State of Application Strategy 2024: The Impact of Digital Services
Ten years ago, Cindy Borovick and I were having a conversation in which she declared that digital transformation would drive the adoption of app services. Together, we set out to prove—or disprove—this theory by designing a survey that today is known as the State of Application Strategy.
Throughout ten years of conducting this survey we’ve uncovered more than a few trends and shifts in technology that weren’t directly related to app services, per se.
For example, in 2016 we knew that Zero Trust would be a big deal even before it even got its name and became the measuring stick for security solutions. We recognized the inevitability of hybrid IT in 2018 while the market was still certain cloud would wipe out data centers everywhere.
But we’ve also proved Cindy’s point.
Early on it seemed as if we might not. App services growth was fairly flat. It was healthy, but it wasn’t really growing very fast. But then again, neither was digital transformation.
Along came the pandemic and the importance of digital transformation became extant. Organizations everywhere doubled down on digital transformation and, as Cindy believed, that drove the adoption of app services.
Today, we see the vast majority of organizations (93%) deploying the wealth of app services everywhere. That means of the more than thirty app services we track across availability, security, mobility, performance, and identity are deployed on average in 93% of the organizations today. To say that app services are pervasive is not hyperbole.
In fact, the adoption rate is so high that it supports our belief that app delivery and security have become so important to the secure operation of a digital business that it deserves to be its own domain.
That organizations employ the capabilities of load balancers and ingress controllers, API gateways and security solutions, SSL VPNs, CDNs, among others, is a testament to their importance to delivering and security the digital services the market depends on for finance, shopping, and sharing memes. And when we asked how important they were in this year’s survey we were not disappointed by the results.
Now, having proved Cindy’s theory correct doesn’t mean the end of the State of Application Strategy. On the contrary. What it means is that moving forward we can focus on new areas that impact applications and APIs and, ultimately, shape F5’s business. You know, like AI and multi-cloud networking and…well, I wouldn’t want to spoil the findings from this year’s report.
And before I go, I want to say thank you. Yes, thank you, and you, and you over there. By taking our survey every year, you not only helped us create great content, you’ve helped shape our strategy. Thank you, and we hope you continue to find our findings insightful and useful as you drive your digital transformation forward.