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The global rollout of 5G is gaining momentum, opening up new possibilities for developers to harness its advanced features, such as network slicing capabilities. According to data from the GSMA, the worldwide adoption of 5G connections (excluding licensed cellular IoT) has surged from 8% in 2021 to 18% in 2023, with projections to reach 56% by 2030. Concurrently, the mobile industry is already exploring the realms of 6G to further enhance the foundations laid by 5G. But how many developers are actually working on these technologies today? Where are they located? What are they building? Who do they work for? Join us in this blog post to delve into the current landscape of developers working on 5G and 6G technologies. We will answer these questions using data from three waves of our global developer surveys, which have reached over 60,000 developers worldwide. Developer’s engagement with 5G/6G technologies has doubled over the last two years As the consumer adoption and deployment of 5G continues to rise, so does the share of developers working on 5G/6G projects. In Q3 2021, a mere 5% of developers globally were working on these technologies. Fast forward to Q3 2023, and this percentage has more than doubled, reaching 11%. Furthermore, the percentage of developers learning about 5G/6G technologies has also witnessed a notable increase, from 10% to 18% over the past two years. This points towards a broader and heightened interest in these technologies, with  29% of developers currently working on or learning about 5G/6G, compared to the 15% recorded two years ago. Additionally, the share of developers expressing at least some interest in 5G/6G has grown. In Q3 2021, 57% of developers showed no interest in these technologies, but by Q3 2023 this had decreased to only 38%. However, it’s worth noting that this remains considerably higher when compared to other popular emerging technologies we track, such as quantum computing (31%), robotics (29%), and generative AI (20%). Where are 5G developers located, and what are they building? Now, let’s delve into the profile of the 11% of developers currently working on 5G/6G, and explore their geographic locations and the nature of their projects. Looking at the regional distribution of these developers, we can see that three regions, namely North America (32%), Western Europe (17%), and East Asia (14%), collectively host the majority (63%) of the 5G/6G developer community. Upon comparing the regional distribution of 5G/6G developers to the overall developer population, two regions show a substantially higher concentration of these developers: North America (32% vs 19%) and East Asia (14% vs 9%), standing out as hotspots of 5G/6G development. Conversely, the Greater China area, South Asia, and Eastern Europe are marked with a comparatively lower density of developers working on 5G/6G. A noteworthy observation is the remarkable growth of 5G/6G developers in the Middle East & Africa. Hosting only 4% of these developers two years ago, it surged to 14% in Q3 2023, aligning with their share of the overall developer population (14%), which has remained stable in this period. Examining the types of projects that those working on 5G/6G are involved in reveals a compelling trend. They exhibit higher participation than average across all types, except for web apps / SaaS and, especially, backend services. Conversely, in development areas such as AR, VR, industrial IoT, consumer electronics, and embedded software, we observe that the involvement of these developers is more than twice the average across all developers. Not surprisingly, these sectors stand to gain significantly from the advantages offered by advanced connectivity. The broader engagement of 5G/6G developers in almost all sectors may be attributed, at least partially, to their higher likelihood of holding managerial positions. Notably, developers working on 5G/6G are approximately twice as likely to hold roles such as CEO, CTO, CIO, or IT manager than other developers. This could signal that the integration of 5G/6G remains a strategic priority yet to be fully realised within organisations. Our data also enables us to further break down 5G/6G developers based on variables such as experience or professional status, among others, but that analysis goes beyond the purposes of this blog post. If you are interested in gaining more insights into 5G/G6 developers, our Custom Data Cuts can cover your needs. The size and industries of 5G/6G developer workplaces Given that the vast majority (83%) of 5G/6G developers are professionals, let’s get further details into their workplace environments. Looking at the size of the organisations these developers work for, it becomes apparent that they are more inclined to work in larger companies. While over half (53%) of all developers work for organisations of up to 100 employees, only 39% of developers working on 5G/6G find employment within these smaller-scale organisations. This could be attributed to factors such as resource availability and scale. Larger companies are likely better positioned to invest in the research and development of emerging technologies like 5G and 6G. Additionally, the participation of larger organisations in standardisation bodies or industry forums, coupled with economies of scale, allows them to reduce the cost per unit for the research, development, and deployment of these advanced technologies. Furthermore, the larger customer bases of these companies enable them to leverage the scale of their operations effectively. Taking a closer look at the industry vertical in which these developers’ companies operate reveals a notable trend – they are more inclined to engage in multiple industries compared to the overall developer population, underscoring the versatility and cross-industry applications of 5G/6G technologies. With 35% of 5G/6G developers working for the software and services industry, this industry boasts the highest participation rate of these developers, despite the share of 5G/6G developers involved in this sector being substantially lower compared to the overall developer population (43%). Conversely, industries such as data analytics and, unsurprisingly, telecommunications and networks claim the second (22%) and third (17%) largest share of 5G/6G developers, respectively,  both showing higher participation compared to the average of all developers involved in these industries. Are you keen on gaining deeper insights into the realm of developers working on 5G/6G? Perhaps you're intrigued by those who are in the process of learning about or merely expressing interest in these cutting-edge technologies? Reach out, and let's delve into this exploration together. About the author Álvaro is a market research analyst with a background in strategy and operations consulting. He holds a Master’s in Business Management and believes in the power of data-driven decision-making. Álvaro is passionate about helping businesses tackle complex strategic business challenges and make strategic decisions backed by thorough research and analysis.

While the idea of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is not new, a lot of progress has been made over the past few years that has allowed software developers to elevate the functionality of their applications by incorporating AI. In recognising that AI will only grow in popularity, vendors offering generative AI services must adapt to the specific needs of this technology to maintain a competitive edge in the industry. This blog post aims to provide a basis for understanding developers who build generative AI applications by exploring the technologies they use and the information sources they prefer. The analysis is based on data collected from over 16,500 respondents who answered questions about incorporating generative AI functionality into their applications in the 25th edition of our global Developer Nation survey, which was fielded in Q3 2023. More information about how developers create generative AI solutions can be found in the accompanying report. Cloud computing is essential for many generative AI applications In recent years, cloud computing has become a strategic necessity for many modern software projects. While hosting software locally has its advantages, running software in the cloud allows developers to build scalable solutions that can accommodate demanding workloads. Due to the computationally intensive nature of advanced generative AI models, cloud computing has become particularly important for developers whose applications incorporate generative AI functionality (e.g. through Amazon Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, etc.). According to our survey data, 66% of these developers use cloud environments to deploy their code. In contrast, only 50% of those who do not build generative AI applications run their applications on cloud servers, for whom end-user devices are the most popular choice. Let us now take a closer look at the developers whose applications run on the cloud. The relative usage rates of public and private clouds are very similar for both groups of developers. However, we observe a significant difference in the adoption of multi-cloud solutions between those who add generative AI functionality in their applications and those who do not (32% vs 18%). This indicates that developers who build generative AI applications are more willing than their counterparts to use different cloud computing services for different workloads. As such, these developers may be more willing to adopt different cloud providers if they provide the features they desire. Furthermore, these developers may also be more likely to choose generative AI services that do not restrict them to a given vendor’s tooling ecosystem and gravitate towards products that allow easy integration with technologies offered by various vendors. Developers who build generative AI applications are far more likely than average to use low-code / no-code tools Beyond this, we also see that 75% of developers who build generative AI applications use low-code or no-code (LC/NC) tools in their workflows. Conversely, only 41% of those whose applications do not utilise generative AI functionality report using such tools. This suggests that it may be highly advantageous for vendors offering generative AI tools to offer LC/NC capabilities along with code-based SDKs and APIs. Breaking down this information by experience reveals that this pattern is extended across all experience levels. In broader research, we find that those with more than ten years of experience are the least likely to LC/NC tools. Despite this, 59% of these developers who also build generative AI applications report using LC/NC tools to some capacity in their projects. This is significantly above that of their counterparts who do not build generative AI applications but have the same experience (29%). Not only that, but it also exceeds the usage of LC/NC tools amongst the less experienced developers who do not engage with generative AI development. This suggests that LC/NC tools are highly desirable for building generative AI applications, even by the most experienced developers. In turn, this opens up a wide range of opportunities for vendors offering generative AI products to enhance developer experience and gain new customers through offering LC/NC capabilities. How to reach developers who build generative AI applications While it is important to understand what developers look for in tooling, capturing their attention is just as crucial in building a competitive advantage in the industry. One way to look at this is by considering where they go to find information and updates about software development. Our research reveals that developers who build generative AI applications prefer to use community-driven sources of information. For instance, 44% of these developers turn to open source communities and a further 38% to community websites and forums for updates and information about software development. This highlights how important it is for vendors offering generative AI products to maintain a good relationship with the community. In turn, this allows them to effectively reach their target audience through methods that extend beyond the vendor-owned resources. Comparing this to those whose applications do not utilise generative AI functionality shows that these developers are less likely to rely on community resources overall. Instead, developers who build generative AI applications are significantly more likely to engage with conversational AI services (37%) than their counterparts (25%). This suggests that there is a link between developers using generative AI services and adding generative AI features to their own applications. In addition to communities and chatbots, social media is very popular amongst developers who build generative AI applications. Social media is a great resource for getting updates about new technologies. In broader research, we observe that the popularity of social media is typically highest amongst developers in the early stages of their careers, decreasing greatly as they gain experience. However, this is not the case for those who build generative AI applications. For these developers, the use of social media for information remains at around 38% across all levels of experience. This suggests that when it comes to generative AI, using social media can be just as effective at reaching experienced developers. Key takeaways: Cloud computing: 66% of developers who build generative AI applications use cloud environments to run their applications, compared to 50% of other developers. Low-code/no-code tools: There’s a significant trend of generative AI developers (75%) using low-code/no-code tools, indicating a market opportunity for vendors. Information sources: Developers who build generative AI applications prefer community-driven information sources, suggesting vendors should engage with these communities for outreach. However, we also observe significant usage of social media and conversational AI services for this purpose. Are you looking to understand where the developers using your product/service go to look for information? Let’s talk. About the Author Nikita Solodkov is a multidisciplinary researcher with a particular interest in using data-driven insights to solve real-world problems. He holds a PhD in physics and has over five years of experience in data analytics and research design.

