Kubernetes, Service Mesh, API Security, and Low-Code to Dominate DevOps in 2020

Dunlap, Charlotte
December 26, 2019

ANALYST BLOG

REPORT SUMMARY
In 2020, the top four enterprise developer predictions involve cloud consolidation through Kubernetes, service mesh
integrations, API security adds to API management systems, and AI-enabled low-code platforms.

POSTED TO ANALYST BLOGS

Summary Bullets:

• Kubernetes, service mesh, and low-code will drive DevOps’ innovations

• API security will enhance API gateway offerings

Kubernetes to Consolidate OpenStack:

In 2020 Kubernetes will bridge technologies between the OpenStack and platform providers’ market segments,
highlighting the growing role of traditional infrastructure vendors in app modernization. Kubernetes has obtained the
power to rally, helping infrastructure and cloud providers alike build out their systems and solutions in ways that
take advantage of the benefits of cloud services. Cloud providers are preparing cloud management tools to enable
better collaboration under a DevOps model and help enterprises through the entire process from building
containerized apps to managing Kubernetes clusters, to providing fixes and debugging potential problems. A
continued emphasis will be made on new and enhanced OSS technologies in ongoing efforts to improve Kubernetes.

Leaders in this space include Red Hat OpenShift, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service, VMware Cloud, and
AWS.

Service Mesh will Drive Microservices:

In 2020 technology providers will integrate into core offerings solutions which leverage open source software (OSS)
products including Istio and Knative to manage connectivity and apps and address the demands of distributed apps.
Traditional application platform providers such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, and increasingly infrastructure
providers such as VMware, Cisco, and others, are enhancing their respective application and infrastructure platforms
to include microservices toolchains and frameworks based on Istio as implementations of a service mesh which
provide guidance and development patterns to help developers get familiar with this new approach. Consolidation
will continue as it has in 2019 with high-profile acquisitions such as VMware/Heptio and F5/NGINX to aid in these
efforts.
 Leaders in this space include Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh, Amazon Web Services App Mesh, Google Cloud
Platform, Microsoft Azure Service Mesh, and VMware NSX Service Mesh.

API Security Will Accompany API Management Systems:

In 2020, API management providers will prioritize security as part of their solutions which serve at the foundation of
large-scale transactional systems, under cloud transformations. Traditional API management technology is typically
built on gateway solutions that provide visibility and management around API activities. While these solutions
maintain important governance and policy functionality, they are not widely viewed as having best-of-breed API
security capabilities. As such, innovative security technologies such as AI/machine learning will come into play more
heavily for analyzing traffic to monitor for anomalies such as automated attacks. Developers will be playing a larger
role in API security, as some security pure plays provide solutions designed as 'security-as-code,' where capabilities
are built into applications earlier in the app development process. New types of API security offerings will simplify
security requirements through automation, which is critical to developers tasked with creating APIs for distributed
apps. Next-generation architectures, which create distributed applications, will demand security participation beyond
operations and security teams so that app developers and architects can help address new types of vulnerabilities.
There will also be greater interest in segmenting and monitoring the new app architecture (e.g., access control,
authentication, metering, and throttling) so that enterprises have a better understanding of not only security
vulnerabilities, but also of how their infrastructure is being used.

Leaders in this space include 42Crunch, Cequence Security, Data Theorem, and Salt Security.

AI and Low-Code Platforms to Converge:

In 2020 application platforms providers will refine low-code platforms via AI/ML to play a greater role in supporting a
DevOps model built around the concept of automation. Low-code vendors have begun establishing new strategies
for providing solutions with ML technology that monitor what an app developer is trying to accomplish and flagging
shortcuts and recommendations, automatically directing developers to value-add services or third-party components
which can be leveraged to significantly reduce the complexity of backend data integration requirements. Natural
language processing technology provides the enterprise with a guided way to create the UX as part of the mobile
app. Application platforms providers will continue to emphasize app components shoring up chatbots and voice-
enabled capabilities in support of natural language UI, or conversational platforms, leveraging an assortment of
cloud, big data, IoT, artificial speech and advanced analytics.

Leaders in this space include Microsoft Power Platform and PowerApps, Salesforce Lightning, Kony Quantum,
Mendix, and Appian AI.

For more on these predictions, please see 2020 Predictions: Cloud -Native Enablement , December 20, 2019.
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