Where Programming, Ops, AI, and the Cloud Are Headed in 2021

Chapter 1. Where Programming, Ops, AI, and the Cloud Are Headed in 2021

In this report, we look at the data generated by the O’Reilly online learning platform to discern trends in the technology industry—trends technology leaders need to follow.

But what are “trends”? All too often, trends degenerate into horse races over languages and platforms. Look at all the angst heating up social media when TIOBE or RedMonk releases their reports on language rankings. Those reports are valuable, but their value isn’t in knowing what languages are popular in any given month. And that’s what I’d like to get to here: the real trends that aren’t reflected (or at best, are indirectly reflected) by the horse races. Sometimes they’re only apparent if you look carefully at the data; sometimes it’s just a matter of keeping your ear to the ground.

In either case, there’s a difference between “trends” and “trendy.” Trendy, fashionable things are often a flash in the pan, forgotten or regretted a year or two later (like Pet Rocks or Chia Pets). Real trends unfold on much longer time scales and may take several steps backward during the process: civil rights, for example. Something is happening and, over the long arc of history, it’s not going to stop. In our industry, cloud computing might be a good example.

Methodology

This study is based on title usage on O’Reilly online learning. The data includes all usage of our platform, not just content that O’Reilly has published, and certainly not just books. ...