News

Survey: More Developers Are Moving to the Cloud

• By Michael Desmond
• 08/17/2011

Despite persistent concerns about security, developers increasingly prefer cloud-based development tooling, according to a survey by Evans Data Corp.

The survey polled more than 400 developers involved in cloud-based application development and deployment. The results, released Wednesday, indicate that 42 percent of respondents expect cloud use at their firms to grow by more than 20 percent over the next year, with 13.5 percent saying they expect it to grow by more than 50 percent.

Even as cloud adoption grows, developer attitudes toward building cloud apps is changing, said Janel Garvin, chief executive officer of Evans Data.

"Six months ago there was an even split between developers who wanted their tools for cloud development to be extensions of their development desktop suite (51.6%) and those who wanted tools for cloud development provided in the cloud itself. Today there's actually a dramatic shift towards a desire for cloud-provided tools," Garvin said. "Sixty-six percent prefer that tools for cloud development be provided in the cloud rather than as extensions of a desktop tool suite, which is a significant jump."

At the same time, Garvin said that developers are "reluctant to make extreme changes requiring a steep learning curve." While developers resist learning new languages or architectures for their cloud projects, she said they will accept new patterns and models.

"There is less resistance to adopting new tools now than there was six months ago, so that may be changing as developers look for tools specific to cloud implementations, provided in the cloud," she said.

The survey identified Java, C/C++ and JavaScript as the most popular languages used for cloud development. Garvin said that two-thirds of respondents report using C# and Visual Basic for at least part of their work. Among scripting languages, she said, "PHP beats out Python and Ruby."

Evans Data also surveyed developers on issues that impact tool adoption. Security was identified as the most important issue by nearly 30 percent of respondents. "The findings echoed concerns that security is the most commonly cited barrier to cloud development and deployment, and we see that echoed here in considerations for cloud tools," Garvin said.