As businesses adopt a multi-platform strategy, PaaS, containers, and serverless are all rising.

PaaS, containers and serverless are surging as companies take a multi-platform approach- Cloud Foundry report.

Cloud Foundry recently disclosed the findings of a poll of more than 600 IT Decision Makers, which revealed an increased interest in and use of several cloud-native technologies. 39% of respondents use a combination of PaaS, containers, and serverless computing. It is referred to as a “multi-platform approach” in the paper. ​Companies that use a multi-platform approach hedge their risks and look to future-proof their IT decisions. The following is from the report: 

​”It should come as no surprise that as they grow more nimble in employing these tools in this multi-platform environment, IT Decision Makers are looking for a suite of solutions that can work together.” They want technology that links to their current environments to suit their immediate needs while also being versatile enough to meet their long-term requirements.

IT decision-makers may be confident in whatever technological or culture shift comes next—serverless, continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD), or Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML). As a result, they will seamlessly integrate innovations and deliver maximum developer productivity by choosing platforms that offer maximum flexibility and easy integration.” ​Download a copy of the report to view all of the details. Otherwise, here are the report’s top 5 highlights and my thoughts. 

​1. A multi-platform system allows you to be as flexible as possible.

Companies feds up with being tethered to difficult-to-integrate technology that inhibits them from adjusting to changing needs. Interoperability and the capacity to pivot as needed are two things they seek. As a result, firms are considering numerous cloud technologies, with 77 percent of respondents adopting PaaS, 72 percent containers, 46 percent serverless, and 39 percent reporting their organizations are using all three, according to the data.

2. Companies are simultaneously developing new apps and refactoring existing ones.

Companies using a mix grew by 9% from the previous year’s poll, from 48% to 57%. The percentage of companies focusing solely on reworking legacy programs has dropped to 13%. (down from 24 percent in 2017). It suggests that organizations recognize that to remain relevant, they must innovate with new digital offerings while maintaining and modernizing their current offerings.

Containers have “crossed the chasm” in three ways.

The phrase became famous because of Geoffrey Moore’s book Crossing the Chasm. When technology advances from “Early Adopters” to an “Early Majority,” it is referred to as “Crossing the Chasm: Advertising and Taking Profits Products to Mainstream Customers.”

According to the survey, 72% of respondents said their organizations utilized or investigated containers, up 5% from late 2017. Also, I believe that most big cloud providers’ adoption of Kubernetes in late 2017 aided containers in crossing the divide. See a blog article I made on Kubernetes in January for more information.

4. The importance of being serverless is highlighted.

Serverless computing has sparked much interest, with 46% of IT Decision Makers using and evaluating it. In addition, evaluation has climbed to 35% of responders, up from 25% a year ago. According to the paper, containers detect a similar pattern, which could be an indicator of future use:

“The degree of interest in assessing serverless computing is similar to the level of interest in analyzing containers in early 2016.” Our container tracking data reveals that decreasing “not using” is a leading indicator for crossing the chasm. Non-users become evaluators, then users. The same trend will emerge with serverless.”

5. The adoption of PaaS is quickening.

As a result, PaaS utilization in production has increased and witnessed widespread acceptance. Two-thirds of respondents indicated that PaaS had saved their companies over $100,000. PaaS has given established businesses a head start in their digital transformation initiatives. Many of our clients are exploring and adopting it, so the huge increase isn’t surprising. This adoption trend will continue because organizations need to speed up their transformation efforts and fight back against their Silicon Valley adversaries. PaaS footprints within the enterprise will grow dramatically shortly.

Conclusion

These are exciting times for IT, with a technological paradigm change that many of us may never see again in our lives. One thing is sure: as this study demonstrates, there is no going back to “conventional” computing methods. Also, all businesses will be required to meet new criteria of interoperability and adaptability.

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