In our latest thought-leading report, SlashData worked with the Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) to explore the current state of the CI/CD developer ecosystem and how this has evolved over the past three and half years. Within the report, we will look at what proportion of developers are involved in the broader DevOps space and how many work with CI/CD technologies in particular. The findings in this report are based on data from SlashData’sprevious eight Developer Nation surveys which reached more than 150,000 respondents worldwide over three and half years, from Q3 2020 to Q1 2024. The full version of the report is available for free on the SlashData Research Space, but keep reading to get a better idea of the topics and the insights it offers. What is Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD), often combined and called CI/CD, are software development practices that enable developers to frequently integrate code changes and release frequent software updates reliably and safely. Closely linked to the broader DevOps cultural movement, CI/CD consists of a set of practices to automate and streamline the software delivery process. These practices, in turn, allow developer teams to innovate faster by collecting regular user feedback, prioritise the product features and fixes that matter most, and reduce risk. This poses the question: to what extent –really–have developers embraced CI/CD practices and the DevOps culture to increase the effectiveness of their software development and release process? For the last eight consecutive iterations of SlashData’s biannual Developer Nation survey, we asked developers whether they are involved in any of the activities that commonly fall under the DevOps spectrum, such as CI, CD, and testing applications for security vulnerabilities. Which developers are into DevOps? 83% of developers involved in DevOps-related activities as of Q1 2024. As of Q1 2024, 83% of developers are involved in DevOps-related activities. This highlights that developers are adopting DevOps practices in large swathes, even if not identifying as DevOps "specialists". While the current proportion of those involved is a small decrease from the peak Q1 2023 (85%), the decrease is mostly driven by newer developers. A quarter of developers with less than two years of experience in software development are not involved in any DevOps-related activities. This indicates that although the vast majority of new developers are engaging in DevOps activities, newer developers should be better educated about the benefits and usefulness of DevOps practices in maximising skill development throughout their careers. Alternatively, it could also suggest that some organisations may want the more skilled/experienced developers working on software delivery processes. In summary, while DevOps involvement has decreased a small amount over the last year, it still higher than DevOps involvement in Q1 2022, when it was 77%. How has software delivery performance evolved? Within the general developer population, our data shows no clear signs that the velocity for code changes has improved over the last three and a half years. Over this period, the percentage of top performers — those with lead times of less than one day — has fluctuated between 13% and 17% and currently stands at 14% in Q1 2024. It is possible that the increase in DevOps practices has not yet trickled down to positively impact performance. However, DevOps has been a mainstay of professional development for several years now. Instead, it may be that the ubiquity of DevOps practices has allowed developers and organisations to increase the complexity of projects they are involved in, counteracting the benefits to development velocity. In other words, DevOps practices have likely made the development velocity of complex projects comparable to simpler projects without DevOps practices. While DevOps may be allowing for the scoping of increasingly complex projects that can harm performance here, another factor may be the consolidation of DevOps technology usage. As we will explore in the next section, developers have been steadily reducing the number of different DevOps technologies they have been using. As DevOps matures, developers go from exploring the space to focusing only on the technologies they find most useful. However, usefulness does not always directly correlate to deployment performance. What drives software delivery performance? In our survey, we capture information on a broad range of DevOps-related technologies that developers use, ranging from tools for managing source code to tools for monitoring application performance. The average number of technologies that DevOps practitioners use, of those listed, has decreased recently, from more than four technologies, on average, before Q1 2023 to 3.4 in Q1 2024. Similar to the trend in DevOps practices, DevOps technologies are showing a steady decrease in usage over time, but they are retaining their relative popularity. Only agile project management tools and AI-assisted coding tools maintained the proportion of developers using them. However, it is important to note that the developer population is continually growing, as is the number of tools available. As such, small decreases in the proportion of developers using DevOps technologies are not necessarily indicative of declining usage A further impact may be a change in the way developers and teams approach the ‘shift left’ development philosophy within DevOps. A mixture of security concerns, developers feeling inadequately empowered, and DevOps and DevSecOps teams being key to centralising or managing processes has left developers themselves with fewer DevOps activities in their mandate. Embracing DevOps as a philosophy, rather than just a collection of technologies, requires time and capital investment to ensure the processes are working to improve developers’ experience and velocity. Further evidence for issues with shift left can be found with developers at companies with more than 1,000 employees. The development velocity across all three measured metrics has remained stable over the last three and a half years, while those at smaller organizations have been performing worse. The current state of Continuous Delivery and Continuous Integration This report adds to the existing strong base of evidence that shows embracing DevOps can help developers and organisations improve their software delivery performance. Using a broad range of DevOps technologies is associated with better performance, as is the specific use of CI/CD tools. In particular, the use of managed and self-hosted CI/CD tools together is associated with the best delivery performance results. A key factor underlying the observations in this report is the important role that organisations and team leaders play in guiding their teams to greater performance. Whether it is helping developers consolidate their workflows down to a single self-hosted and/or managed CI/CD tool, to prevent interoperability issues, or ensuring that newer developers are more familiar with DevOps in general as well as the practices used in the organisation. This also opens a position for organisations to implement and build best practices throughout their organisation to ensure that delivery performance is not dependent on a developer’s individual experience, and instead one that can leverage the talent of the most experienced developers to elevate the less experienced. Organisations and team leaders should also place developer experience at the centre of their plans for improving delivery performance. The benefits have been demonstrated, but they are unlikely to amount to much if developers ignore or sidestep these processes due to them negatively impacting their experience developing. Balancing what processes to shift-left and which to maintain as the responsibility of specific teams and developers is likely a more effective strategy for achieving improved developer and delivery performance. The full report is free to access in our Research Space. Do you want to dive deeper into DevOps or see how developers involved in DevOps affect your organisation or service? Get in touch and we will walk you through the process. About the Continuous Delivery Foundation The Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) serves as the vendor-neutral home of many of the fastest-growing projects for continuous integration/continuous  delivery (CI/CD). It fosters vendor-neutral collaboration between the industry’s top developers, end users and vendors to further CI/CD best practices and industry specifications. Its mission is to grow and sustain projects that are part of the broad and growing continuous delivery ecosystem. For more information on the CDF Please visit their website. About the author Stathis Georgakopoulos, Product Marketing Manager Always keen to see what’s next in the industry, Stathis is the Product Marketing Manager for SlashData, setting the table and running the marketing activities. He's our go-to guy for all things marketing and does not hide his love for content marketing and creating helpful content.

How many mobile developers are there? Let’s have a look at our freshly published report on software developers who focus on mobile. In this industry insights report, we look into the underlying trends behind the growth of the mobile developer population, across the world. The aim is to provide data and insights that allow you to estimate the addressable market for mobile technologies in terms of the number of developers using these technologies. Mobile developers’ country, platform and professional status Within the report, we start by exploring the global population of mobile developers over the years and break it down by geographical location. Then, we look at the breakdown of the total mobile developer population by professional status and categories of applications built. Finally, we discuss the platforms and technologies that mobile developers use, and we estimate the size of the addressable market-specific tools used to create mobile applications, such as programming languages and frameworks. There are 17.7 million mobile developers in 2024 There are currently an estimated 17.7M mobile developers, and we forecast that the population will rise to 18.7M by Q3 2024. While North America and Western Europe are the two main regional strongholds for mobile development, the Middle East and Africa are experiencing a fast growth in the population of mobile developers, expected to reach 2.9M developers by the end of 2024. The gaming sector has shown the most significant growth for mobile app development, with 3.8M developers on it currently, and an estimated 4.2M by the end of 2024. Key questions about mobile software development that this industry report answers This report dives into the data from 5,583 developers and provides answers on: How many mobile developers are there across the globe? What is the breakdown of these backend developers by professional status, geographical region, and experience? What types of tools and technologies are mobile developers using? Who are mobile developers primarily targeting with their software? Mobile developer population forecast by application categories targeted The following graph shows real data, and what to expect from this insights report: You can access the full preview in our Research Space. If you want to dive deeper into software developers' data & trends, let’s talk. About the author Stathis Georgakopoulos, Product Marketing Manager Always keen to see what’s next in the industry, Stathis is the Product Marketing Manager for SlashData, setting the table and running the marketing activities. He's our go-to guy for all things marketing and does not hide his love for content marketing and creating helpful content.

