications in Production
How many new applications do you move into production in a typical year?
3%
4% 1%
Fewer than 10 7% 5%
3%
10 to 29 6%
30 to 59 6%
60 to 99
5%
100 to 199 59% 59%
26%
200 or More 16%
Don’t know

Figure 33.
Application Upgrades Moved into Production

How many application upgrades do you move into production in a typical year?
2%
Fewer than 10 8% 5%
1%
10 to 29 5% 7%
30 to 59 6% 8%
60 to 99
43% 42%
100 to 199
13% 12%
200 or more
Don’t know
24% 24%

28

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RESEARCH REPORT JULY 2021 | $499

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

Note: Multiple responses allowed

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

but significant increases. Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision

Not yet, but it will be soon

No, and no plans

Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

Rise Lack of resources to implement

Pressures to release applications more quickly

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

climbed from just 13% to 24% (Figure 8). 11

PREVIOUS NEXT The perceived benefits of DevOps in 2021 Figure 9.

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

Increased collaboration between departments 24% 46% 8% 22%

Increased frequency of deployments of our software/ 22% 43% 13% 22%

Reduced time-to-market for our software/services 20% 40% 12% 28%

An increase in revenue 11% 34% 20% 35%

A reduction in spend on development, testing or 11% 38% 19% 32%

Fewer employees working on developing and deploying 8% 42% 18% 32%

Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers, June 2021

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

seem to be taking less time to move ap-

respectively) (Figure 12). Less than 10 minutes

More than a week,

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

PREVIOUS NEXT Application failure rates seemed to hold Figure 13.

A continuing positive trend: organizations None 8%

were more likely to learn about failures 1 to 10

from their monitoring tools than from angry 11 to 30

customers (Figure 14). 31 to 100 57% 63%

Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology 2021 2020

Alerting IT to Application Failures

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

PREVIOUS NEXT And recovery times look to be similar or Figure 15.

More than a full day, but less than a week

A week or more 21% 23%

Time for Infrastructure Change

Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision 2021 2020

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision 2021 2020

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

PREVIOUS NEXT Security Takes Center Stage Figure 18.

tional complexity has slipped to the No. 4 18%

list (Figure 18). 17%

Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers, June 2021

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

PREVIOUS NEXT Also significant is a major change in which Figure 20.

testing, but in 2021, it was enterprise secu- Enterprise security

Note: Maximum of three responses allowed

PREVIOUS NEXT DevOps Evolves Figure 21.

When asked what they plan to purchase,

DevOps consulting services 15% 13% 14% 6% 52%

Source control tools 14% 33% 8% 5% 40%

Configuration management tools 14% 29% 11% 8% 38%

Data: InformationWeek survey of 120 technology decision makers, June 2021

RESEARCH REPORT interop.com

More than a week,

More than a full day, but less than a week

Application development IT/IS staff 1,000 to 4,999

Less than $6 million

$6 million to $49.9 million Consulting and business services Distributor