SolarWinds Finds 75 Percent of DevOps Teams, Developers, and WPMs Need to Develop Skills to Confidently Manage Environments by 2024; Nearly 80 Percent Lack Time or Budget to Train

854 Days ago

SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2019: Skills for Tech Pros of Tomorrow examines confidence, current and future skillsets, career development, and barriers to career success
DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs still prioritize coding and infrastructure management and look to develop deeper understanding in areas like AI and data science
According to 79 percent of DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs, more training, time, and budget is needed to develop skills to manage environments in the next three to five years

AUSTIN, Texas, March 26, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI), a leading provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, today released the findings of its SolarWinds^®IT Trends Report 2019: Skills for Tech Pros of Tomorrow. This year’s annual report studies the state of skills and career development for technology professionals—meaning anyone who manages on-premises or public/private cloud infrastructures, hybrid IT environments, or SaaS-based applications, as well as managed service/managed security service providers (MSP/MSSP)—revealing they have one foot grounded in today’s hybrid IT realities while also setting their sights on emerging technology.

Specifically, tech professionals in DevOps, web product manager (WPM), and developer roles have prioritized coding and scripting, systems and infrastructure, and database management skills development in the past 12 months. When it comes to the next three to five years, they are looking to develop skills in areas like security management and hybrid IT, while eyeing career paths such as data science and analytics. However, without improvement in time and budget constraints, the majority of all DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs (75 percent) say they will be unable to confidently manage future innovations. This reality ultimately puts businesses at risk of performance and competitive advantage losses, making the prioritization of skills and career development for DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs paramount.

“Recent history has proven that there is a direct correlation between technology and business performance,” said Joe Kim, executive vice president and global chief technology officer, SolarWinds. “The results of this year’s IT Trends Report highlight that businesses need to focus even more on developing these professionals charged with application management and the end user’s experience. By removing day-to-day barriers, arming all DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs with the right technology and management tools, and prioritizing skills and career development in the IT budget, they can be better equipped for the future and help with business growth.”

“The findings are also in line with our view that the most critical problem we need to help DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs solve today is the reality of the hybrid IT landscape—this applies to all tech pros whether on-premises, managing hybrid infrastructures, SaaS-based, or MSPs,” added Kim. “The way SolarWinds has always addressed and will continue to address these realities is through our deep connection to tech pros across the IT infrastructure. We are committed to understanding the needs of our customers and making their jobs easier as business technology continues to evolve.”

2019 Key Findings

The SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2019: Skills for Tech Pros of Tomorrow explores confidence, current and future skillsets, career development, and barriers to career success to provide a clear understanding of how all DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs and the businesses they serve can improve to better manage future technology realities. Key findings show that:

The majority of tech professionals in DevOps, web product manager (WPM), and developer roles are not fully confident they have all the skills needed to manage their environments into the near future, especially when it comes to emerging tech.

75 percent of all DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs surveyed are not “completely confident” in having all the necessary skills to successfully manage their IT environments over the next three to five years—even though 98 percent have worked to develop a skill over the past 12 months.
When it comes to the idea of implementing or managing specific technologies, emerging tech is a pain point (despite how much mindshare these buzzworthy technologies get in headlines). The top three technologies DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs feel unequipped to manage with their current skillsets are:
• 1. AI (55 percent)
• 2. Blockchain (50 percent) and quantum computing (50 percent)
• 3. Machine and/or deep learning (45 percent)
- According to the Gartner^® list of strategic technology trends that have the potential to disrupt and are on the verge of becoming more widely used in the next five years, AI, blockchain, and quantum computing all rank in the top 10.

• There is a great opportunity for DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs to increase their knowledge of these technologies and to have productive conversations with businesses on the reality of implementation in the near future.

DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs will continue building skills in daily operations with an eye toward areas like data science.

