New research from Civo has found that DevOps continues to dominate the industry, with 85% of organizations partially or fully adopting a DevOps culture to achieve success. Automated CI/CD is the most used DevOps tool/technology (deployed by 81% respondents) and 72% use version control software to roll out their DevOps set-up.   

The principles of DevOps: collaboration, automation, continuous integration, and delivery, are established critical success factors in a landscape of rapid technological advancement. These principles have guided the development of software and operations. Yet as the role of DevOps changes, Platform Engineering has emerged as an increasingly viable methodology for better responding to market dynamics and customer needs.  

The study spoke to over 100 DevOps Engineers, Platform Engineers, Developers, Site Reliability Engineers, and IT Managers, examining the evolving popularity of DevOps in comparison to Platform Engineering. A quarter of respondents have worked in the industry for ten or more years.   

The research found that 65% agree that Platform Engineering is the next evolution of DevOps. Platform Engineering is cited as making a positive impact on organizations utilizing its solutions, with 50% reporting improved standardization and 43% seeing faster product delivery. Almost a third (30%) of organizations are currently evaluating if they should adopt platform engineering practices.   

While Platform Engineering is emerging as a growing practice, there is an evident lack of understanding when compared to DevOps. While DevOps engineers believe they have a "very good" understanding of DevOps, only 41% of the group stated they were familiar with Platform Engineering, and only 41% reported a moderate to high-level familiarity with it. It's clear that despite growth in this area, there is still room for further awareness and education.   

Saiyam Pathak, Director of Technical Evangelism at Civo, said, "Both DevOps and Platform Engineering will continue to play a key role in the future of software development and operations, but we are already seeing the transition from the former into the latter.  

"The core challenges that many organizations are facing with both of these practices right now will be reduced by the integration of accompanying technologies. GitOps, AI, and serverless computing will all assist in reducing developer workloads and making their lives easier. To fully capitalize on these benefits, organizations need to prepare for the transition that has already begun. They need to take steps now to get the right training processes in place to ensure their teams are well-equipped to make this jump."