How multi-cloud are you, technical application manager?

It's fall, technical application administrator. After hard work in the spring and a lot of work around the summer period, this is the time for many people to reflect on 'what they are actually doing'.

How are things going in your field? What developments are coming up? Perhaps it is time for some extra training or an introduction to new tools and techniques, such as container technology or microservices. Rain against the windows and a glass of bok beer are great ingredients for a little reflection.

The State of Application Delivery survey

One source of inspiration for thinking about your profession as a technical application manager is the 2018 State of Application Delivery report. This survey was released earlier this year by F5, a provider of Application Delivery solutions. In the survey, nearly 3,500 professionals from your field give their opinions on a variety of application management topics. The emphasis here is really on engineers; only about 5% of the respondents are developers. The report focuses on the concepts and technologies for deploying and managing applications in a secure and reliable way.

Key topics in 2018: Multi-cloud and security

It's going a bit far to go through the entire study with you here, so be sure to check out the report for yourself. The report mentions a number of areas of focus. For example, there is a lot of focus on multi-cloud environments. And by extension, the security of applications in such multi-cloud environments. But the report also deals extensively with topics such as automation and orchestration.

Multi-cloud an important development for the technical application manager

Not long ago, the hybrid cloud concept - the mix between on-premise and cloud - was the main point of discussion within many organizations. Now, according to the survey, it is increasingly about multi-cloud scenarios. This involves using different cloud services to run business applications. People are adopting a “best cloud for the app” strategy.

On average, organizations grew from 1.8 different cloud environments in 2017 to 2.1 different environments this year. That ranges from private clouds to public IaaS, SaaS and PaaS services. Companies with 6 different cloud services are no exception.

What I found interesting was the explanation of how people in such a multi-cloud environment choose a particular cloud platform for each application. There you see many different methods. From a case-by-case approach per application to organization-wide guidelines cast in concrete.

Increasing concerns about application security

Along with the increasing focus on multi-cloud scenarios, more and more application experts are concerned about the security of their applications in the cloud. This can be seen, among other things, in the large number of application services. The use of such standard services for load balancing and compression, for example, is increasing enormously anyway. But the emphasis with application services is explicitly on security functionality, for example for DDoS protection and access control. The use of Web Application Firewalls is also increasing tremendously.

Any ideas for after the fall, technical application manager?

The survey provides a clear state of affairs around application delivery and management. But how about you, technical application manager? Are you still in a great place and can you still develop yourself there? Or is it time again to gain new experiences, acquire new knowledge and develop yourself in a complex multi-cloud environment, for example? Then take a look at our overview of technical application manager jobs. Or better yet, sign up immediately.