Which cloud platforms do tech professionals really want to use? And which cloud platforms don’t live up to their hype?
Those are two critical questions for tech professionals (and companies) to address, especially since choosing a cloud platform is one of the most critical decisions an organization can make. Stack Overflow’s latest Developer Survey, which queried 89,184 developers from 185 countries, tries to gauge which cloud platforms are most “desired” (i.e., tech professionals want to use the technology) as well as “admired” (i.e., tech professionals have used that technology within the past year and would like to keep using it).
Significant gaps between “admired” and “desired” indicate that “momentum generated by the hype grows with hands-on use, and shorter distances means that the hype is doing much of the heavy lifting as far as general popularity is concerned,” added Stack Overflow’s note accompanying the data.
Here’s a visualization of their results:
What does this tell us? Users seem to admire many of the smaller cloud platforms such as Hetzner, fly.io and Vercel; they’re a bit less enthused about more popular platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and VMware. It’s also interesting to note Oracle’s strong performance among developers, since the company is reportedly gaining market-share for its various cloud and generative A.I. options.
Although these smaller cloud platforms are evidently popular, anyone who wants to become a cloud specialist for a living should take the time to learn the three biggest platforms by market-share:
Amazon Web Services (AWS): Long the market leader in cloud, AWS has steadily built up features over the past several years, from analytics and machine learning to compliance and database. Cloud specialists can tailor AWS to their organization’s specific needs, making the platform useful but very complex. Education and training programs such as AWS Academy and AWS re/Start.
Microsoft Azure: Like AWS, Azure has steadily built out its product portfolio, becoming a go-to cloud service for many companies in the process. Microsoft has its own Azure training courses that offer several paths to mastery for tech professionals. Many companies are Microsoft shops, and knowing Azure can help you land a job with them.
Google Cloud Platform: Like AWS and Azure, Google Cloud Platform provides cloud-based storage and compute to any company with a credit card. Google offers a variety of training options depending on your specialization, including paths for data engineers, machine learning specialists, data analysts, cloud developers, and more.
Whatever your cloud journey, it’s important to learn some key fundamentals. As he explained on Dice’s ‘Tech Connects’ podcast, Kevin Kelly, Director of Cloud Career Training Programs at Amazon Web Services (which include the education and training programs AWS Academy and AWS re/Start), thinks anyone who wants to master the cloud needs to learn the principles behind the following:
- Compute
- Storage
- Network
- Database
- Security
Formal degree programs in software engineering, computer science, and other disciplines can help teach you these fundamentals, especially as more tools and platforms are levitated into the cloud. Always keep in mind that the field is steadily evolving, and you’ll need to keep your knowledge of cloud platforms up-to-date in order to land the best opportunities.
