Mike Dover | 27 April 2024
The CNCF 2023 Annual Survey, in its 11th iteration, provides a comprehensive examination of cloud native technologies. Conducted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and Linux Foundation Research, the survey provides insights into cloud native community dynamics and serves open source technology users through data-driven insights. Spanning from August to December 2023, the survey comprised 59 questions on cloud native computing, containers, Kubernetes, cybersecurity, and WebAssembly. The dataset, representing diverse vertical industries, company sizes, and geographic regions, evaluated 988 responses.
Despite economic challenges, CNCF project involvement grew, showcasing gains across various projects, particularly in container orchestration, observability, and container networking. However, certain projects experienced decreased penetration rates, reflecting a cautious approach to discretionary spending during the economic downturn. Public cloud emerged as the preferred choice for organizations, offering ease of adoption, robust security, and minimal vendor lock-in. Large organizations showed a particular affinity for hybrid clouds, while multi-cloud solutions have become the norm, with 56% of organizations adopting them. These findings underscore the evolving landscape of cloud technologies and the strategic choices organizations make to optimize their IT infrastructure.
Within cloud native technology adoption, the survey found that the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region trails significantly behind North America and Europe among end-user organizations. Filtering out vendors, the data revealed that 26% of end-user organizations in APAC either are just beginning or have not yet started using cloud native techniques, contrasting sharply with 9% in the Americas and 6% in Europe. In fact, only 30% of APAC end-user organizations are heavily involved in cloud native development and deployment, compared with 64% in the Americas and 61% in Europe. Country-level segmentation within APAC indicates that Japan faces the greatest challenge, with 18% of organizations still at the initial stages of cloud native adoption. Despite hurdles such as internet infrastructure limitations and skills shortages, governmental investment in digital transformation suggests a changing landscape. Interestingly, APAC's IT vendors and service providers show a stronger inclination toward new technologies compared with their counterparts in North America and Europe, particularly evident in the higher adoption rates of WebAssembly, service proxies, service meshes, and serverless architectures.
Container adoption is widespread, with over 90% of organizations using or evaluating containers, representing a significant portion of those engaged in application development and deployment. However, this widespread adoption comes with challenges, notably in security, cited by 40% of organizations consuming cloud services. Monitoring and observability are also emerging as key concerns, particularly with the proliferation of containers at scale. Projects such as Prometheus and Open Telemetry saw increased adoption in 2023, indicating a growing need for real-time data collection to support proactive system management in containerized environments.
The demographics of the 2023 CNCF Annual Survey indicate a well-experienced group, with over half boasting more than a decade in IT and the remainder primarily falling within the two- to 10-year range. Roles were diverse, with software developers and engineers making up one-third of respondents and managerial positions nearly another one-third, while the rest comprised system admins, consultants, and others. End-user organizations constituted 53% of the sample, with the remaining 47% composed of cross-industry vendors and service providers, spread evenly across various company sizes. The survey also analyzed data by the primary revenue source of organizations, revealing correlations between traditional or cloud-derived revenue and industry-specific or IT vendor services. The segmentation by company size underscored a decline in cloud native technology use as company size increased, indicating a preference among agile companies with fewer legacy system constraints. Additionally, correlations between revenue sources and vendor services aligned with industry-specific or cross-industry product offerings.
To ensure data quality and eliminate sample bias, respondents were sourced from Linux Foundation membership, partner communities, social media, and a third-party panel provider, with extensive pre-screening and survey screening questions. The survey collected data from diverse organizations across industries, sizes, and geographic regions, primarily focusing on the Americas, Europe, and APAC. The data collection was stratified by company size, geographic region, and organization type, primarily segmented by geographic region, company size, and adoption of cloud native techniques.