In the past 12 months, DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs have prioritized skills in coding and scripting (54 percent), systems and infrastructure management (43 percent), and database management (41 percent).
In the next three to five years, the top two skills developers and WPMs plan to develop are security management (45 percent) and data science and analytics (41 percent).
• DevOps teams’, developers’, and WPMs’ instincts are correct when it comes to the top skillset area as they are expected to see continued growth, according to Gartner:
- Gartner research analysts also estimate that global revenue for the information security market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.8 percent between 2017 and 2022, reaching US $143 billion in constant currency terms.
Hybrid IT deployment monitoring and management rounds out the top three skillsets DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs plan to develop in the next three to five years.
• Gartner also predicts that the Worldwide Public Cloud Services market will grow by 17.33 percent in 2019, going from US $175.8 billion in 2018 to US $206.2 billion this year.

DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs say cloud and/or hybrid IT, big data analytics, and AI are the key technologies for career development, which will help achieve higher goals like innovation.

DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs say the most important technologies for their career development are (by weighted rank) aligned with the top three technologies for organizations’ transformation over the next three to five years.
• 1. Cloud and/or hybrid IT (59 percent)
• 2. Big data and analytics (55 percent)
• 3. AI (54 percent)
When it comes to career development goals over the next three to five years, DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs will look to prioritize (by weighted rank):
• 1. Technology innovation (49 percent)
• 2. Programming, coding, and/or scripting (33 percent)
• 3. Data analytics and/or data science (38 percent)
• Management/leadership skills (people management) and IT security protocol and/or processes round out the top five career development goals for the next three to five years.

DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs have an appetite to prioritize career development on a weekly basis but are hindered by factors like time and cost.

Nearly eight in 10 DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs (79 percent) say their day-to-day IT tasks extend into time earmarked for career development, with 20 percent saying this always happens.
This is alarming, considering DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs enjoy technology skills training, with 49 percent finding it informative, 32 percent saying it’s engaging and interactive, and 27 percent reporting it’s not long enough.
Currently, DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs engage in IT skills training and/or career development programs ranging from a few times a year (25 percent) to monthly (23 percent) and weekly (19 percent); however, if there were no schedule or workload restrictions, most (42 percent) would prefer weekly training.
Developers and WPMs cite time and availability (48 percent) and cost (25 percent) as the biggest barriers affecting their current ability to participate in IT skills training and career development programs at the frequency they would like.
When it comes to their primary sources for training, DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs turn to:
• 1. My organization and/or coworkers (20 percent) and online communities/forums (20 percent)
• 2. Industry events/tradeshows (17 percent)
• 3. Vendor training sessions (16 percent) and industry publications (16 percent)
However, the ideal delivery format for IT skills training according to DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs is (by weighted rank):
• 1. Self-guided online course
• 2. In-person workshop/user conference (full-day)
• 3. Webinar

To explore and interact with all of the 2019 findings, please visit the SolarWinds IT Trends Index, a dynamic web experience that presents the study’s findings by region and additional insights into the data, as well as charts, graphs, and socially shareable elements.

The findings of this year’s North American DevOps report are based on a survey fielded in December 2018, which yielded responses from 100 (DevOps teams, developers, and WPMs) practitioners, managers, and directors in the United States and Canada from public-and private-sector small, mid-size, and enterprise companies.

All regions studied in 2019, as reported on the SolarWinds IT Trends Index, were North America, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, with 966 respondents across all geographies combined.

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About SolarWinds
SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI) is a leading provider of powerful and affordable IT infrastructure management software. Our products give organizations worldwide, regardless of type, size or IT infrastructure complexity, the power to monitor and manage the performance of their IT environments, whether on-premises, in the cloud, or in hybrid models. We continuously engage with all types of technology professionals—IT operations professionals, DevOps professionals, and managed service providers (MSPs)—to understand the challenges they face maintaining high-performing and highly available IT infrastructures. The insights we gain from engaging with them, in places like our THWACK online community, allow us to build products that solve well-understood IT management challenges in ways that technology professionals want them solved. This focus on the user and commitment to excellence in end-to-end hybrid IT performance management has established SolarWinds as a worldwide leader in network management software and MSP solutions. Learn more today at www.solarwinds.com.

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