Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2020. Read them in this 12th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
By Scott Johnston, Chief Executive Officer at Docker
2020 Forecast: What's Next for Software Development
It's been a transformative decade for software development.
Massive growth in open source, the proliferation of DevOps, the rise of the API
economy, among other trends have changed the way developers work and brought
new talent to the field. As developers continue to grow more influential in
virtually every industry, the big question is: what's next?
Here's what we think 2020 has in store for the developer
community:
- The Changing Definition of a Modern
Application --
Today's applications are more complex than those of yesterday. In 2020,
modern apps will power tomorrow's innovation and this requires a diverse
set of tools, languages and frameworks for developers to create composite
apps amalgamating serverless functions, containers, and native cloud
services. Developers need even more flexibility to address this new wave
of modern apps and evolve with the rest of the industry.
- Containers Pave the Way to New
Application Trends
-- Now that containers are typically considered a common deployment
mechanism, the conversation will evolve from the packaging of individual
containers to the packaging of the entire application (which are becoming
increasingly diverse and distributed). Organizations will increasingly
look for guidance and solutions that help them unify how they build and
manage their entire application portfolio no matter the environment (on
premise, hybrid/multi-cloud, edge, etc.)
- A Container-First Strategy Proves
Itself --
Developers have long been proponents of containers, but there's been a
huge shift toward establishing container-first strategies that are
foundational to business transformation. 2020 will mark the year that
these container-centric initiatives become the go-to-approach and play out
on a larger scale. This will happen across enterprises and industries as
it proves immediate impact by providing a clear path to the cloud for all
applications, regardless of programming language or whether they're
three-tier brownfield apps or cloud-native greenfield microservices, while
reducing cost and risk.
- Digital Transformation
Transforms Itself --
Digital transformation was the buzzword of 2019, but we'll see the term become
less ambiguous in 2020. It'll evolve to have a more specific meaning: a process
for creating business impact through modernizing modernizing existing
technology investments and delivering new applications/services.
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About the Author
Scott Johnston is the
Chief Executive Officer at Docker. Prior to this, he served as Docker's Chief
Product Officer where he was responsible for the strategy of Docker's products
and technologies. With 25 years of industry experience in software development,
product marketing, IT operations and venture capital, Scott has served in
leadership and operational roles for some of the most disruptive companies in
the industry including Puppet, Netscape, Cisco, Loudcloud (parent of Opsware),
and Sun Microsystems.