Austin, Texas, USA, March 7, 2025
Futurum Market Analysis Sees Significant Opportunities for Innovation While Shifts Occur in How Software Is Developed
The DevOps and Application Development Market (DOADM) has grown substantially, reaching US$168.7 billion in 2023. It is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.76% to approximately US$268.73 billion by 2028. The market for cloud-based DevOps and software development solutions was valued at US$136.9 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach US$218.21 billion by 2028.
The growth of this market is driven by four key factors: the move to platform solutions, the impact of AI use across all phases of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), heightened focus on application and software supply chain security, and regulatory uncertainty.
The traditionally fractured market of individualized DevOps and technologies for developers, software testers, infrastructure, cloud and system administrators, operations, and security is coalescing. Vendors are integrating and delivering capabilities via more comprehensive platforms, cloud services, development environments, and DevOps automation that support workflows across multiple phases and functions of the SDLC.
With this substantial move to cloud-based development, on-premise and hybrid (a mix of on-premise and cloud development) markets remain viable and necessary to support data location, security, regulatory, and other requirements.
While AI/ML has been used in the development, testing, and other solutions for some years, generative AI began making an early but promising impact in 2023 across multiple phases of the SDLC. Late 2024 saw the acceleration of AI in software development and testing technologies, expanding to AI agent development, automation, and analysis across the SDLC.
Figure 1. DevOps and Application Development Market 2023–2028 (in US$ Billion)
Figure 2. DevOps and Application Development & Modernization Market, by Region (2023-2028, in US$ Billion)
Mitch Ashley, VP of DevOps and Application Development Practice Lead at Futurum said, “Software and application development are seeing significant multiple shifts occurring in parallel. Markets and technology vendors are consolidating around platform solutions, with a greater focus on platform engineering.”
“Development organizations are experimenting with and adopting AI tools for code generation, codebase analysis, test planning, and test script generation. At the same time, the prospect of AI and security regulatory impacts loom, which may have an impact in 2025.”
Futurum provides the following recommendations based on our analysis:
- Invest in and focus on application security, software supply chain security, DevOps pipeline security, and DevSecOps across all SDLC areas.
- Consider moving to vendors’ platforms and cloud development environments rather than integrating standalone point solutions to increase development and deployment workflow efficiencies.
- Generative AI’s pace of innovation is extremely high, potentially radically changing how software is created, secured, maintained, and supported. Align with technology partners rather than single products or technologies, and apply engineering discipline as AI is used across the SDLC.
Read more in the report “1H 2025 DevOps and Application Development Market Sizing & Five-Year Forecast,” available to subscribers on the Futurum Intelligence Platform.
About Futurum Intelligence for Market Leaders
Futurum Intelligence’s DevOps and Application Development IQ service provides actionable insight from analysts, reports, and interactive visualization datasets, helping leaders drive their organizations through transformation and business growth. Subscribers can log into the platform at https://app.futurumgroup.com/, and non-subscribers can find additional information at Futurum Intelligence.
Follow news and updates from Futurum on X and LinkedIn using #Futurum. Visit the Futurum Newsroom for more information and insights.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
Futurum and Kearney Reveal CEOs’ Readiness for AI Transformation in Landmark Study
AI Agent and Hybrid Architecture: What It Means for Software Development
Kubernetes as The Platform for Financial Services Innovation
Author Information
Mitch Ashley is VP and Practice Lead for the CIO & Technology Buyers and Software Lifecycle Engineering practices at The Futurum Group. A multi-time CIO and CTO with 30+ years leading technical organizations, Mitch built and operated production systems spanning cybersecurity for the U.S. Department of Defense, PKI services for the broadband and 5G industries, SaaS platforms, large-scale telecom and banking systems, and a national broadband network. His work with AI began early, developing expert systems that diagnosed and repaired complex mainframe environments. That operator foundation grounds his analysis in operational consequence, covering the technology buyer's world of software engineering, cybersecurity, DevOps, cloud, and AI.