We’re excited to announce a brand new chapter for our Developer Marketing & Relations: The Essential Guide book. This new chapter is not within the book’s contents, but a whole new journey as the 3rd Edition of the book is now translated and available to readers in Simplified Chinese. You can buy the 3rd Edition in Chinese here . The English versions are available in Paperback , Kindle and ePub . The launch was on March 30th, at a Segment Fault event. Moschoula Kramvousanou, SlashData CEO, also shared a message with the audience. How is SlashData involved with DevRel For more than 17 years, at SlashData, we have been surveying developers and analysing their responses to produce insights. It's these insights that developer-focused and developer-first companies rely on to design their strategy and create products developers love. Our goal has always been to empower developers to code the future, by sharing our data with the companies that serve them. We believe in the people at the heart of developer empowerment: the developer marketing and developer relations (DevRel) professionals. And we do what we can to help them. That includes writing a book. How did the Developer Marketing & Relations book happen? We have been hosting events in Silicon Valley to bring these professionals together and discuss their challenges, strategies and how to meet developer expectations. And learn from each other. After the pandemic outbreak, these events have moved online and you can watch them here. It was back in 2017 when discussing with professionals in Developer Relations within the world’s largest companies that the book's original editors Andreas Constantinou and Nicolas Sauvage fully recognized the fragmented nature of developer relations or DevRel - from the types of companies, the products they represented, and the knowledge of the practitioners. There, we witnessed that the best practices were often locked behind the doors of the companies that mastered them. We knew we wanted to work with these leaders and develop an essential guide to share this knowledge with a broader audience of developer relations, evangelists and advocates, developer marketing practitioners and beyond. We realised that Developer Relations is a hybrid role touching upon product, engineering, marketing, sales and customer support teams. Being such a hybrid role, there is a clear lack of formalised training. You can learn about computer engineering at a university. Same with marketing and sales. But you can’t learn DevRel except by Trial and error Learning from more experienced professionals What is included in the Developer Marketing and Relations: The Essential Guide For the first edition of the book, we had Director-level upwards professionals who wrote 12 chapters on the topics each of them was an expert on. By the 3rd edition, we had 19 chapters and 24 professionals covering all the main points of Developer Relations: from developer personas, to community, to events and meeting developers where they are. This book was the first of its kind when it first launched. A handbook on how to be successful in Developer Relations. This handbook is arranged in a way that takes you from strategic to tactical issues. You can read from start to finish, or jump into a particular chapter that focuses on what you need to know right now. We think everyone will find the information insightful, whether a seasoned professional in developer relations or just getting started. As one of our readers said  Finally...A book that helps us better understand developer marketing. While another reader described it as  A must read for every leader in technology driven companies As the influence of developers continues to grow, we believe that in the near future, most technology companies will need to get up to speed with developer marketing and build departments of people who understand and value developers, in much the same way that IT departments have become standard in most companies today, but 20 years ago this was not the case. Every company will soon be a technology company. We are so happy that this book has travelled so far and is ready to share its expertise with the DevRel professionals in China, in their native language. A big thank you to our partners at the Post and Telecommunication Press for undertaking such a big project and bringing to China and Chinese speakers the knowledge and lessons from the Tech industry’s largest professionals and organisations. About the author Stathis Georgakopoulos, Product Marketing Manager Always keen to see what’s next in the industry, Stathis is the Marketing Manager for SlashData, setting the table and running the marketing activities. He's our go-to-guy for all things about the podcast and the book “Developer Marketing+Relations: The Essential Guide”.

Low-code / no-code (LCNC) tools provide a visual approach to software development by automating parts of the application development process. These solutions allow developers, even without prior software development experience, to easily build applications, leading to potential time and cost efficiencies. To understand how the adoption of LCNC tools has evolved over the past 18 months, we draw data and insights from SlashData Q1 2022 and Q3 2023 global developer surveys. This begs the question, to what extent are developers using LCNC tools for their development projects? Usage of Low-Code No-Code tools in development projects Over the past 18 months, the percentage of developers using LCNC tools in their projects has substantially increased, from 46% to 57%. Furthermore, 32% report using these tools for at least a quarter of their development work as of Q3 2023 (up from 26% in Q1 2022). This suggests that not only are LCNC tools becoming more popular amongst developers, but a significant proportion of them are incorporating them in larger parts of their work. With technology advancements, the toolkit of developers is, without a doubt, expanding. Developers with different levels of experience show different behaviours when it comes to adopting LCNC tools. So, how does the usage of LCNC tools change with the level of experience in software development? Usage of Low-Code No-Code tools based on developers’ experience Overall, we see that those with more than a decade of experience in software development are the least likely to use LCNC tools, with 39% of those developers utilising such tools in their development work in Q3 2023. In contrast, around 60% of those with up to 10 years of experience rely on LCNC solutions. In general, the adoption of LCNC tools has grown in the last 18 months across all experience levels. Our data over the past 18 months uncovers a tale of generational shifts and adaptability. As of Q3 2023, 66% of developers with three to five years of experience report using LCNC tools, significantly more than those with more than a decade of experience (39%). This might signal a generational divide, where adaptability and openness to new technologies define the new wave of software developers. However, our data shows that highly experienced developers are also slowly catching up with the trend, although more carefully. In software development work, the adoption of LCNC tools reveals not just a generational shift but a notable gender dynamic. This raises another important question: how is a developer’s gender associated with the usage of LCNC tools in the development process? Usage of Low-Code No-Code tools based on developers’ gender A significant proportion of female developers report using LCNC tools, whereas male developers are less inclined to integrate these platforms into their work. As of Q3 2023, 70% of female developers are integrating LCNC tools in their development work, which is significantly above that of male developers (53%). However, in terms of the trend from Q1 2022 to Q3 2023, the percentage point increase is the same for both genders. However, delving deeper into our broader research reveals that this gender gap is not merely a reflection of gender-specific behaviour. Instead, it is tied to broader industry trends. We know that newcomers to software development are more inclined to adopt LCNC tools given their user-friendly nature and lower barriers to entry. Furthermore, team members in roles adjacent to core coding activities—such as designers and project managers, are also more likely to adopt LCNC technologies. Within both of these groups, we find a predominance of female developers over male developers, which highlights how experience levels and job functions, rather than gender alone, are significant drivers behind the adoption of LCNC tools. The uptake of LCNC tools also reveals some variations across different software development areas. Finally, we ask the question: What role does the distinct nature of each sector play when it comes to the adoption of LCNC technologies? Usage of Low-Code No-Code tools based on software development area Our survey data show a significant surge in the utilisation of LCNC tools among developers working on games, with the percentage of developers who use LCNC tools for games growing from 52% in Q1 2022 to 66% in Q3 2023. As developers seek more efficient, accessible, and flexible approaches to meet the fast-evolving demands of the gaming industry, it is no wonder that the utility of LCNC tools for this industry is on the rise. The largest share of developers use LCNC tools on VR as of Q3 2023 (78%), significantly up from 68% in Q1 2022. The high usage of LCNC tools among VR developers can be attributed to several factors inherent to that industry. First, the immersive nature of VR content creation calls for quick prototyping and iteration, which LCNC tools adeptly facilitate. This enables developers to bring their visions to life with greater speed and less technical burden. In turn, this enables more individuals without significant programming expertise to contribute to the VR landscape; a landscape which, our survey data show, mainly comprises developers with less than five years of experience in software development. Conversely, web apps / software as a service and backend services are the least likely to embrace LCNC tools, with 45% of them in Q1 2022 and 52% in Q3 2023 using these tools in each area, respectively. These sectors have well-established development frameworks and methodologies that may not align seamlessly with the abstractions and constraints of LCNC platforms. Overall, the adoption of LCNC tools has increased considerably over the past 18 months, across most developer segments. Despite the slower growth rate of LCNC tools in some software development areas, the gradual increase in their adoption suggests a growing recognition of their potential to streamline certain aspects of development. This hints at a future where even the most code-intensive domains might find value in the simplicity and efficiency that LCNC tools have to offer. We can dive deeper into the world of LCNC or the software development area that is most important to you. Get in touch and we will take care of the rest. About the author Bleona Bicaj, Senior Market Research Analyst Bleona Bicaj is a behavioural specialist, enthusiastic about data and behavioural science. She holds a Master's degree from Leiden University in Economic and Consumer Psychology. She has 5 years of professional experience as an analyst in the data analysis and market research industry.

In the dynamic realm of software development, with technologies and tools evolving so quickly, understanding developers’ content consumption preferences is vital for producing relevant and engaging developer resources. So, let’s pull back the curtain and explore these preferences using data from the SlashData Q3 2023 Developer Nation survey, which reached more than 17,000 developers globally. How do developers prefer to learn new things? The vast majority of them (87%) report at least one preferred method for learning, engaging with more than four types of content on average. So, it’s not just about coding; it’s also about how they absorb new knowledge and stay ahead of the curve. But what exactly do they consume? As it turns out, long-form content is the go-to learning method for developers. A sizable 62% of developers rely on long-form recorded video, and 57% choose long-form text, making these the two most popular types of content for educational purposes. This strong preference for long-form content is a testament to developers’ commitment to deep, immersive learning experiences. Our research suggests that these long-form resources are especially common among experienced individuals. That’s potentially because they delve deeper into technical nuances and advanced concepts, which might be interesting to those with a solid foundational understanding of the field. At the other end of the spectrum, social media is the least preferred content type, used by only 31% of developers for learning purposes. That being said, the younger and less experienced developers are shaking things up with their preference for social media, with 37% of beginners with up to two years of experience in software development preferring this type of content, as opposed to 20% of those with more than a decade of experience. This shift towards more engaging learning reflects a broader trend: the rise of a generation that seeks knowledge on the fly, combining quick, impactful insights with the rapid pace of digital innovation. Geography plays an important role in developers’ learning preferences too. While long-form content consumption is universally popular, it rises in importance among European developers. But what’s behind this continental divide in learning styles? Dive into our latest insights , and you’ll find there’s a higher-than-average concentration of seasoned professionals in Europe. These developers naturally gravitate towards in-depth articles and comprehensive tutorials, seeking to deepen their understanding and mastery of complex topics. Keeping up-to-date: Navigating tech news In the fast-changing developer tooling landscape, staying up-to-date with new technologies is non-negotiable, and different sources are constantly competing for developers’ attention. While social media plays a minor role when it comes to learning, it is the most important source for keeping up-to-date with the latest technology news, with 56% of developers relying on these channels. This could be a reflection of the growing tech communities that prefer real-time and interactive exchanges. The role of social media as a cornerstone for professional updates isn't surprising. It is among the most preferred sources of information, regardless of developers’ level of experience in software development. For them, social media is not just for socialising; it's a vital source of industry news and trends. However, based on our research, as developers rack up experience, their preference subtly shifts towards more digestible, straight-to-the-point content - think blog posts and succinct articles - reflecting an evolution in how they consume information. Content consumption, however, isn't uniform across the globe. In regions like Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, social media is a primary channel for tech updates, a practice less common in the Greater China region. The difference could be attributed to the restricted access to many international social media platforms in China, leading to a lower reliance on these channels compared to their global counterparts. This regional disparity highlights not just differences in access and preferences but also the adaptability of developers worldwide in how they stay informed and connected. Problem-solving: The takeover of AI chatbots Lastly, we turn our focus to problem-solving, a vital skill for any developer, with a fascinatingly evolving landscape. AI chatbots, with their instant, interactive assistance are positioned as the top choice for half of developers (51%), particularly those in the early stages of their careers. It’s a bold new world where AI is no longer just a tool but an indispensable, intelligent ally in coding challenges. But don’t count out forum threads just yet! Based on our research, just before AI chatbots took over, forums were the sanctuary for the majority of coding queries. They remain a strong contender, securing a solid 45% preference when it comes to problem-solving. Their extensive knowledge base and nuanced discussions continue to be highly valued, especially among veteran developers who appreciate the depth and perspective they offer. It’s undeniable that AI chatbots have received extensive global traction. But to what extent does the adoption of this technology differ in different parts of the world? Our data shows that regions like Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are enthusiastically embracing AI chatbots, presenting a stark contrast to the more cautious stance observed in the Greater China region. What ultimately drives content preferences? A few elements stick out as drivers. For one, the level of professional experience plays a significant role. While highly experienced developers favour in-depth, comprehensive sources like long-form articles and forums, their beginner peers are more drawn to contemporary, interactive formats like social media and AI chatbots. Second, geography matters. Compared to Asian developers, European developers, for example, place a lot greater emphasis on long-form video material for problem-solving. Additionally, Greater China is far behind Eastern Europe in terms of developers’ use of social media and AI chatbots. What does all this tell us about the future of staying relevant in tech? It points to a blended, diverse approach. As technology evolves, so do the ways developers learn and solve problems. From AI-driven solutions to traditional forums, the landscape is rich and varied. Today’s developers need to be agile, adaptable, and always eager to pick up new skills from different sources. All the insights you read through come from the " Types of content developers value " report. Our research covers 11+ development areas. We speak to developers on several different occasions and we can ask them specific questions you want answered. Explore our tailored solutions for more details.

