It’s that time of the year again when I take a moment to do some navel gazing and look at what was and what will be. Not that I have a crystal ball or anything like that, but from pure osmosis some things seem to sink into my thick skull, and using my powers of deduction born of my many years alive and a little AI, I make my best guesses. So here they are:

As we close out 2024, it’s clear that the DevOps movement has experienced a year of both maturation and transformation. The once-niche methodology that brought developers and operators together that most of us loved, now commands a central position in digital strategy planning for organizations worldwide. This year saw the ascendancy of the software supply chain pipeline (and its security), an intensification of global economic pressures, and the proliferation of groundbreaking technologies like generative AI.

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Which of the following best describes how you currently monitor and manage systems across your hybrid cloud environment?(Required)

Multiple separate tools for different environments

Multiple separate tools for different monitoring and management functions

Single consolidated dashboard

Custom built monitoring and management solution

No full monitoring and management solution

Don’t know

How valuable would it be for your monitoring and management solution to incorporate predictive analytics to help you identify and address system issues that are critical and not waste time or effort working through all the data and “noise” that is not critical?(Required)

Extremely valuable

Moderately valuable

Somewhat valuable

Slightly valuable

Not valuable

How do you most typically address potential system issues BEFORE they impact your operations?(Required)

Automated workflows and playbooks to remediate potential issues as soon as they are detected

An orchestrated response process that leverages automation, AI, and human expertise to rapidly respond to potential issues

Advanced monitoring tools such as predictive analytics and anomaly detection to proactively identify and address potential issues

Respond to issues as they arise, using manual processes and troubleshooting techniques

A combination of automated remediation, orchestrated response, and/or proactive monitoring to address potential system issues

Don’t know

Other

What methods does your organization use to control and monitor cloud/IT spending?(Required)

Centralized procurement processes

Pre-approved budget thresholds

Automated cost monitoring tools

Department-level spending controls

Regular cost audits and reviews

Cloud cost optimization platform

Approval workflows for resource provisioning

Native financial operations tools provided by the cloud provider

No formal controls in place

Don’t know

Other

Please specify:

Which methods do you rely on most to detect security vulnerabilities in your systems?(Required)

Automated scanning tools

Manual assessments

Vendor notifications

Threat modeling (for early detection)

None of these

Don’t know

Other

Please specify:

What are the TWO most common ways you prioritize vulnerabilities to address within your environment?(Required)

Based on potential impact

Based on exploitability

Regulatory compliance requirements

Based on CVSS scores

Risk-based analysis of multiple factors

First-in-first-out approach

No formal prioritization process

Don’t know

How do you typically handle system updates and security patches?(Required)

Automated updates and patches

Manually review and apply updates and patches on a regular schedule

A combination of automation and manual review

Apply updates and patches on an as-needed basis.

Outsourced update and patch management

No defined process

Don’t know

Other

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More importantly, DevOps became less about the mere convergence of development and operations teams and more about embedding security, automation and innovation deeply into the fabric of the enterprise.

From expanded DevSecOps practices to the embrace of platforms and platform engineering on to advanced continuous delivery models, DevOps in 2024 wasn’t just a technology story—it was a story of organizations learning to navigate an increasingly uncertain global environment.

Looking ahead to 2025, we can expect an even more intense interplay of forces: Accelerated digital transformation, evolving compliance landscapes, new AI-driven paradigms, and the ongoing struggle to do more with less as the world economy seeks stable ground.

A Year of AI-Driven Innovation

No conversation about 2024 can ignore the transformative impact of artificial intelligence. DevOps teams widely adopted AI-driven tools to streamline testing, improve observability and facilitate better decision-making. This included everything from machine learning models predicting system failures before they happened to generative AI (Gen AI) coding assistants that rapidly drafted infrastructure-as-code templates or compliance policies. By mid-2024, developers and platform engineers were no strangers to relying on AI-driven pull requests or integrating large language model-based chat interfaces into their CI/CD pipelines.

These AI enhancements were not limited to the coding stage. AI/ML-based anomaly detection tools helped operations teams identify the root causes of complex outages and reduce mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR). Sophisticated recommendation engines offered guidance on optimal deployment times to minimize disruption. Moreover, the rise in generative AI sparked a cultural shift—many DevOps practitioners began seeing these technologies less as “nice-to-have” extras and more as integral members of the team. 

If 2024 was the year of GenAI, 2025 will be the year of agentic AI, where agents will do much of the heavy lifting throughout the SDLC. This promises to shake the very foundations of the AppDev world, even more than GenAI.

DevSecOps: Security from the Start

As high-profile breaches and regulatory scrutiny increased in 2024, DevSecOps took center stage. Integrating security controls directly into the delivery pipeline was no longer an aspiration—it was a necessity. Security-focused tooling expanded beyond static code analysis and vulnerability scanners to include more advanced capabilities: Real-time compliance checks, policy-as-code frameworks and automated remediation suggestions powered by generative AI.

Organizations became more proactive, treating security not as a final quality gate but as an iterative, continuous process. This shift was driven, in part, by new data protection and privacy laws emerging globally. With compliance weighing on many organizations, enterprises sought to reduce risk by standardizing secure coding practices and employing AI assistants that could flag suspicious patterns. By the end of 2024, “shifting left” had gone beyond testing and security—it had become a guiding principle for embedding quality and reliability at every step of the development lifecycle.

