The year ahead promises significant changes in the business of software, including rapid adoption of Continuous Delivery, a surge in private clouds and growing importance of software developers in non-technical industries

Key Points:

With concerns of falling behind their competitors and learning from the challenged launch of the US site HealthCare.gov widely publicised on both sides of the Atlantic, more companies will migrate to Continuous Delivery as the preferred method of software development and release
The uncovering of the clandestine PRISM online surveillance program will lead to a surge of private clouds. More global organisations will use in-country public clouds, but the biggest growth will be in private clouds
With every company becoming a software company to a degree, the work of developers will be recognised as the key to competitive differentiation in a broader span of industries
LONDON, UK (Dec. 4, 2013) – Perforce Software today released its predictions for software development and deployment in 2014. The overarching theme of the predictions is the rise of Continuous Delivery – a design practice used to automate and speed up the process of software delivery – and the impact it will have beyond the technology industry.

“Software is no longer something only technology companies produce. Leaders in retail, household goods, aviation, healthcare, education and financial services are all relying on software to keep their organisations at the forefront of innovation,” said Christopher Seiwald, founder and CEO of Perforce. “This has a profound impact on the people working for these organisations as well as industry standards in place today.”

Perforce’s predictions for the coming year include:

Continuous Delivery will become the new normal: Companies relying on software to stay in business won’t risk a potential disaster by relying on big, annual releases only to find the requirements or the market has changed. Through the adoption of Continuous Delivery, software releases cycles will become more frequent and problems will be spotted before they reach critical mass. With the practice gaining more traction, industry thought leaders will come to a consensus on specifically what Continuous Delivery entails and what it does not.

The coming of age of the private cloud:  Global concerns stemming from the discovery of the PRISM online surveillance program will spur rapid adoption of private clouds around the world. New, in-country service providers will create solutions with enterprise-grade security built in from the ground-up.

King once and king to be: With software playing such a key role in organisations of all kinds, developers will become the most in-demand employees, and will drive rapid innovation through Continuous Delivery. As software delivery pipelines shrink to reduce the lag between concept and delivery, developers will assume more responsibility for quality, performance and operational monitoring.

“With adequate planning and preparation, forward-thinking organisations can begin the process of implementing Continuous Delivery ahead of their competitors to obtain or maintain industry leadership,” said Seiwald. “We believe there are tremendous opportunities for companies to improve the quality of their products and their responsiveness to the market. We’re excited to partner with the early adopters that the rest of the software industry will soon follow.”