This article continues the series, where we present key analysis and insights, from the latest State of the Developer Nation public report. You can read the previous 3 posts on how generative AI affects developers' work, developer communities and developers working on everyday electronic devices. In this post, we look into Web3. Web3 has captured imaginations and headlines, offering visions of a decentralised online world. Yet, scepticism lingers: is Web3 genuine innovation, or a bubble waiting to burst? Let's take a first look at what projects Web3 developers are actually working on. Evangelists of decentralisation have been promising a world devoid of centralised control, where developers and consumers are unhindered to explore, create, and build as they wish. However, after a few years of development, what projects are Web3 developers working on? Web3 hasn’t lived up to its early hype, with a large proportion of developers stopping their Web3 projects/experimentation In our latest global developer survey, we asked web and backend developers if they are currently involved in Web3 projects, and, if so, what kind of projects they are working on. The majority of these developers have never been involved in a Web3 project (58%), indicating that Web3 is still a nascent space. While Web3 has associated technical challenges, and it often requires unconventional approaches to monetisation, interest in it continues among some developers, despite plenty of sceptics. Even with this interest from developers and consumers, Web3 has yet to emerge as a space where many developers feel the need to move their projects. Further to this, of the developers who have been involved in Web3 development, 44% are no longer actively working on such projects, with almost half of these stopping development within the last 12 months. The potential of Web3 is advertised as vast, but its journey to full fruition is anticipated to be a gradual one. However, this attrition rate, which may be expected given the nascent nature of Web3, raises questions about its current trajectory. Disrupting FinTech For the 24% of web and cloud developers working on Web3 projects, what are they actually building? The most common type of project is decentralised finance (DeFi) applications, with 31% of Web3 developers working on this. DeFi offers a system and framework for people to participate in financial transactions and investments without needing to go through current financial instruments. This aims to reduce reliance on multiple layers of merchants involved in managing and securing transactions, as well as the regulations and laws that currently exist to protect individuals investing or transacting. While these systems may appeal to developers, and offer a straightforward way for monetising their projects, current perceptions of DeFi may make widespread adoption difficult. DeFi applications place a large amount of responsibility and risk on the users, rather than the institutions. Further, DeFi is more popular among less experienced developers, as well as developers in the Middle East and Africa (39%) and East Asia (35%). It may be appealing more to regions with histories of unstable currencies or depreciated salaries, where the unstable cryptocurrency market is still more secure than their fiat currency. As such, expanding interest beyond those already committed to the crypto space, whether ideologically or out of practicality, may be challenging, which can be seen with DeFi revenue no longer seeing significant growth. You can access the full report for free. Other financially-focused projects are also popular among Web3 developers, with 25% working on non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces and 20% involved in decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) applications. NFT marketplaces allow users to trade tokens, typically associated with receipts for ownership of an image, with cryptocurrencies where the owner makes a small slice of each transaction or minting of an NFT. DAOs are comparable to financial institutions involved in spending, investing, or holding capital, but focused around cryptocurrencies and smart contracts. Financial service projects (DeFi, NFTs, and DAOs) are among the most popular projects for Web3 developers However, the regional popularity of these two projects may indicate the future of these other projects. Similar to DeFi, NFT marketplaces are the most popular among developers in the Middle East and Africa (30%) and East Asia (27%). Similar motivations behind being distrustful of local fiat currencies can lead to an interest in decentralised mechanisms for verifying ownership. On the other hand, interest in DAOs is highest among North American (29%) developers. While DAOs have multiple uses, their ability to act as a collective financial institution may particularly appeal to North American developers who wish to access methods of making passive income that they have otherwise found challenging to access. The motivations of developers in these regions are likely to define the use cases of these projects, which may limit their growth beyond those with high technology interest within them. A further example can be seen in the popularity of Web3 gaming applications in East Asia (31%) over all other regions. East Asian game developers and consumers are fans of a particular type of collectable games, gacha, that translates well to play-to-earn and blockchain mechanisms. However, this type of game has received policy focus from certain governments, criticising it for encouraging gambling or exploitative mechanics. This may lead to Web3 gaming becoming highly regionalised, with certain areas being able to produce popular and well-monetised games, while others struggle with regulations and demonstrating their value and use of Web3 technologies. This can be seen with North American and European gaming communities showing high levels of hostility towards Web3 in general. Developer’s experience and their projects Web3 projects are most popular among developers with three to five years (31%) and six to ten years (29%) of experience, and the lowest involvement by both the most and least experienced developers (22% and 13% of developers with less than one year, or more than 16 years of experience, respectively). This suggests that Web3 development is less accessible to less experienced developers. However, the lower adoption of Web3 projects by the most experienced developers points to several possible situations. More experienced developers possess greater expertise in their respective domains, and as such, are likely focused on complex projects in more traditional development spaces, reducing the proportion moving to Web3. Further, Web3 is still a relatively unproven space, and experienced developers have seen many trends or new paradigms rise and fall without having a lasting impact on the industry. This can lead to them being less interested in engaging with Web3 as early adopters, and instead are waiting for it to prove its value to them or their development projects first. However, when looking at the specific types of projects developers of different experience levels are involved in, we can see quite a notable divergence in project choices. Web3 projects that are traditionally associated with the cryptocurrency space are most popular among mid-career developers. DeFi is most popular among developers with between three to ten years of experience (34%), with NFT marketplaces and DAOs being most popular among those with six to ten years of experience (31% and 26%, respectively). Further, DeFi remains the most popular choice for all developers with less than ten years of experience. Until quite recently, cryptocurrency and its associated activities were in highly experiential and unproven stages of development. As such, more experienced developers may have not focused their attention toward it, leaving it as a space where less experienced developers were able to generate their own domain-specific expertise. As they now gain prominence, those who had previously tinkered in this area are now entering the mid-career stage and are positioning themselves to leverage their early interest. However, projects that are more closely associated with traditional development projects are undertaken in greater proportion by more experienced developers. Identity verification and authentication systems are popular projects for developers with more than 11 years of experience. Similarly, we see decentralised storage solutions and supply chain or logistics solutions shine as some of the most popular for the most experienced developers. 37% of Web3 developers with 11+ years of software development experience are working on identity and verification projects When looking into Web3 development, we can see that the most experienced developers appear to be focused on tackling traditional solutions with the new technologies that Web3 uniquely allows. On the other hand, developers with less experience are focusing more on new projects that are only able to exist under Web3 technological paradigms. More concretely, more experienced developers are transforming old challenges with new solutions, while less experienced developers are trying to build entirely new technologies. This article is part of the developer insights offered in the State of the Developer Nation 25th Edition. You can access the full report which covers: 1. Language communities - An update 2. Creating A Sense Of Community - How Developers Interact And Engage With Their Peers 3. How Generative AI Will Affect Developers' Work 4. Web3 Unveiled - Exploring The Diverse Landscape Of Web3 Development Projects 5. From Code To Consumer Magic - The Software Developers Behind Our Everyday Electronic Devices 6. What Are People Building In AR/VR? Do you want to explore a specifc area or industry? We have a lot more data. Get in touch.