However, 2024 saw shift left as a big loser as well. We discovered there are limits on shifting left. We cannot just move responsibilities and tasks left on to the shoulders of the developer.  Yes, security and testing is more effective the earlier it is done (though some disagree), but developers need to develop. Any tasks they perform that take them away from that decreases their productivity.

Cloud Native and Platform Engineering Maturity

Cloud-native architectures remained a cornerstone of modern DevOps strategies, but in 2024 the conversation matured from basic containerization and orchestration to being the de facto Compute Stack. Enterprises that spent the past few years standing up Kubernetes clusters and microservices began to focus on making those environments more efficient, resilient and developer-friendly.

In 2024 Platform Engineering took its place. In developing at scale, rather than shifting left onto the developer and making them build their own platforms, Platform engineering teams can provide the platform for developers, testers, SREs and security to go faster with less friction. Platform engineering teams, composed of infrastructure experts and toolsmiths, worked to provide internal developer platforms (IDPs) that simplified complex workflows. Their mission: To make developers’ lives easier, reduce cognitive load and standardize operational best practices. This shift in focus produced a new layer of abstraction that helped organizations scale faster and improve developer productivity.

Tooling evolved to reflect this platform-centric approach, with new generation frameworks for managing multi-cluster deployments, enhanced cost observability solutions and AI-powered resource optimization. These advancements responded to economic realities as well: With budget pressures tightening, cost-efficient use of cloud resources and right-sizing workloads became vital competencies.

Agile and Digital Transformation: A Cultural Continuum

By 2024, agile was no longer merely a project management methodology—it was the cultural backbone of the enterprise’s digital journey. The COVID-era push for digital transformation had morphed into a sustained drive toward continuous improvement, with DevOps practices reinforcing agile philosophies in day-to-day operations.

Organizations realized that to stay competitive in a turbulent global economy—marked by supply chain uncertainties, inflationary pressures, and geopolitical tensions—they needed to pivot rapidly. This agility went beyond software development; it became a critical element of strategic decision-making. Many enterprises undertook a second wave of digital transformation initiatives, this time not just to migrate systems to the cloud, but to fully leverage the elasticity and intelligence of cloud-native and AI-based platforms. In this environment, DevOps and agile principles acted as a compass, guiding enterprises as they navigated disruptive forces and seized market opportunities.

Global Economic Mega Trends and DevOps

The broader global backdrop in 2024 was one of cautious optimism mixed with ongoing volatility. While some regions rebounded from earlier downturns, others grappled with inflation, war and conflicts, shifting energy markets and workforce shortages. Against this backdrop, DevOps served as a key means to achieve operational efficiency and innovation velocity.

Cost optimization efforts intensified. Enterprises that once spun up massive cloud workloads without blinking began scrutinizing their usage closely. FinOps disciplines integrated with DevOps practices, ensuring that cost considerations were no longer an afterthought but part of the development and deployment lifecycle. The era of “cloud cost surprises” ebbed as organizations leaned on automated recommendations and forecasting tools—many powered by generative AI—to align infrastructure spending with business goals.

What to Expect in 2025

As we move into 2025, the big stories that dominated 2024 will continue to evolve. We can expect AI—particularly generative AI—to become even more deeply ingrained in the DevOps toolchain. Prompt engineering for AI models will likely emerge as a specialized skill, just as writing Docker files was a skill set that distinguished DevOps engineers a decade ago. Agentic AI will become the norm with teams of agents taking on the tasks that lower level workers once performed. On the policy side, escalating regulatory demands will push enterprises to adopt more stringent compliance frameworks, integrating AI-driven compliance-as-code tools into their pipelines.

Platform engineering will mature, focusing on standardization and the creation of “golden paths” that offer best practices out of the box. We may also see a consolidation of DevOps tool vendors as the market seeks integrated, end-to-end platforms over patchwork solutions. The focus will be on usability, quality, security and efficiency—attributes that can only be realized through cohesive ecosystems rather than fragmented toolchains.

Sustainability will also factor into 2025’s narrative. As environmental concerns shape global economic policies and public sentiment, DevOps teams will take resource optimization more seriously. We may see the emergence of “GreenOps” as a complementary practice that focuses on minimizing the environmental footprint of software delivery pipelines. Intelligent scaling, serverless architectures, and more responsible use of compute and storage resources will become standard conversation topics.

In a world that is still seeking stable economic footing, DevOps in 2025 will help organizations respond quickly to market changes, mitigate risks and leverage data-driven insights. As AI raises the bar on automation, DevSecOps ensures security-by-design and platform engineering streamlines complex workflows – the DevOps landscape will continue to serve as a blueprint for how enterprises adapt and thrive in the digital era.

In Conclusion

The DevOps story in 2024 was one of profound technological and cultural transformation under challenging global conditions. As we head into 2025, we can expect these changes to deepen and accelerate, fueled by ongoing advances in AI, a heightened focus on security and compliance, and a push for greater operational efficiency.

Amid uncertainty, DevOps remains a powerful means to innovate, adapt and deliver value—an enduring approach that will continue to shape how software is built, delivered and maintained in the years to come. You can count on DevOps.com to continue to shine a light on all of these matters in the year ahead.  Happy New Year!