2022 Year in Review: Hot Topics in Software Development
DZone loves being the go-to source for developer-focused knowledge. Over two million IT and software professionals log in and leverage our articles and resources every year, and we take our responsibility seriously to generate original, relevant, informative content that helps them work smarter.
While developers and business pros alike visit DZone when they need to uplevel their skills and hone in on dev-specific insights, that knowledge share goes both ways. We learn from our community, and we put that knowledge to work.
Here’s what we learned about DZone readers – who they are, what they do, and what they want more of.
The Importance of Putting your Best Foot Forward
We took a closer look at the content we published in 2022. Of our twenty most popular articles, 9 were published in January, February, and March. It’s certainly possible that our audience tends to return from winter break with a newfound hunger for knowledge including guidance like 10 Books Every Engineering Leader Should Read (which reached nearly 16K people in 2022).
More likely, these pieces simply had more time to collect eyeballs over the course of the year. The pieces published in August and September that did gain good traction offered thought-provoking and aspirational insights on trending programming languages and a super-usable diagram for architecting Kubernetes.
IT Pros Everywhere are Eager for Resourceful Solutions
Computing and software development cross geographic and cultural boundaries, as the world works together toward innovative solutions. While our audience is everywhere, we saw strong concentrations of readership in APAC (39%) and EMEA (34%). The Americas accounted for 27% of readers tuning into DZone. When we look at the population of tech decision makers, however, 88% are located in North America.
In terms of size, developers from small to medium businesses definitely visit DZone (representing 30% of readership), but a strong contingent (57%) visits us from large companies and enterprises. As big companies continue to re-prioritize their tech spend, it’s incumbent on enterprise developers to tap into new technologies and leverage existing programs to their fullest potential.
We know that IT pros everywhere love a clever hack that saves time and increases efficiency. Notably, our most read article last year shared the process of converting an old laptop to a database server and garnered nearly 34,000 views. Our audience remains focused on simplifying, solving problems, and driving efficiency – and they turn to DZone for how-to guides and thought leadership to make it happen.
The Most Innovation-Curious Industries
Every single industry is looking to adopt higher tech solutions in order to innovate, grow, and streamline operations, but there are a few verticals where dev-centric solutions are taking center stage. We noticed the strongest showings from the finance, education, and manufacturing sectors.
In the financial space, developers’ priorities are security, performance, and compliance. They are focused on helping their organizations meet the increasingly high customer expectations and comply with strict regulatory guidelines. Engineers who are innovating in the financial space may lead the way on security measures for other industries by developing solutions that protect customer data and address the growing issue of fraud.
Priorities are slightly different for devs in education who, since 2020, experienced an unprecedented demand for more accessible digital-first solutions for non-technical audiences. Accessibility is priority number one in this industry, as products must meet the needs of a wide range of often non-technical stakeholders including educators, students, and parents who interact with applications on a wide array of devices. Here’s another space where security is key, driven by the need to protect sensitive information and the privacy of young people in digital spaces.
Safety, accuracy, and efficiency take center stage for devs in manufacturing. In an increasingly autonomous space, developing and following strict safety protocols is critical to reducing liability. Strong commitment to accuracy in development helps large operations run smoothly and maintain operations that keep the business competitive in the market, whether it’s building electric vehicles or autonomous farming implements.
Business services and healthcare rounded out the top five industries for DZone readers.
Cloud Native Supremacy
Our most popular topic overall? Kubernetes.
DZone published a total of 1,960 articles on Kubernetes in 2022, and Docker, APIs, and microservices were also at the top of the list. This reflects the growing dominance of cloud native applications that are in high demand as companies seek scalable solutions for deploying architecture and applications.
Other popular topics alluded to a growing interest in development as a career choice. Articles explaining the pros and cons of learning new programming languages and the best React Native projects for beginners attracted their fair share of attention.
Unsurprisingly, “AWS” was the third most popular tag as the ubiquitous cloud service remained a top choice for companies’ development and hosting needs. Azure was 13th on the list with 343 articles. For languages, Java ranked highest with 494 articles (JavaScript saw 198, including our second-most visited article, 5 JavaScript Concepts Every Web Developer Should Learn).
Winners and Losers
From Q3 to Q4, we saw the conversation shift and several topic tags gained or lost steam, although the most popular tags remained the same, and they aligned with DZone’s most popular tags for the year. These tags were: Kubernetes, data, Docker, micro service, AWS, Java, and API.
Of the 478 topic tags we published against, however, 55% of topics experienced a reduction of traffic in Q4, and 36% saw an increase. The decrease may simply signal the general slowdown of the holidays in November and December, as many of the most popular tags experience lower traffic in Q4 yet remained at the top of list.
A handful, including augmented reality remained the same quarter-over-quarter.
Infrastructure-as-Code, PHP, architecture, and cloud computing experienced diminished traffic in Q4. On the other hand, Java Database Connectivity” Go programming language, and elastic search experienced increases to close out the year as developers seek specific information to wrap up their projects in Q4.
Conclusion
Software development remains a hot topic in and of itself as young professionals and people seeking a shift explore engineering, coding, and development as a career path. As a hub of knowledge for seasoned experts and curious newbies, DZone offers the how-to guides, thought leadership, and experienced advice to help developers of all experience levels meet their goals.
While people with an interest in software development come from hundreds of countries and a variety of industries and job titles, but they all want one thing: relevant intelligence that will help them deliver great work and up-level their career.