Suddenly a fine day dawns when your organisation’s key stakeholders agree that you need data to understand your developer audience. Well, ok, most likely that didn’t exactly happen overnight – in fact we know* that nearly 20% of DevRel practitioners struggle to justify the budget of their developer programs and 32% rely on qualitative arguments. But let’s skip that part for now, and fast-forward to that happy moment when there is full buy-in for data-backed developer strategy decisions. Right. You need data. But what data? First, ask the right questions Let’s pause here for a second. At SlashData we may have data in our DNA, but we know that plunging head-first into data is not where your quest for answers should begin. Your first step should be, instead, to ensure that you are asking the right questions. However trivial that may sound, you may discover (as many others have) that in fact it is not. If you get the questions wrong, the answers will be meaningless and the time and budget you will have invested in finding data to answer them will be wasted. Knowing exactly which questions you need answered will help you specify not only what data you need, but also where you should get it from, and how big a sample you should aim for. If it is just a total market share figure you’re after, for example, chances are you don’t need that many data points – neither in terms of sample size, nor in terms of breadth of information collected. If however you are trying to understand what developer personas (or segments) exist out there, where they are located, how they feel about different technologies, and where they’re going next, you’re looking into an undertaking of an entirely different magnitude, and may the Force be with you. Or, more practically, SlashData, as we have been in this business for more than a decade now. Mind the source Once you know which questions you need to answer, you should carefully choose your data collection method and sources. If, for example, you want to know how your technology is currently being used, you could use your own telemetry or usage data, or survey your own community. If, however, you need to see what other technologies your developers use, or how competing technologies are being used by your broader audience, you need to look beyond your own community by means of a global survey that targets everyone in your market. Based on our bi-annual survey of developer-facing organisations, we find that about half use their own survey data, and nearly half run qualitative research, when in fact it may be more appropriate to use a different approach. A common, though less-than-ideal approach, for example, is tracking developer sentiment (usually in the form of Net Promoter Score) based on data collected from current users that interact with you (say, through your website). While this may be a good indication of how your current active users feel, it can not be generalized to represent the sentiment of your whole target audience, as it omits the views of past users who have now left you, and also the views of those who evaluated but rejected your technology in favour of a competitor. Those who abandon a technology are more likely to give it a low recommendation score if asked. By omitting their views and using only current users’ scores you therefore get a positively biased result. This is particularly true in highly competitive low-rigidity markets (such as some cloud services can be) where your current users are more likely to be satisfied fans who stay with you by choice rather than due to technology lock-in effects, while the displeased have already left you to turn to one of your competitors. That is why in our surveys we always ask both current and past users how they feel about each of the technologies they either use, or have (recently) stopped using, or evaluated but rejected. In this way, we get an unbiased estimate of developer sentiment for the broad range of technologies that we track – allowing us to benchmark them with a high degree of confidence. It’s not only the size that matters “Can we discuss sample size already?” I hear you cry. We shall in a moment, I promise, but we need to get something else straight first. You should be collecting a sample of… what exactly? An equally – if not more – important consideration to size is the representativeness of your sample. To use a crude example, there is no point buying a truckload of bananas, when what you’re looking for is apples. Similarly, there is no point collecting an impressively big sample from the US and India alone, for example, when what you’re interested in is global trends. And that’s because developers in different parts of the world behave very differently when it comes to technology choices, as they have different motivations and business models, and may be at different stages in their journey as they form part of developer ecosystems of varied maturity. Our data proves again and again that there are vast differences between regional developer communities. That’s why we go into great lengths, each and every time, to survey developers from more than 150 countries, so that we may truly gauge the pulse of the global developer community. It’s not only regional diversity, though, that you should carefully balance your sample for. There are several other attributes you should consider, such as the mix of professionals, hobbyists and students, and the size of the organisations that your surveyed professionals work for. The latter is particularly important if, for example, you wish to capture the views of both enterprise developers and startups that are bound to be working with different tools. Demographics such as age may also be important, as you may want to hear from both the young coders, who typically use some technologies more than others (open source software is a prime example here), and from the seasoned developers who may have a deeper understanding but also higher expectations of the tools they use. You should also ensure that you don’t repeatedly rely on the same pool of developers, say a panel, no matter how big. In such a fast-paced industry, behavioural patterns and user profiles may change without warning. By repeatedly surveying the same people over time, you risk failing to observe the change originating from a different pocket of the developer population than the one your panel comes from. And if you do fail to observe the upcoming trend, you will miss the opportunity to ride the wave of change. This is particularly true for the emerging sectors such as augmented and virtual reality, but also for more ‘exotic’ technologies still in the early stages of their lifecycle, such as DNA computing, self-driving cars, or body-brain computer interfaces. As we track all of these and many more, we reach out to capture the experiences and the intent of developer populations of all shapes and sizes, from small local meetups to large vendor communities. Our surveys are promoted by more than 70 leading community and media partners each time, and we make sure they are not the same 70 every time, to ensure we are not repeatedly hitting the same pools (or communities) of developers. And while we reach out afresh to the developer population each time, we consistently observe meaningful trends in our data – rather than wild jumps – which proves that we do indeed capture a representative view of the software development industry. Last but not least, be careful of any incentives you offer to survey takers. These must be carefully designed to appeal to all profiles within your target audience, or you risk creating selection bias, i.e. attracting only developers of specific profiles, rather than a random sample of all developer profiles out there. Is your data clean? But no matter how hard you try, you’re bound to get some sample bias – beware of anyone who says they don’t. How do you deal with it? First, particularly if you are offering incentives, you should clean out all fraudulent – or simply illegitimate – responses. There will always be those who are in it only for the prize, randomly clicking through your survey and diluting results. They may even build smart bots to do that (after all, we are talking about developers here). At SlashData we have developed sophisticated ML algorithms that identify such responses and unceremoniously throw them out. Based on the metadata that our bespoke survey-taking platform tracks, we are able to outsmart the not-so-honest respondents and call them out. Then, it’s a matter of correcting for over-represented groups. It could be that, despite your best efforts, you attracted disproportionately more hobbyists than you should have done, for example. Or perhaps word got around in a particular language community about this cool survey, and slightly more enthusiasts than what you had hoped for came forth to vouch for their favourite programming language. How do you fix those imbalances? Especially given that you don’t know what the true (or population) proportions are – since that is the very thing you’re trying to estimate. In such cases, some – very very careful – data weighting is in order. You have to be extremely careful (have I stressed this enough already?) as to how to go about it, first to identify the sources of bias, and then to decide how to correct it without introducing over-correction. But this is a rather long story, and we’ll keep it for another day. All I shall say here is that at SlashData we treat all the different channels through which we get our data (such as our network of 70+ partners mentioned earlier) as independent samples, which we then compare across a set of parameters which we know may introduce bias. We use ML models to specify the level of correction that should be applied, and take into account all types of bias that a single response may be simultaneously carrying. What is your margin of error? We get that question a lot. I hope that by now I have demonstrated that, although important, this should not be your only concern. In fact, the margin of error can be quite misleading if used as the only metric to assess sample and research quality. Let me give you some statistical insight that might shed some light on this problem. As a quick search can reveal, the margin of error is designed to measure uncertainty in random samples. More specifically, the theory of the margin of error (MoE) applies, strictly speaking, only to questions (but could, under certain circumstances, be generalised to full surveys), and only to perfect random samples. This implies that if the assumption of perfect randomness does not hold (and in the real world in most cases it doesn’t), then the theory collapses and your MoE estimate is meaningless. To go back to our crude example of obtaining a truckload of bananas as a sample of apples, just because you have a truckload (and from a large truck at that), your margin of error estimate will look satisfyingly low. Your calculation, however, will have not accounted anywhere for the fact that these were in fact (loads!) of bananas, not apples, and as such, they make for a useless sample, albeit a tasty one. That is why at SlashData, instead of just quoting margins of error that when used in isolation may misleadingly inflate confidence in a sample, we focus our efforts on obtaining a sample that is as big, as random and as robust as possible. These are, in fact, the three elements that do lead to a reliable estimate of a margin of error. In other words, it’s not enough to only quote a margin of error. One should also be able to demonstrate that the underlying assumptions of the MoE calculations, namely randomness and normality, are met to a satisfactory degree. So if you’re out there shopping for survey-based research, make sure to first scrutinise any potential sellers for the health of their outreach and sampling methodology. Only then, if satisfied, ask about the margin of error. Go for a large sample you can dig into All that said, sample size is, of course, very important. To continue the margin of error discussion, suppose you are faced with a choice of two random samples (that is, samples you can be reasonably sure are close to random). If they both come from the same population, say the global developer population, then, at any given level of confidence, their difference in margin of error will lie in the sample size. Based on our robust developer population sizing research, there are currently (as of Q1 2021) 24.3 million developers in the world. That means, that even at a 99% confidence level, our sample of more than 19,000 developers from across the world yields a margin of error of less than 1% at the question level. If instead you had, for example, a (random) sample of 2,500 developers, your margin of error for the same question would be around 3%. But having a low margin of error is not the key reason for which you should aim for a large random sample. The main reason is having the ability to dig deeper and slice the data, while still having enough sample left from which to confidently draw conclusions. If, like us, you run unsupervised models, random forests and other ML models to identify developer segments and predict their technology choices, then you need large samples to do it. Otherwise, you end up with a really thin sample that is anything but reliable with regards to the picture of developer personas that it paints. Even if you’re into simply tracking trends for subpopulations of interest, you still need a big-enough sample. In our data dashboards, for example, we give you the option to filter for many attributes, such as age, region, professional status, gender, decision-making power, and much more. If we were to start off with a small sample, filtering would leave you with a tiny, and therefore useless, sample size. For example, filtering in our Developer Population Calculator for those under 25 years of age, who are students, and have up to five years of experience, still leaves us with nearly 4,000 respondents to draw conclusions from. Are you lost? Here’s a cheat sheet: Ask the right questions. Make sure you accurately specify what business questions you need answered, and by which audience. Select the data collection method (such as a large-scale survey, telemetry, qualitative research, etc.) that is best suited for the problem you’re trying to solve. Carefully design your developer outreach to obtain a sample that is representative of the population you are interested in. Aim for a large sample, so that you may confidently dig into it, if you need to. Clean your data from illegitimate, or even fraudulent responses. If you’re confident enough that you have a random sample, estimate your margin of error – at the question, not survey, level. Check for sample bias and correct for any obvious deviations from randomness, without overfitting (or over-correcting). In short, as you may have guessed by now, the art of research design and developer outreach is not for the faint-hearted. And it can not be wrapped up in a margin of error figure. But fear not. With more than 10 years of experience in mapping the developer ecosystem through large-scale surveys we are here to help. All you have to do is get in touch. *Based on our Developer Program Leader surveys. Have your say on the latest one. A more visual walkthrough of our methodology: #developerdata #slashdataresearch #methodology #developerresearch #developerinsights #samplesize #marginoferror #datacollection

