Modern Engineering and DevOps Trends 2024
The world is changing every single day, most of the time driven by technology, which changes even faster. Staying abreast of the latest trends isn't just beneficial—it's imperative. At Tektique, we've delved deep into the evolving realms of Modern Engineering and DevOps to equip you with the insights needed to thrive in today's dynamic environment and beyond.
During our analysis of Modern Engineering and DevOps trends we have defined the next 5 categories with respective focus areas:
"Next-Gen DevEx: Revolutionizing Developer Experience"
Focus: Internal Developer Portals, Cloud Development Environments (CDEs), Platform Engineering, AI-Augmented Software Engineering.
"EcoTech & InsightOps: Pioneering Sustainable Systems Intelligence"
Focus: Observability, Sustainable Technology.
"CyberGuardians: Redefining DevSecOps in the Digital Age"
Focus: DevSecOps, Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA), Generative Cybersecurity AI.
"Architects of Innovation: Shaping the Future of Microservices & GitOps"
Focus: Microservices Architecture, GitOps, Augmented FinOps.
"CloudFront Pioneers: Mastering Cloud-Native Scalability"
Focus: Cloud Native, Serverless Computing.
Trends Overview:
#1 Next-Gen DevEx: Revolutionizing Developer Experience
Elevating the craft of development, we focus on enriching the Developer Experience (DevEx). Far from the narrow confines of automation and tooling, DevEx returns to the heart of DevOps—culture, principles, and practices. It’s about streamlining creation and delivery, enhancing quality, and minimizing effort.
DevOps has moved, mainly due to misknowledge, into a technical concept, where only automation and tooling remain, while the most important aspects, such as the practices, culture, principles, and cultural aspect have vanished.
Developer Experience focuses on making the development (please note not only developers) life easier. Making the product creation and delivery more efficient, with higher quality and less effort.
Internal Developer Portals democratize technology access, making resource sharing seamless amidst the complexities of cloud-native development. Tools like Backstage and Cortex empower teams to craft software up to twenty times faster—imagine the leap when you're not starting from scratch.
Cloud Development Environments (CDEs) have transformed the landscape, bidding farewell to clunky, slow, and not-performing remote machines (yes, you can think about Citrix). These high-performance, reliable environments, ready at a click, mark a new dawn for developer agility and creativity.
Platform Engineering remains a cornerstone, accelerating value delivery by reducing cognitive overhead and enhancing independent application management, all while ensuring security. It's about crafting internal platforms that resonate with the needs of developers and treating them as end-users whose feedback shapes the future.
AI-Augmented Software Engineering stands as the final bastion of DevEx. With AI assistance, developers gain unprecedented productivity boosts, allowing them to focus on higher-level design and business application composition.
#2 EcoTech & InsightOps: Pioneering Sustainable Systems Intelligence
Measuring technology's performance and impact is crucial, yet challenging. We need to move beyond isolated metrics towards holistic observability that spans entire enterprises. With advanced tools, understanding how our systems act, respond and behave becomes more accessible, but it requires a concerted effort and a well-orchestrated strategy.
The ability to measure and monitor the performance and behavior of applications in real time is key for responding to customer needs, both from a technical side and also from a functional one. Data is power, and having proper Observability opens the doors to applying AI data analysis to your software ecosystem. The right attention, knowledge, capacity, effort, and execution strategy need to be in place to make it happen. Still, often we hear how Grafana dashboards are not wanted because they look techie.
Sustainability in technology is gaining ground, with initiatives like the Green Software Foundation advocating for cleaner and more responsible tech development. Sustainable Technology is not just about measuring delivery and performance—it's about assessing our technological footprint on the world and striving for a sustainable future.
#3 CyberGuardians: Redefining DevSecOps in the Digital Age
Hacking, like aliens, exists. We may not see it, but it’s there. With the evolution of technology, threads are more common, we use innovative solutions that are not as secure as possible. Luckily multiple practices come to the rescue and can contribute to creating secure and robust systems.
DevSecOps, is still here. Detecting, preventing, and stopping faulty software from being released. It can protect you from unexpected surprises, as well as solve potential threads in minutes rather than days or hours. Tools such as SonarQube, Snyk, Mend, or dependencies checks help react to a security incident before is too late.
The Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA) is a visionary concept from Gartner that applies foundational DevOps principles to security, aiming for comprehensive protection across the organization's fabric.
“Attackers don’t think in Silos. Companies do.”
Generative cybersecurity AI represents a paradigm shift, ushering in a new era of proactive defense powered by intelligent systems. However, with great power comes great responsibility. Ensuring the safe deployment of AI is paramount to prevent new, unforeseen vulnerabilities.
#4 Architects of Innovation: Shaping the Future of Microservices & GitOps
The most techie category of the trends. A correct architecture is the first step in an efficient system. Technology Architecture evolves continuously, and it requires a special mention.
The architectural landscape is in constant flux, with Modular Architecture emerging from the well-established Microservices approach. Offering agility and flexibility, it steers away from some of the intricacies associated with microservices, courtesy of cloud evolution and the expanding DevOps toolkit.
GitOps represents a merger of the best of DevOps practices applied to infrastructure automation, embracing collaboration, version control, and CI/CD. This approach accelerates releases and fosters a culture of efficient, secure, and traceable software delivery.
FinOps demystifies the notion that cloud solutions are inherently costly. With strategic cost controls and knowledgeable resource management, cloud expenditures can be optimized to bolster the company's financial health.
#5 CloudFront Pioneers: Mastering Cloud-Native Scalability
The vast array of cloud services from providers like AWS and Azure far exceeds the traditional server and database solutions, encompassing areas like IoT, media streaming, and even quantum computing services.
Cloud-Native technologies offer unparalleled speed and reliability in product development, pushing the boundaries of innovation. The demand for specialized skills diminishes as the cloud becomes a comprehensive provider.
Special mention to Serverless Computing, removing the complexity of establishing clusters or servers behind the running solutions, one hassle less for you. The Cloud manages automatically the use you need and you pay just for that, making delivery pragmatic and straight to the point. It represents a practical approach to product delivery, where the focus is solely on creation and innovation.
Closure:
The relentless evolution of Modern Engineering and DevOps is reshaping the technological landscape. By embracing the synergies of DevEx, Observability, Cybersecurity, Architecture, and the Cloud, businesses of all sizes can secure their place at the forefront of innovation. Staying informed and adaptable is no longer a choice but a necessity for those intent on navigating the currents of an ever-evolving digital future.
The ability to adopt the new trends and update the current landscape towards a modern engineering approach will only result in higher performance, efficiency, and quality, as well as enabling your company for further development and innovation.
Tektique
Making Software Delivery a Pleasure.
For this Modern Engineering and DevOps trends analysis we have used information from:
Tektique's knowledge and experiences
https://www.spkaa.com/blog/the-top-9-devops-trends-for-2023-and-beyond