DevOps has become widespread despite only originating as a term in 2007.

As a practice, it can help organizations improve collaboration, efficiency, and reliability. Teams utilizing DevOps often become more productive.

Still, DevOps is far from universal. Challenges to adoption and potential downsides of the philosophy remain, even in 2026. 

DevOps has also been joined by related but distinct protocols, such as DevSecOps, ITOps, and Platform Engineering. 

So what are the main benefits and challenges of DevOps? How many organizations have adopted it, and who is the average DevOps engineer?

This report explores key statistics and trends related to DevOps, updated for 2026.

Editor’s Picks

Adoption of DevOps Statistics

9 in 10 teams use at least one internal platform (DORA)

Internal developer platforms are the interface that allows developers to access and interact with key infrastructure and tools. The practice of using these platforms is sometimes called Platform Engineering. Almost all organizations use at least one platform, and 29% use multiple, according to DORA’s 2025 survey.

DevOps has an adoption rate of 21% in source code management (Statista)

That’s surprisingly low, considering the numerous potential benefits of DevOps to code building and management. (These are discussed below.)

37% of IT leaders say DevOps is their team’s biggest technical skill gap (Spacelift)

Many teams still lack sufficient DevOps and DevSecOps skills, according to leaders. Building those skills can be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive; DevOps certificates often cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Growth of DevOps

The proportion of organizations incorporating DevOps platforms will increase by 220% between 2023 and 2027 (Gartner via Brokee)

In 2023, just 25% of organizations had incorporated DevOps platforms into their development toolchains. By 2027, 80% will have done so.

The DevOps market will reach $88.39 billion in 2034 (Polaris Market Research)

That’s an increase of around 595% from 2024, when the market was worth $12.66 billion. Polaris based its estimate on a compound annual growth rate of 21.6%.

Other estimates are more conservative. According to GM Insights, the DevOps market will surpass $70 billion in 2032. GM Insights predicts that over $45 billion of that will come from a single segment, on-premise deployment. The prediction is based on a CAGR of over 20%.

Spacelift, meanwhile, estimates the DevOps market will be worth $25.5 billion in 2028. That’s an increase of 145% from 2023.

And the DevSecOps market will be worth $41.66 billion by 2030 (Spacelift)

That’s a massive increase of 1,017% from 2021, when the DevSecOps market was worth just $3.73 billion.

65% of professionals working with or on platform teams think it will continue to receive investment (Puppet by Perforce via PR Newswire)

DevOps professionals are confident in the continued popularity of internal developer platforms, platform engineering, and DevOps in general.

Benefits of DevOps

Teams perform 10% better with an internal developer platform (DORA)

Internal developer platforms can provide the infrastructure and tools to allow developers to work using best practices without needing deep knowledge of what they’re working on. They have, therefore, become an integral part of DevOps. 

Interestingly, the report found these platforms provide negligible benefits for individuals. It’s the team that benefits.

68% adopt DevOps for higher-quality solutions (Gearset)

Higher-quality solutions are the most common motivation behind teams adopting DevOps. It’s followed by developer happiness, including preventing burnout (56% of DevOps teams); keeping up with workloads (56%); security and resilience (54%), and compliance and auditing (47%).

2.44x more teams consider quality a more important benefit of DevOps than speed (Gearset)

22% of DevOps teams say improved quality is the most important benefit of DevOps. 9% say accelerated project delivery. The majority (69%) see both as equally important.

46% of executives say speed is their DevOps priority (Red Gate)

That’s the speed of development and delivery. It’s the most common DevOps priority among executives, followed by efficiency (43% of executives), quality (43%), and productivity (28%).

80% of organizations had modern app delivery as a priority in 2025 (Red Gate)

According to IBM, delivering modern apps “relies on modern DevOps practices.” Modern app delivery has plenty of potential benefits. It can make teams more efficient, allow for scalability, and facilitate the digitalization of user experiences.

32% of organizations say their main data need is quality and integrity (Red Gate)

Other needs include data availability (31%), resilience to ransomware (30%), data integration (29%), and data mobility (28%). 

Database DevOps can help reduce data complexities. For example, a team may automate database deployments. 

Barriers to DevOps Adoption

Around 1 in 10 recruiters struggle to hire DevOps candidates (Statista)

DevOps professionals are in high demand, leaving a sizable minority of recruiters struggling to fill open positions. According to a survey by James Andrews Recruitment Solutions, the largest issue facing hiring managers is a lack of appropriate skills; 65% of recruiters reported a “surge in underqualified candidates” applying for specialized roles like DevOps engineers. 