Are developers interested in distributed cloud computing? Are they using it? To answer these questions, we worked together with Akamai Technologies to explore what developers think of distributed cloud computing. The survey results were collected, cleaned, analysed and put together in the publicly available report “Developer perceptions of distributed cloud“. The findings of the data in the report and this article are based on a survey of 700+ professional developers who deploy, build, or manage services and applications in the cloud, which ran between June and July 2023. These developers come from over 50 countries, and across a wide range of industries. In this article, we will go through the types of cloud environment(s) and cloud-related activities developers are involved in and the current interest and perception of distributed cloud. But first, a definition that was also given to the developers who took the survey: “Distributed cloud computing: the practice of decentralizing cloud resources and services to be physically closer to the data source or user, while still being managed centrally.” Why are we talking about distributed cloud computing? Software development has seen a series of monumental shifts and changes in practices and technologies over the past few decades. However, at every stage of new technological advancement, these novel approaches have succeeded because they match the needs of developers, whether to serve their development goals or customer success. Developers are smart and will pursue technologies that they can see and understand the proposition value of. Developers are now facing another such shift in technology with distributed cloud computing, which has the potential to transform the cloud computing ecosystem by bringing processing and compute closer to the end-point consumers. The potential benefits and use cases for moving compute closer to the end users are numerous; several of which we explore in this report. However, it is important for those developing distributed cloud computing infrastructure and solutions to listen to developers and understand their perceptions and likely use cases of decentralized cloud resources that are centrally managed. This allows providers to cater to developer needs, support the avenues they wish to explore, as well as identify areas where developers may need more education and information on various aspects. Who are the developers who use cloud environments To better understand the developers who use cloud environments, we examined: The advantages developers are most interested in exploring in a distributed and decentralized world The challenges they expect to face The development standards they believe are most important Which technologies they feel need greater development to support their adoption of a more distributed cloud. For the report, the majority of developers deployed some of their projects to hybrid cloud environments (55%), with private cloud (40%), and network infrastructure (39%) as the next most popular deployments. Among this developer segment, 35% identified themselves as already using distributed cloud in a professional capacity. 55% of developers in this study were already using distributed cloud in some form during their current development. The activities of developers show clear overlaps, with the most popular activity (55%) among these developers being to deploy applications on a combination of both on-premise and cloud-based infrastructure. This sample also includes a high proportion of developers who are involved in building strategies for load balancing (46%) and implementing security protocols (45%). Another important aspect of this developer population is the higher proportion of developers who manage deployments across geographically distributed servers (46%) than those who explicitly state they deploy to distributed cloud (35%). This highlights that geographic distribution of servers is a practice many developers are currently involved in, even if they are not specifically deploying to services they call distributed cloud. The current interest in and perception of Distributed Cloud For the developers within this survey, we found that when developers were asked about their familiarity with distributed clouds, a very high percentage were using distributed cloud services (55%) in some capacity during their development. This high usage suggests that there are many developers who are beginning to adapt their processes to a more decentralized and distributed world. Further, among the developers surveyed, there is a very small minority (7%) who are neither familiar nor interested in distributed cloud services. This again highlights that many developers are continually exploring and looking for new directions they can take their solutions in, with a much smaller proportion expressing disinterest in this. Of the developers who are not already using distributed cloud services but are interested in learning more, we see that interest is very high. 65% of these developers were either very or extremely interested in distributed cloud solutions. This interest is higher for developers with more familiarity with distributed cloud. Of those who were somewhat familiar, 74% of developers expressed this high level of interest, while for those who were not very familiar, only 40% were extremely or very interested. This suggests that as developers increase their knowledge of distributed cloud solutions, their interest grows, likely as a consequence of them being able to better envision how these solutions will work with their current projects. Developers working in data analytics or business intelligence show the highest level of interest in distributed cloud solutions 81% of the developers in data analytics or BI indicate that they are either extremely or very interested. However, of this 81% of developers, only a quarter are extremely interested in distributed cloud solutions. Comparing this to those in education and/or academic research and SaaS, who have an overall lower proportion of developers in the very or extremely interested group, a higher proportion say they are extremely interested. This observation underscores the nuanced approaches required when engaging developers across diverse industries about distributed cloud solutions. For instance, developers in data analytics/business intelligence and ecommerce are likely recognizing the broader benefits of distributed cloud solutions for their sector. The potential for real-time data analytics and scalability in these sectors is evident. However, within SaaS companies, interest can be more intricately tied to a developer's specific experience and projects. The full report at this point offers an “industry deep-dive” to highlight industry-specific insights. Read it here. In addition to observed differences based on the industries developers work in, we also see regional differences in familiarity and interest. A larger proportion of North American developers are very familiar with distributed cloud (61%) compared to their Western European counterparts (51%). However, 70% of Western European developers who are not very familiar with distributed clouds are extremely or very interested, compared to 60% of North American developers. This suggests that while adoption may be greater in North America, this is not due to a lack of interest in the space. Instead, North America may just be ahead of the curve, with more of these interested developers having already started working with distributed cloud solutions, possibly to improve their global reach. Most appealing benefits of Distributed Cloud to developers The leading benefit that developers find appealing about distributed cloud solutions is their potential to improve user experience due to reducing latency (38%). As both an easy-to-envision benefit and a current problem that developers face, this is likely the motivation for many developers choosing it. Flexibility in scaling in different geographies (34%) and a greater capacity for handling data-intensive applications (33%) are the second and third most popular benefits. However, the least popular benefit selected by developers in our survey is the potential for innovation with localized computing power (23%). This stands as one of the benefits that distributed clouds offer to developers that differentiates it from other cloud solutions, and its low ranking as a benefit likely represents a lack of knowledge and information about the uses of distributed clouds in real-world applications. This may stem from developers viewing distributed cloud solutions through the lens of traditional edge computing, rather than recognizing its broader potential to create novel experiences. Further, it may suggest that developers are still viewing distributed clouds from a platform-centric view and therefore have yet to imagine how they could utilize a distributed cloud system’s local compute. Distributed Cloud: What’s Missing For Developers? Let’s look at what developers feel is missing from distributed cloud solutions, focusing on three questions: If they could influence the future direction of distributed cloud technology, what would they prioritize for increased adoption? What standards do they believe are essential for distributed cloud computing to be a viable option? What are the current obstacles and limitations preventing them from utilizing distributed cloud in their own projects? First, we asked developers to identify features they feel are lacking. Developers overall are most likely to feel clear cost savings (30%), more robust security features (27%), and enhanced tools for managing distributed systems (26%) were features they consider the most important to improve. However, the next most commonly selected option is the lack of skilled professionals (24%). Cloud development has been a dominant practice in software development for many years and has created many developers with deep experience, and distributed cloud technology introduces new challenges that require different technical experience. Furthermore, a distributed cloud requires a move away from a platform-centric view of cloud development and necessitates different development styles and approaches. You can find the answers to the standards they need and current obstacles in the full report, including a deeper look at the improvements developers would prioritise, broken down by their industry involvement. Developer Expectations of Technologies and Vendor Support To conclude, we look at the specific technologies and practices that developers are considering when imagining a distributed cloud future. The final section of the report discusses the practices that developers consider the most important when managing distributed cloud solutions. Earlier we noted that more than one-third of developers indicated that security risks were a key challenge when moving their software to a distributed cloud platform. We see this sentiment again in developers' responses to the question: “Which practices are most important when managing distributed cloud solutions?” Security and compliance practices lead as the most commonly selected option (42%). However, we note that this is a belief especially popular among those with programmer (38%), system administrator (39%), or technology/engineering team lead roles (37%). This may indicate what sort of security support developers expect from vendors. For example, programmers may be more interested in vendors providing secure APIs to allow them to integrate security solutions into their development processes. While those in system administrator roles may instead wish for vendors to support them with regular security updates that help address vulnerabilities across the wide network surface of their distributed solution. Conversely, security and compliance practices are less commonly selected by those in DevOps specialist (25%) and site reliability engineer (22%) roles. Those in DevOps specialist roles are more likely to select continuous delivery/continuous deployment (CI/CD) (39%) and Infrastructure as Code (32%), while site reliability engineers select CI/CD (45%) and configuration management (36%) as expectations. These follow logically from the roles and responsibilities of developers’ roles. In the full report, we close by showing more insights on developer perceptions of under-realised technologies and vendor activities. Thank you for reading this article. Its purpose is to give you a taste of the insights you can expect by diving into the “Developer perceptions of distributed cloud” report SlashData authored and Akamai Technologies commissioned. The full report is free to access. If you want to see more free reports available from SlashData, you can visit our free resources section. If you would like us to work together on a similar though-leading report for your organisation, get in touch.

