VisionMobile Ltd. has released a new report that shows Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), despite having a large lead in cloud services market share.
According to the State of the Developer Nation Q3 2015 Report, “Amazon is only a touch more popular than Microsoft Azure in terms of developer preference.” The survey included more than 13,000 developers who worked on mobile, cloud, Internet of Things, IoT, and other projects.
According to the report, developers are more interested in working on private clouds than AWS. VisionMobile stated that nearly half of developers host their apps in private clouds away from the public infrastructure. Even AWS, the largest cloud, can only boast that it is the primary platform for 16% of software developers. However, 44 percent of them prefer to keep their clouds safe at home.
[Click on the image to see a larger view.] VisionMobile Ltd., Source: Programming Language Choices for Cloud Developers. VisionMobile stated that developers are aware of the many benefits of cloud computing but still have concerns about security and resilience. According to the report, “In many cases the convenience of self-hosting still exceeds the benefits of the public cloud.” “Availability of cloud environments is also a factor. This allows enterprises to realize many benefits of cloud computing within their infrastructure and ensure that their applications are cloud-friendly when hosted solutions become irresistible.”
The study also revealed differences in language choices among cloud platform developers. It noted that the provided support is an important difference and that different providers-specific features might appeal users of different languages. Java is the preferred language for AWS and Google Cloud Platform developers, while C# rules in Microsoft Azure. Ruby and PHP developers favor Heroku and Digital Ocean, two other cloud services.
AWS was noted as having the greatest number of programming languages. According to the report, “It’s not surprising that AWS offers the greatest linguistic diversity.” It is the largest cloud service provider, and therefore companies choose it because they are more concerned about their reputation than their language support. Amazon has always claimed to be language (and platform) neutral and provides broad support without appearing to back any particular platform or business model.
According to the report, AWS developers use the most languages, but unlike coders who work with other clouds, they don’t select the Amazon cloud based on language support. Therefore, their language choices reflect the habits of cloud programmers.
VisionMobile stated that cloud computing pays more to cloud developers than any other industry segment, such as IoT and mobile apps. According to the research firm, the primary benefit for cloud computing is scalability or elasticity. It said that public clouds are inherently more efficient but the many benefits “are still ethereal for companies more familiar with purchasing boxes and running server farms.” The report also stated that in-house hardware offers another advantage: easier integration with legacy systems.
The report stated that “Over time, we expect to see developers targeting public cloud platforms,” as concerns about security fade, legacy systems get upgraded, and the resilience to cloud computing has more chance to prove itself. “Companies that host cloud applications locally should be able, depending on the development environment or the eventual host, to move to a public cloud without much upheaval.