DevOps Trends for 2021
By: Raphael Socher
Tags: Devops Tool, 2021 Trends, Cloud Computing, DevOps, Terraform

Editorial note: Hi all, Infracode started business in 2020 and it’s been a rip-roaring year for us. I know a lot of the stuff has been going on behind the scenes so far but we’re super excited for what 2021 is about to bring for us, and I hope our readers are too.

Keep an eye on us over the next couple of weeks and months — there’s a lot to come. Find us on Slack for more information and learn how to get involved.

DevOps has been cascading outwards along with Cloud for a long while, both originating in the 2005–2010 technology era. The fragmentation seems to be coming to a close as technology in the vertical appears to be starting to coalesce once again. There are a couple of interesting patterns of note that we think will continue into 2021.

Trend 1: Interoperability in DevOps ToolChain

First, historical trends. Way way back, there was the mainframe. Next up, came the reign of the time share in the data center, or historical cloud. After was a smaller mainframe, or Oracle database (the idea of which has made Mr. Ellison a very wealthy man). Finally, we come back to the modern “time-share” in a data center, or cloud. Cloud is far more modular than the previous time share model because of internet service delivery, or advancements in networking and telecommunications. In order to provide flexibility on the more modular structure, the tools will have to get better and the workflows more unified.

Trend 2: The ecosystem is becoming bigger than any one company, with DevOps becoming out of reach of monopoly

DevOps companies operating across a number of different verticals, whether it be Hashicorp in Infrastructure as Code, RancherLabs in Kubernetes, or SysDig inbetween, along with a number of others (like Gitlab for CI/CD and developer workflow) are starting to become fairly entrenched and be very solid, fundamentally sound companies originating from a lot of OpenSource stuff.

This is very, very good for business and the health of the technology ecosystem. Verticalization of toolchain in the software portion of DevOps should be of paramount concern moving forward and CNCF, the governing body, is likely to be wary. Monopolistic tendencies in software happen often, but hopefully, those tendencies are maintained in small slicers so the trend I talked about before, creates competitive and partner-oriented tension between the different companies, creating checks and balances.

Trend 3: Greater emphasis on trickle down implications of DevOps for Machine Learning/AI startups

As Machine Learning and AI is on the up and up, there are likely to be (even more) companies in this space popping up in the next 3–5 years. There is tons of market opportunity. However, the algorithms are extremely computationally expensive, and this will jack demand for cloud services. The cloud providers plan to scale, but this means feasibility planning around increasing cloud costs should be taken into account. DevOps will have to get smarter, faster, and the companies that most effectively do so will have a huge competitive advantage as Cloud becomes a cost and risk center for Information Technology companies. As Marc Andressen said, “Software is eating the world.” It certainly still is, and will continue into 2021.

Do you think we missed a trend? Want to discuss more? Join us on Slack to continue the conversation and join a growing DevOps community.​

Happy holidays to everyone, and looking forward to a great 2021!

👋 Join FAUN today and receive similar stories each week in your inbox! ️ Get your weekly dose of the must-read tech stories, news, and tutorials.

Follow us on Twitter 🐦 and Facebook 👥 and Instagram 📷 and join our Facebook and Linkedin Groups 💬