This article continues the series where we present key analysis and insights from the latest State of the Developer Nation public report. You can read the previous 2 instalments on developer communities and developers working on everyday electronic devices. In this chapter, we offer insight into how developers perceive the future of generative AI; specifically how it relates to their role as a developer. We all remember back in March when prominent leaders, researchers, and figures in tech, most notably Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, signed a letter advocating for a six-month pause of giant artificial intelligence (AI) experiments. Despite the letter prompting a wide discussion and raising both ethical and practical concerns that were acknowledged by many in the field, few were surprised that the letter had a negligible impact on slowing the pace of research. Now, approximately six months following the letter’s initial publication, we check in with those who are among the closest to the subject in question: developers. In our latest Developer Nation survey, we collected insights, perspectives, and real-world experiences from over 17,000 developers worldwide, delving into the impact of generative AI on their careers and work now and in the future. Various studies that measured AI’s impact on worker productivity in different roles have been published this year. In this chapter, we do not delve into productivity metrics, but rather, we present developers’ views and perceptions about how generative AI will affect their productivity, work, and the world. 80% of developers believe that Generative AI will increase their potential and productivity at work Regarding AI’s impact on their work, developers are overwhelmingly optimistic. The vast majority (80%) of them agree or strongly agree that AI will increase their potential and productivity, while 70% agree or strongly agree that it will give them access to new programming tools. Throughout our many years of tracking and researching developers’ preferences and behaviours, we have found that the community is incredibly heterogeneous. There is substantial variation in developers’ educational backgrounds, technology choices, and professional preferences. Hence, this remarkable consensus regarding the impact of AI on their workflow is striking. It sends a clear message about generative AI’s positive potential: only 7% of developers disagree or strongly disagree that AI’s net impact on the world will be positive! While generative AI’s potential is great, developers clearly still harbour some reservations as well. 61% of developers agree or strongly agree that generative AI raises many ethical concerns. While we did not ask our survey respondents to specifically identify which ethical concerns they are most preoccupied with, one of the primary ethical concerns regarding AI that has received considerable attention this past year is its potential to displace workers. Developers are somewhat split about generative AI’s potential to displace them in their current roles. 32% of developers strongly agree that AI will surpass their skills and render their jobs obsolete, while 40% either disagree or strongly disagree that this is actually a feasible outcome. How developers feel about AI’s potential to replace their jobs depends on a number of factors, but one critical factor is their current role. In the following section, we examine the differences in perceptions across various roles. Will Generative AI replace developers? Segmenting developers by ten of the most popular roles, we examine which roles have the highest concerns about potential replacement. CIOs, CTOs, and IT managers are the most likely (40%) to strongly agree that generative AI could surpass their skills and render their role obsolete. Initially, this result is somewhat counter-intuitive as managerial skills are unlikely to be replaced in the foreseeable future by generative AI due to the variety and complexity of tasks that managers often face. However, these specific roles are frequently responsible for monitoring a company's technology, infrastructure, and data for – among other metrics – accuracy, efficiency, security, and efficacy; all of which are quantifiable. While AI surpasses a human’s ability in terms of speed and accuracy of monitoring various quantitative metrics, we do not foresee a future where these roles are no longer present, rather, the technical aspect of the roles are altered; a notion supported by 41% of developers in these roles. These roles are more than likely going to evolve or be reimagined to compensate for the additional capacity granted by AI. Developers working or studying as data analysts, scientists, and/or researchers make up the next three roles that are most likely (37%-40%) to strongly agree their skills will be surpassed and their jobs could be rendered obsolete. However, roughly an equal or greater number of developers in these data-driven roles strongly disagree. Generative AI has made great strides in several areas, including data analysis and code generation. While the progress is impressive, what is equally striking is how difficult it can be to differentiate correct from false/hallucinated answers and incorrect analytical applications or interpretations, unless the developer has domain-specific knowledge. Hence, while these researcher and data-handling roles have already been substantially impacted by AI and will surely continue to be, developers are split on the future of these types of roles. On the opposite end of the spectrum, architects and programmers are the most likely to strongly disagree that their roles and skills can be replaced by generative AI. The majority of these developers, 61% and 55%, respectively, feel their role and skills are safe from the threat of generative AI. These developers are some of the most likely to be technical experts and recognise that while AI can excel at quantifiable solutions, complex or multi-faceted problems are likely to continue to require substantial human input for the foreseeable future. 61% and 55% of Architects and Programmers respectively, disagree or strongly disagree that Generative AI will surpass their skills and render their jobs obsolete. It is inevitable, however, that these roles will still feel its impact and influence in their work. Hence, in the next section, we take a look into who the developers are who feel that they can benefit from AI and gain access to additional tools through its use. Will AI allow developers to access new tools and technologies? One of the factors that significantly impacts developers’ perceptions on whether generative AI will allow them to use programming tools that they previously could not is their level of experience. Overwhelmingly, 80% of developers with less than a year of software development experience agree or strongly agree that AI will give them access to new tools that would otherwise not be available. The proportion of developers who agree steadily declines to 60% as developers gain more experience, where in turn, more experienced developers are more likely to strongly disagree with this sentiment. More experienced developers also have greater programming skills and are therefore less likely to expect that generative AI will create new opportunities for them to access additional tools. It is not a new phenomenon that younger, less experienced individuals enter a field or company and are more open to learning novel techniques or new methods; some of which can be in contrast to the established, institutionalised way of doing things. This distribution of developers' AI perspective below conforms to this trend and demonstrates that less experienced developers perceive AI in a different light compared to the more seasoned ones. However, a finding worth highlighting here is that the experts in the field – those with more than 16 years of experience – are the most likely (28%) to report being unsure, neither agreeing or disagreeing, about AI’s potential to provide them access to new tools. This degree of uncertainty from the most practised group of developers is a good indicator that the future of generative AI is still very much evolving and points to an exciting but somewhat uncertain future of how AI advancements will continue to shape the role of developers. This article is part of the developer insights offered in the State of the Developer Nation 25th Edition. You can access the full report which covers: 1. Language communities - An update 2. Creating A Sense Of Community - How Developers Interact And Engage With Their Peers 3. How Generative AI Will Affect Developers' Work 4. Web3 Unveiled - Exploring The Diverse Landscape Of Web3 Development Projects 5. From Code To Consumer Magic - The Software Developers Behind Our Everyday Electronic Devices 6. What Are People Building In AR/VR? Want to dive deeper into data on developer population, data and segmentation? Let’s talk.

Development communities like GitHub and StackOverflow are the bedrock of progress for all kinds of developers and their projects. Furthermore, many organisations curate their own communities to enhance developers’ experience with their products. In this post, taken out of SlashData’s public report “The State of the Developer Nation”, we’ll learn what developers look for when joining a technology-centric community and which factors encourage them to participate and engage more. What factors do developers consider when joining a technology-centric community? Developers primarily engage with technology-centric communities to learn. More than half (52%) consider the quality of available information to be one of the five most important factors to consider when joining a community. That’s considerably more than the next most popular factor, the availability of courses/training (38%), which, incidentally, also facilitates learning and knowledge-sharing. Developers primarily engage with technology-centric communities to learn – the quality of available information is by far the most important factor Interestingly, we see changes in importance among developers who didn’t select either of these two learning-related factors. In-person events (+6%), member-only benefits (+5%), links to industry (+4%), and online events (+4%) all increased in importance. This suggests that when developers aren’t there to learn, they are more likely to join a community in order to network. However, these factors are still among the least important for this group. A positive culture enables developers to get the most from their community experience Community culture is also important. 35% of developers consider the friendliness of a community when deciding to join, making this the third most important factor. Clearly, curating a welcoming and friendly experience should be a priority for community managers. In fact, it seems that a positive culture is an enabling factor in allowing information-seekers to get the most from their community experience: developers who prioritise the quality of information and having access to expert community members are more likely than average to also think that a positive culture is important. Further down the list, the platform on which the community is based is actually not that important when developers decide to join a technology-centric community. Only 21% of developers selected this option, making it the seventh most important factor, just ahead of recency and frequency of activity. However, as we will see later, the right platform can ignite greater engagement and participation. For now, though, we’ll take a closer look at which factors developers in different generations consider before joining a technology-centric community. As developers age, they become even more focused on the aspects of a community which facilitate learning. The quality of information present rises in importance the most — increasing from 47% amongst the youngest developers to 68% of the oldest. We see a similar – though less intense – story for the availability of courses/training, a friendly and welcoming culture, and expert community members. Once again, a positive culture is an enabler of accessing learning materials, and, as we will see later, also an enabler of increased engagement and participation. 68% of developers aged 45 and up consider the quality of information available when joining a community On the other hand, younger developers have subtly different preferences. They are more likely than the oldest developers to consider mentorship programmes, links to industry/recruiters, and membership benefits as being important factors. These younger developers are focused on the employment and the networking benefits of community membership. Younger developers are more focused than their older peers on the employment and the networking benefits of community membership Importantly, the youngest developers consider mentorship programmes to be more than 2.5 times as important as older developers (26% vs 10%), and mentorship programmes are the fifth most important factor to these developers, likely due to their focus on building their careers. Now, this creates a point of tension – how to attract older and more experienced developers to a community, and then engage them in mentorship programmes to help younger developers? Firstly, ensuring that communities meet older developers’ expectations around learning will go a long way to attracting them in the first place. However, to raise engagement for this group, we see that older developers who value mentorship opportunities are more than twice as likely than those who don’t to say that inviting their peers and friends and the availability of in-person events, contribute to increasing their participation levels. In a nutshell, the type of older developer who values mentorship is already predisposed to the networking benefits of a community. Identifying these older developers should be a priority for any community where demand for mentorships outstrips supply. You can access the full report here. What encourages developers to actively participate in a community? From joining a community to actively participating in it, we see large differences in what makes developers tick. A well-designed community platform – which is far down the list of factors that developers consider when joining a community – sits at the top when we ask about what encourages greater community participation. The time and effort that goes into selecting the right platform might not have immediate returns for growing a community, but it is likely to help to keep developers engaged and active. A well-designed platform is what encourages developers the most to actively participate in a community Participation is a two-way street. 27% of developers say that getting regular updates inspires greater engagement. Here, developers want to see activity from the community managers and founders. Looking at this from another direction: there’s likely nothing less inspiring than joining a community where the leaders aren’t themselves engaged. Indeed, further down the list, 17% of developers say that direct interaction with community leaders helps with their engagement. Strong leadership has benefits beyond day-to-day participation. Having a well-defined purpose for the community encourages more active participation for 26% of developers, and an inclusive and welcoming culture is encouraging for 25%. Interestingly, active moderation is a much less popular driver of engagement – only 15% of developers selected this, but those who did are much more likely than average to engage more in communities with a positive culture. A positive community culture not only encourages people to join but also keeps them engaged. This said, sometimes a heavy moderating hand is necessary – whilst developers might not always appreciate it, the alternative of a negative, exclusive, or toxic community culture is likely worse. Developers who value strong leadership in a community are often less engaged by games, quizzes, and prizes It’s not only good vibes that encourage greater participation; prizes and rewards (26%) appear to be a powerful lever in encouraging greater community involvement, with fun activities close behind (22%). However, developers who are encouraged to participate through factors relating to strong leadership and expertise – positive culture, well-defined purpose, direct interaction with leaders, and having access to recognised experts – are often much less inspired to participate by prizes, activities, and polls and quizzes, whilst the inverse is also true. This points to there being two distinct groups of developers – those who engage ‘seriously’ and those who perhaps take a more whimsical approach to community engagement. For community organisers and contributors, it’s important to understand which mindset a community tends towards: a focus on fun and games in a more serious community may appear to lack authenticity and gravitas, whereas taking a more sober tone may exclude those with a lighter agenda. For developers of all backgrounds and skill levels, communities offer an opportunity not only to learn but also to connect. Different types of developers have different expectations for how they want to interact with their communities, but learning opportunities and a welcoming culture are consistently highly rated. This article is part of the developer insights offered in the State of the Developer Nation 25th Edition. You can access the full report which covers: 1. Language communities - An update 2. Creating A Sense Of Community - How Developers Interact And Engage With Their Peers 3. How Generative Ai Will Affect Developers' Work 4. Web3 Unveiled - Exploring The Diverse Landscape Of Web3 Development Projects 5. From Code To Consumer Magic - The Software Developers Behind Our Everyday Electronic Devices 6. What Are People Building In AR/VR? Want to dive deeper into data on developer population, data and segmentation? Let’s talk.

