1. IT Trends Report 2019:Cloud Management
Skills for DevOps Pros of Tomorrow
Conducted by C White Consulting
December 2018

2. © 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Study Overview
Areas of discussion
How equipped do DevOps pros feel with their current IT skillset to manage the emerging technologies of tomorrow?
In which areas are DevOps pros already upskilling today and/or know they should be upskilling today?
How often do DevOps pros find the time to participate in upskilling (skills training and/or career program development) and from what primary source?
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

3. © 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Study Overview
Respondent demographics
30% of respondents were from MSPs/MSSPs
100 DevOps (web and app developers) practitioners, managers, and directors in the U.S. and Canada from public- and private-sector small, mid-size, and enterprise organizations participated in a December 2018 online study.
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

4. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
DevOps pros’ confidence in having all the necessary skills to successfully manage IT environment for next three to five years
DevOps pros surveyed represent the 75% of all DevOps pros who are not “completely confident” in having all the necessary skills to successfully manage their IT environment for the next three to five years. Of DevOps pros surveyed, nearly three in 10 are somewhat unconfident or completely unconfident (combined) about having the necessary skills to do so.
Q: How confident are you that you already have all the necessary skills to successfully manage your IT environment for the next three to five years?
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

5. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
Most important technologies for organization’s technological transformation over next three to five years
#5 by weighted rank
#1 by weighted rank
#6 by weighted rank
#2 by weighted rank
#3 by weighted rank
“Other” responses (N=4): no noteworthy mentions
By weighted rank, cloud/hybrid IT is also the most important technology, followed by automation and/or orchestration and big data analytics.
#4 by weighted rank
Nearly 75% of DevOps pros surveyed indicate that cloud (public, private, or mix of both) and/or hybrid IT (mix of cloud and on-premises) is one of the top five most important technologies needed for their organization’s technological transformation over the next three to five years, with 31% listing cloud/hybrid IT as their #1 most important technology.
Q: What are the five most important technologies needed for your organization’s technological transformation over the next three to five years? [choose up to five in prioritized order]
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

6. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
Technologies DevOps pros feel unequipped to successfully implement/manage with current skillset
“Other” responses (N=1): no noteworthy mentions
Over half of DevOps pros surveyed indicate that artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology they feel unequipped to successfully implement and/or manage given their current IT skillset, followed by quantum computing and blockchain (50%, respectively), then machine learning and/or deep learning (45%).
Q: Based on your current IT skillset, which of the following technologies do you feel unequipped to successfully implement and/or manage? (choose all that apply)
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

7. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
Skills DevOps pros have worked to develop over past 12 months to better manage daily operations
“Other” responses (N=2): no noteworthy mentions (ie artificial intelligence (2))
Only 2% of DevOps surveyed feel they already possess ALL needed skills.
Over the past 12 months, 54% of DevOps pros surveyed have worked to develop their coding and scripting skills in order to better manage their day-to-day IT environment and its needed disciplines (IT Ops, DevOps, SecOps, and/or outsourced services (MSP/MSSPs)), followed by systems and infrastructure management and database management (43% and 41%, respectively).
Q: Which of the following skills have you worked to develop over the past 12 months in order to better manage your day-to-day IT environment and its needed disciplines (such as IT Ops, DevOps, SecOps and/or outsourced services (MSP/MSSPs))? (choose all that apply)
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

8. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
Skills DevOps pros need to develop over next three to five years to better manage daily operations
“Other” responses (N=3): no noteworthy mentions (ie AI (2))
Over one-third of DevOps (respectively) feel they need to develop their coding and scripting skills and their software-defined network (SDN), storage (SDS) and/or datacenter (SDDC) skills.
Over the next three to five years, 45% of DevOps pros surveyed need to develop their security management skills (such as SIEM, policies, compliance) while two-fifths (respectively) need to develop their data science and analytics and hybrid IT deployment, monitoring, and/or management skillset to better manage their day-to-day IT environment and its needed disciplines (IT Ops, DevOps, SecOps, and/or outsourced services (MSP/MSSPs)).
Q: Which of the following skills will you need to develop over the next three to five years in order to better manage your day-to-day IT environment? (choose all that apply)
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

9. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
Top career development goals for DevOps pros over next three to five years
#1 by weighted rank
#6 by weighted rank
#2 by weighted rank
#3 by weighted rank
#5 by weighted rank
“Other” responses (N=2): no noteworthy mentions
#4 by weighted rank
Nearly half of DevOps pros surveyed indicate that technology innovation is one of their top three career development goals over the next three to five years, with 24% listing it as their number one career development goal. By weighted rank, technology innovation is also the top career development goal, followed by programming, coding, and/or scripting and data analytics and/or data science.
Q: What are your top three career development goals over the next three to five years? [choose up to three in prioritized order]
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

10. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
Most important technologies needed for DevOps pros’ career development/advancement over next three to five years
#6 by weighted rank
#1 by weighted rank
#4 by weighted rank
#5 by weighted rank
#2 by weighted rank
#3 by weighted rank
“Other” responses (N=0)
Nearly three-fifths of DevOps pros surveyed indicate that cloud (public, private, or mix of both) and/or hybrid IT (mix of cloud and on-premises) is one of the top five most important technologies needed for their career development/advancement over the next three to five years, with 20% listing cloud/hybrid IT as their most important technology. By weighted rank, cloud/hybrid IT is also the most important technology, followed by big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI).
Q: What are the five most important technologies needed for your career development/advancement over the next three to five years? [choose up to five in prioritized order]
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

11. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
DevOps pros’ primary source of IT skills training/career development
“Other” responses (N=5): no noteworthy mentions (ie google, lynda.com, MOOCs, books, udemy (1, resp))
Only three percent of DevOps look to YouTube/Switch or associations (respectively) as their primary source of skills training and/or career development.
One-fifth of DevOps pros surveyed indicate that online communities/forums (such as Slack) or their organization and/or co-workers (respectively) is their primary source of IT skills training/career development, followed by industry events/trade shows, vendor training sessions, and industry publications (17%, 16%, 16%, respectively).
Q: When it comes to learning about emerging technologies, what is your prim source of IT skills training/career development? (choose only one)
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

12. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
DevOps pros’ impression after participating in IT skills training/career development at primary source
“Other” responses (N=4): no noteworthy mentions (ie limited foundational concepts, not enough info to see it tie together from 10,000 feet (1), not tailored to our purposes – too general (1))
After DevOps pros surveyed participated in IT skills training/career development from their primary source, nearly half of DevOps pros considered the training to be informative, 32% considered it engaging/interactive, and over one-fourth considered it not long enough or too simple (respectively).
Q: Overall, how would you describe the IT skills training/career development you have participated in from the primary source you just mentioned? [choose all that apply]
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

13. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
DevOps pros’ impression by primary source (top four)
My Org and/or Coworkers
Industry Events/Trade Shows
Online Communities/Forums (i.e., Slack)
Vendor Training Sessions
“Other” responses (N=4): no noteworthy mentions (ie limited foundational concepts, not enough info to see it tie together from 10,000 feet (1), not tailored to our purposes – too general (1))
And those opting for training via online communities/forums (such as Slack) find it more informative when compared to those opting for training/career development from other sources.
By primary source (qualitatively speaking), those opting for training via their organization and/or coworkers or via vendor training sessions (respectively) find the training/career development more engaging/interactive than those opting for training from other sources.
Q: Overall, how would you describe the IT skills training/career development you have participated in from the primary source you just mentioned? [choose all that apply]
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

14. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
Frequency that DevOps pros’ day-to-day IT tasks extend into time earmarked for career development
Two-fifths of DevOps pros surveyed indicate that day-to-day IT management tasks “always” extend into the time they set aside for pursuing their career development goals, while 59% of DevOps pros state that happens “sometimes,” and 17% say it happens “rarely.”
Q: How often do your day-to-day IT management tasks extend into the time you set aside for pursuing your career development goals? (choose only one)
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

15. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
Frequency that DevOps pros currently engage in IT skills training/career development programs
One-fourth of DevOps pros surveyed indicate that they currently engage in IT skills training and/or career development programs a few times a year, while 23% of DevOps pros engage monthly, nearly one-fifth of DevOps pros engage weekly, and 13% engage quarterly.
Q: How often do you currently engage in IT skills training and/or career development programs? (choose only one)
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

16. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
Frequency that DevOps pros would commit to IT skills training/career development programs given no schedule/workload restrictions
Over two-fifths of DevOps pros surveyed indicate that given no schedule/workload restrictions, they would commit to IT skills training and/or career development programs on a weekly basis, while nearly one-fourth of DevOps pros would commit monthly and 16% of DevOps pros would commit daily.
Q: If you could set your own schedule and workload with no restrictions, how often would you commit to IT skills training and/or career development programs? (choose only one)
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

17. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
DevOps pros’ biggest barrier to current ability to participate in IT skills training/career development
“Other” responses (N=0)
One-tenth or less of DevOps believe any other barrier is the biggest one to overcome, and 99% of DevOps surveyed believe IT skills training and/or development programs are useful.
Nearly half of DevOps pros surveyed indicate that time/availability (for travel, training itself, etc.) is the biggest barrier to their current ability to participate in IT skills training and/or career development programs, followed by cost (of training program, travel to tradeshow, etc.) (25%).
Q: What is the biggest barrier to your current ability to participate in IT skills training and/or career development programs? (choose only one)
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

18. Technology Skills and Training Are Needed
DevOps pros’ ideal delivery format for IT skills training materials for IT Ops, SecOps, DevOps, and MSP/MSSPs
#3 by weighted rank
#2 by weighted rank
#4 by weighted rank
#1 by weighted rank
#5 by weighted rank
#6 by weighted rank
“Other” responses (N=28): no noteworthy mentions (ie udemy, blogs, reading old training, manuals and other vendor docs (1, resp))
Nearly two-fifths of DevOps pros surveyed indicate that full-day, in-person workshop/user conference is their ideal delivery format for IT skills training materials, followed by self-guided online courses, webinars, and half-day, in-person workshop/user conference (21%, 20%, and 11%, respectively). By weighted rank, self-guided online courses is the ideal delivery format, followed by full-day, in-person workshops/user conferences and webinars.
Q: In order of preference, what is your ideal delivery format for IT skills training materials pertaining to IT Ops, SecOps, DevOps, and outsourcing/managed services? [choose 5 in prioritized order]
© 2019 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.