Even though my father had been a software engineer for nearly three decades, he still ignored the need to own a smartphone. “I want to be contacted on my own terms”, he’d tell me, preferring that friends and associates call him on my family’s home line. He was adamant about his disinterest in jumping over and I accepted that he would either be a very late adopter or never adopt at all. That’s why it was surprising when he did cave in, got a mobile phone, and began reading the news at the breakfast table.
Such a story describes the technology landscape as a whole. Whether it’s my father deciding to finally pull the trigger on a mobile phone or Blockbuster passing up the opportunity to purchase Netflix in favor of brick-and-mortar video distribution stores, trends transform the market whether the players within them like it or not. Much like mobile and online video, which are now firmly entrenched within consumer consciousness, the latest research from research firm Forrester’s DevOps Heat Map 2017 confirms much of the same.
We read this report because like a lot of technology trends that have come before, DevOps has now hit the mainstream. Though long embraced by startup unicorns, the philosophy has permeated even the most traditional of enterprises, transforming how technology teams innovate and keep up. Here are some of our takeaways from the report:
- Regulated Industries are Adopting DevOps: According to Forrester’s research, regulated industries including finance, healthcare, and utilities are adopting DevOps to keep up with customer demand. In each industry, organizations have set aggressive goals to interconnect their existing infrastructure with the needs of the Internet of Things (IoT), fraud detection, and business process management. Also within these strategies are also plans to include application programming interfaces (APIs).
- Differentiation with DevOps is Quantified in Media: Social media and mobile provided second screen opportunities for media, entertainment, and leisure organizations to engage with consumers in the early 2010s, extending the life of television shows, performances, and tourist activities. DevOps as an addition is augmenting these efforts by truly tapping into customer tastes, though release frequency and automation still need to catch up. That said, broadcasting organizations are doing what they can to add rich experiences for events including the Big Game and the Olympics.
- The Last Frontiers Await Disruption: Even as industries mature with DevOps, there still remain untapped areas including construction. As large projects take longer to finish and run over budget by up to 80%, industry experts are pondering how DevOps innovations in structural health monitoring and materials engineering will impact the industry. Forrester expects to see significant transition in this arena in the coming year.
That said, the basics still count in building DevOps. Just because these trends are becoming more solidified in all industries, does not mean that executives can hastily approve initiatives or hire a part-time project manager. Forrester believes that ample work must be done for professionals to learn, experiment, and support each other for the greatest amount of success. You can read our past blogs on DevOps and culture here, here, and here.
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Closing Thoughts
Although my father is no clear indication of changing technology tastes and demands, his technology usage and behavior is still an example to follow. Even as he types away on a previous generation iPhone, his home desktop computer is much older and he consumes his news from traditional television. Nonetheless, even his eventual adoption of smartphones is a signal to all organizations who are still sitting on the fence with DevOps: Your time has come and it’s time to look at adoption.
After all, it’s better to be learning and discovering as opposed to being left out.
You can read the guide for yourself here.
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