Sustainable software engineering (SSE) is the practice of minimising the environmental impact of software. It is an emerging discipline that integrates sustainability into software practices and architecture, hardware, and data centre design. The ultimate goal of SSE is to reduce the amount of carbon emissions that software applications are responsible for by integrating various approaches to the software development lifecycle. Commonly, SSE is implemented by utilising more efficient or ‘green’ coding practices, but there are a variety of approaches available to organisations and developers alike. In our recent report titled “Who’s integrating sustainable software engineering principles?”, which was based on data collected from the 24th edition of our Developer Nation survey, we discovered that 76% of developers sometimes or always implement at least one SSE principle and that this rises to 82% amongst professional developers. In this blog post, we take a closer look at how developers’ roles, decision-making power and involvement in DevOps activities influence their utilisation of SSE principles. Involvement in DevOps* is a powerful predictor of utilising SSE principles in development projects. These developers are responsible for implementing SSE principles, which takes place at an infrastructural level. This said, as we will soon see, developers higher up the chain of command report using SSE principles more often than DevOps practitioners, with decision-makers being the most likely to adopt such approaches. This demonstrates that whilst decision-makers provide the impetus for adoption, it’s those in DevOps roles who undertake the implementation. Developers involved in DevOps are considerably more likely to utilise SSE than those not involved Indeed, we see that developers involved in DevOps are much more likely to utilise SSE approaches in some capacity than those not involved. The changes in overall SSE utilisation amongst developers doing different DevOps activities, such as continuous integration or automated testing, are not meaningfully different. However, when taking a more granular look at precisely which SSE principles are implemented by developers involved in different DevOps sub-disciplines, we see that it’s those who programmatically provision and manage infrastructure and those who monitor performance and test for security vulnerabilities who implement the widest variety of SSE principles. Developers involved in these stages of the DevOps lifecycle appear to be particularly well-placed to have maximum impact, and vendors should ensure that any SSE tools and products integrate well with these parts of the DevOps technology stack. *In our Developer Nation surveys, we don’t ask developers to self-identify as being involved in DevOps. Rather, we determine their involvement by asking them whether or not they undertake different DevOps-related activities, such as using CI/CD or creating automated tests. Note: The Developer Nation survey is now live. You can respond and help us better understand developers and produce insights that help you address developers’ needs. Our data also show that the more involved developers become in tool purchasing decisions, the more likely they are to integrate SSE principles into their development projects. The reason behind this is twofold: SSE is a relatively new discipline, and so those who are not currently buying tools or components are less likely to have had the opportunity to integrate tools which facilitate SSE development into their projects. More senior developers have a better understanding of the cost-savings and other benefits of adopting SSE principles, and so a larger incentive to integrate such approaches. They also have the power or influence to effect such a change. Senior decision-makers are the most likely to integrate SSE principles into their development projects We can see the effect of decision-making seniority reflected in the usage of SSE by developers in different roles. 91% of CIOs / CTOs / IT managers utilise SSE approaches, but 78% of developers in unspecialised programmer roles do as well. Currently, the implementation of SSE principles is of strategic concern, with a high-level implementation rather than taking place closer to the code. It may be that SSE approaches will follow secure coding practises and ‘shift-left’ as developers take more personal responsibility for the sustainability of their code in the future. DevOps practitioners and decision-makers will still need to be involved though – organisational and infrastructural implementation of SSE principles will continue to have a large impact. For now, though, SSE practices are typically implemented in the domain of specialists such as DevOps practitioners and decision-makers, and we see that developers in these roles are often motivated by environmental concerns and believe they have a part to play in combating climate change. Vendors wishing to encourage the adoption of SSE products and principles may find traction in appealing to the consciences of decision-makers in organisations. We also find that DevOps engineers and other specialists, as well as CEOs, are most challenged by measuring the impact of integrating SSE into their development projects. As companies cannot manage what they are unable to measure, it is clear that the lack of a metric is a key hurdle in SSE being more broadly adopted. Removing this pain point could also act as a push to drive adoption. In our Developer Nation survey, we also asked which SSE principles developers are integrating. The list of SSE principles included activities such as creating carbon-efficient software, minimising data transmission, or optimising code. Looking more closely at which principles are being integrated by developers in different roles, we see that those in managerial positions are among the most likely to integrate every SSE principle we asked about in our latest global developer survey. However, given that few developers in leadership positions are responsible for the implementation, many developers who are closer to the code disagree. Programmers, architects, and DevOps engineers all integrate most of the SSE principles we ask about much less often than average. This suggests that there is a disconnect between the SSE principles that leadership wishes to adopt and what is actually implemented. A closer look at DevOps practitioners reveals a further surprise – as we saw previously, these developers are some of the most likely to integrate SSE principles overall, but they are actually less likely than average to integrate many specific SSE principles. This indicates that DevOps engineers are selective about which principles to integrate. This isn’t the whole story, though. Other specialists such as embedded developers or network, hardware and site reliability engineers integrate the widest range of SSE principles into their development projects – though the cumulative impact of the small numbers of developers in these niche roles is small, they are highly active in the SSE space and represent a cohort of early adopters with a wide range of involvement in SSE. In this post, we’ve learnt that SSE remains in the realm of specialists and leadership, and whilst software development tool companies should cater to the needs of developers in these roles, it’s also worth considering how to drive wider adoption of SSE. Should you be interested in learning more, we take a closer look at developers’ motivations and challenges in the report. For now, SSE sits firmly in the domain of specialist developers and leadership Did you like this post? Discover more about our research and have your say in the Developer Nation survey. #sse #sustaiability #sustainablesoftwareengineering

In this post, taken out of SlashData’s public report “The State of the Developer Nation”, we dive into the world of consumer electronics and explore the profiles of developers who target different types of applications in this space. We focus on comparing their experience levels and their involvement across other sectors. What developers are working on Today, the number of Internet of Things (IoT) connections (15B in 2023) outnumbers humans and is forecasted to nearly double by 2030. A subset of this space, consumer electronics (CE), is focused on devices that are targeted towards consumers and often individual use. Examples of CE devices range from home security devices such as digital door locks to cameras and fitness trackers. 4.4M Developers are involved in Consumer Electronics projects As of Q3 2023, we estimate that there are 4.4M developers who work on CE projects, making up 11% of the total developer population. In our latest Developer Nation survey, we asked developers who are involved in this space about the CE categories that they are targeting with their applications. In first place, 28% report that they are working on software for security and access products such as door locks and CCTV systems. This is closely followed by communication devices (26%), network equipment (26%), energy appliances (25%), and entertainment systems (23%). These categories stand out far above the rest, with the next most popular category – home appliances – being targeted by 18% of the developers in the CE space. The many similarities and differences between the top CE categories are reflected in the profiles of the developers who target them with their applications. One of the most interesting aspects to consider is how experience in software development impacts the projects that these developers take on. Developers’ experience We find that those who target energy appliances have the highest level of experience in CE projects*. More specifically, these developers have an average of 3.9 years of experience in this space, which is significantly higher than that of their counterparts who are not involved in energy appliances (3.1 years). This indicates that the specific challenges encountered in this category are more likely to require specialised knowledge of the CE space than across other categories. Having experience with other CE devices can be highly beneficial for development, as energy appliances need to integrate with other household systems and the energy grid. The projects that the developers who are targeting this category are much more likely than average to be smart (59% vs 43%) and have an app (49% vs 35%). Developers who target security and access products are highly experienced in general software development. Interestingly, developers who target security and access products have significantly more experience in software development (4.9 years) than in CE (3.4 years). This corresponds to the most significant gap between experience levels in these two groups. It indicates that working on security and access products is more likely than average to require experience in other development areas beyond CE. With above-average experience in software development, CE developers are involved in other areas of software development. The largest overlap comes from those involved in the industrial IoT (IIoT) development sector (43%). In particular, 56% of those involved in energy appliances also work on IIoT projects and are the most likely to do so. Using this as an example, a household energy management device only needs to manage the energy usage of one household, while an equivalent IIoT system may need to consider an entire manufacturing plant. While there are differences in scale, these two systems share the essence of what they are designed to do. This showcases the close relationship between these two sectors in the broader IoT ecosystem. Security and access On closer inspection of the overlap with IIoT, we see that only 28% of those who work on software targeted at entertainment systems are involved in IIoT projects. This is significantly below that of any other target category in the CE space. Instead, they are the most likely to develop games (36%) and have an above-average representation in the mobile sector (40%). Similar to the case of energy appliances and IIoT, there is a natural overlap between devices aimed at entertainment systems and these two sectors. For example, developers who develop software for smart speakers may also work on accompanying mobile applications. Developers leverage data science to enhance security and access products. Another interesting example can be seen among developers who target security and access products. We find that 32% of them are also involved in data science, which is significantly above average across the other categories (20%). This suggests that data from security devices is analysed in detail to improve the functionality of security and access products. For instance, advanced analytics can be used to detect suspicious access patterns in digital door locks and alert both users and authorities of potential intruders. * We measure this by comparing the median number of years that the developers within each category have worked on software projects. Medians are estimated from grouped frequency data. This article is part of the developer insights offered in the State of the Developer Nation 25th Edition. You can access the full report which covers: 1. Language communities - An update 2. Creating A Sense Of Community - How Developers Interact And Engage With Their Peers 3. How Generative Ai Will Affect Developers' Work 4. Web3 Unveiled - Exploring The Diverse Landscape Of Web3 Development Projects 5. From Code To Consumer Magic - The Software Developers Behind Our Everyday Electronic Devices 6. What Are People Building In AR/VR? Want to dive deeper into developer data on consumer electronics, IoT or Industrial IoT? Let’s talk.