Shippable Survey: Developers Are Increasing Their Use of Containers for New Applications, but Technology Skills Gap Impedes Widespread Adoption

Companies That Are Using Containers to Launch New Applications Say Release Cycles Are Much Faster and They Need Fewer Developers to do the Same Amount of Work


SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - May 3, 2016) - Shippable has completed a survey of more than 300 software developers in the United States. The survey ran online in March and April, and focused on container technology strategies, trends and challenges thus far in 2016. In general, the survey found that developers are increasing their use of containers to power new and prospective applications, but roadblocks to widespread adoption remain.

Container technology has become more popular as developers search for tools that accelerate release cycles and improve application flexibility. Containers themselves enclose pieces of code in a layer of software that can be transported easily between computers, speeding application development and reducing costs. One-third of developers surveyed by Shippable said release cycles are "much faster" with containers, and 17 percent said they need fewer developers to complete the same amount of work.

Not surprisingly, more than half (52 percent) of developers responding to Shippable's survey are using containers in production for new applications; 14 percent said they're using containers in development/test environments. Meanwhile, 89 percent said they're "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to increase use of containers in the next 12 months.

Among developers not using containers today, the most common reason, according to Shippable's survey, is they don't have the necessary technology skills in-house. The second most common reason given was that container technology is still too immature. Other developers said their infrastructure is not designed to work with containers; they were concerned about the security risks; and container technology ROI is still unproven.

Shippable's survey revealed several other container-focused trends:

  • The most popular registry is Google Container Registry (54 percent), followed by Amazon EC2 Container Registry (45 percent) and Docker Hub (34 percent)
  • The majority of respondents (31 percent) said they are running containers on public cloud infrastructure. Private cloud was nearly as common at 30 percent, followed by hybrid (17 percent) and on-premises (2 percent) environments
  • 52 percent of developers said they're running containerized applications on Google Compute Engine, while 49 percent are running on Microsoft Azure and 43 percent on Amazon Web Services
  • 58 percent of developers reported they are using GitHub with containers. Another 27 percent are using Atlassian, and 23 percent are using Jenkins. Puppet (23 percent) and Chef (19 percent) are also used widely
  • And finally, 74 percent of developers said they're shipping new software at least 10 percent faster using container technology, and eight percent are shipping more than 50 percent faster than before

"Our research and personal experience shows that companies can experience exponential gains in software development productivity through the use of container technology and related tools," said Avi Cavale, CEO at Shippable, the first company to use Docker containers in production. "Companies are realizing the productivity and flexibility gains they were expecting, and use of container technology is clearly on the rise. That said, there are still hurdles to overcome. Companies can help themselves by training internal software teams and partnering with vendors and service providers that have worked with container technology extensively."

In terms of the survey sampling, approximately 25 percent of respondents came from NY or CA.

About Shippable
Founded in 2013, Shippable's mission is to help companies ship code faster and focus on innovation by removing all friction in the software development and delivery workflows. For more information visit www.shippable.com.

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Media contact:
Kevin Wolf
TGPR
(650) 327-1641