DigitalOcean Currents: June 2018

For the fourth edition of Currents, our quarterly report on developer trends in the cloud, we asked nearly 5,000 respondents around the world for their opinions on developer technologies like containers and serverless computing, and the latest hiring trends in software development.

Some of our key findings this time around include:

• Containers are gaining momentum, with 49 percent of developers now using them. As container technology and management tools continue advancing at a rapid pace, containers are becoming a go-to tool in the developer arsenal.
• Serverless computing is in a much earlier stage of adoption, with half of developers reporting they don’t have a clear understanding of what it is. One of the biggest challenges developers report when it comes to serverless is monitoring and debugging.
• Opportunity for growth and development is the most important thing developers want in their jobs, so it’s unsurprising this is also the top reason they leave them. Companies that are deliberate about creating long-term paths for their developers are more likely to retain their technical workforce.
• Coding bootcamp participants feel more prepared for the workforce than college graduates, but employers have yet to warm up to bootcamp graduates: 48 percent have not filled any positions with a bootcamp graduate in the last few years.

Developers are going all in on containers

Nearly half of our respondents (49 percent) use containers today, and most who don’t use them yet (78 percent) plan to adopt containers in the future. Developers in the U.K. are adopting containers at a slightly slower rate than other respondents, with 43 percent using the technology today and 73 percent planning to use it in the future.

Developers who do use containers cite easy scalability as the biggest benefit, though they face challenges in setting up persistent data storage and network configuration.

Developers in India are slightly ahead of the pack when it comes to serverless adoption

Globally, only a third of developers have deployed applications in a serverless environment; however, 43 percent of developers based in India have done so. Of the half that do not yet have a clear understanding of serverless, 81 percent plan to do further research into the technology this year.

Competition for top technical talent is fierce, and company culture is the most important factor for talent retention

Overall, a third (34 percent) of hiring managers at companies that struggle to retain IT talent cite competing job opportunities as the main reason technical employees leave. And, one third of hiring managers in Canada noted lack of growth opportunities as well. When we look at what’s working: more than half of hiring managers at companies with strong IT talent retention list their workplace culture as the primary reason for their success.

Traditional college degree programs don’t leave developers feeling adequately prepared

Sixty-one percent of developers felt that coding bootcamp adequately prepared them for their jobs, compared to 36 percent of college graduates. Canadian developers feel more prepared overall, with 67 percent of coding bootcamp alumni saying they felt prepared, compared to 40 percent of those who participated in a college degree program.

However, nearly half of all bootcamp participants (49 percent) felt that their education was sometimes a disadvantage in job interviews. There might be some truth to this. Even though a majority of hiring managers (55 percent) claimed they do not distinguish between graduates of bootcamps and 4-year programs, nearly half (48 percent) said that they had not hired a bootcamp graduate over the past few years.

DigitalOcean Currents is published quarterly, highlighting the latest trends among developers in the cloud.

Catch up on all our previous issues from:

• March 2018
• December 2017
• September 2017

If you would like to be among the first to receive Currents each quarter, sign up here. You’ll receive the latest report once it is released and you’ll be able to share ideas on what topics we should cover and participate in our next survey.

Read more about these and other findings in the full report. Read the full Currents report here.