50% of teams report budget as a barrier to DevOps adoption (Gearset)

DevOps engineers and platforms are both expensive, and they’re just two of the many costs associated with adopting DevOps. According to Adex, the monthly cost of outsourcing fundamental DevOps components like setting up CI/CD pipelines ranges from $10,000 to $30,000.

22% of DevOps teams identify security risks as the main barrier to AI adoption (Gearset)

Security is the main hindrance to AI adoption in DevOps teams. It’s followed by the cost of AI (20% of teams), a lack of use cases (19%), and difficulties with compliance (19%).

DevOps teams in large companies are 42.4% less likely to say cost is a barrier to AI adoption (Gearset)

Only 13% of DevOps teams in companies with over 10,000 employees consider cost a barrier to AI adoption. In large companies, the main challenges hindering AI adoption are compliance and security issues.

DevOps Implementation

29% of organizations use multiple internal developer platforms (DORA)

That means 61% of organizations use just one internal developer platform.

57% of DevOps teams deploy changes between environments within an hour (Gearset)

However, a sizable minority of 35% usually takes 1–4 hours. And 6% of teams need 5 hours to a whole day to deploy changes from one environment to another.

28% of organizations release to production multiple times per month (Gearset)

This timeframe varies widely. While 9% of organizations release to production multiple times per day, 6% only do so multiple times per year. 

Deploying a database takes 3.5 hours, on average (Red Gate)

Database deployment is a crucial and common task in DevOps. Speedier deployment means a faster time to market and better software performance.

55% of DevOps teams fix a released error within a week (Gearset)

Most teams can respond to published errors in days. But 39% can do so in hours.

37% of developer time is spent on new app functionality (Red Gate)

Developers in DevOps teams spend much of their time on non-strategic tasks, like scripts and manual tooling.

DevOps Implementation Challenges

Approximately half of Salesforce DevOps teams lack observability tools (Gearset)

Observability tools are crucial. Teams that have them are 50% more likely than those that don’t to catch bugs within a day, and 48% more likely to fix them within a day.

74% of DevOps teams without observability tools learn about issues from end users (Gearset)

Without proper observability tools, teams often fail to identify (let alone fix) issues before end users encounter them. This could lower user satisfaction and retention. 

34% of companies have a bug and error rate in releases of 10-25% (Gearset)

The majority of companies (57%) deploy releases with accuracy; they have an error rate under 10%. A sizable minority deploy releases with errors or bugs 10-25% of the time. And 2% deploy releases with errors or bugs more often than not. 

40% of executives say business agility is what is most negatively affected by a lack of DevOps capabilities (Red Gate)

DevOps capabilities can often become a bottleneck for agility. Executives identified other potential negative impacts of a lack of sufficient DevOps capabilities, including: Customer experience (32% of executives), innovation (30%), and ITOps productivity (26%). 

Just 43% of professionals say their internal developer platform has a dedicated security and compliance team (Puppet by Perforce via PR Newswire)

That’s concerning, considering a majority of organizations list security as a major benefit to DevOps. 

DevOps Implementation Practices

25% of DevOps teams are lower-performing (DORA)

DORA divides DevOps teams into multiple categories, each less skilled than the preceding. At the top, 19% of teams are “Elite.” These teams have change lead times measured in hours, failure rates of just 5%, and failed deployment recovery times under an hour. At the bottom, 25% of teams are “Low.” Their change lead time varies from one to six months, their failure rate is 40%, and their recovery time from a failed deployment ranges from one week to a whole month.

Teams with fewer DevOps tools are 5x more likely to deploy releases in less than an hour (Gearset)

Leaders might feel like their teams need more tools to improve productivity, but the opposite is true. Two-thirds of teams with fewer than 5 DevOps tools deploy in under an hour. But just 13% of teams with over 20 tools manage the same.

How DevOps Is Changing

By 2028, 65% of organizations will use DevOps tools that combine multiple branches of DevOps (Red Gate)

Instead of only DevOps, the majority of organizations will use multiple approaches, including MLOps, LLMOps, DataOps, and CloudOps.

By 2027, 80% of organizations will have incorporated DevOps platforms into their development toolchains (Gartner via Brokee)

Incorporating DevOps platforms results in streamlined delivery and reduced complexity. 

AI and DevOps Statistics

81% of DevOps professionals say their organization has shifted its priorities to increasing AI implementation (DORA)

As AI tools become more capable, more organizations are rushing to include them in their applications or services. This competition is intense: 49.2% of professionals described their organization’s shift toward AI as moderate or significant.

90% of DevOps professionals rely on AI at least in part for their daily responsibilities (DORA)

That’s an increase of 14% on the previous year.

The most common use cases are writing new code (71%), literature reviews (68%), modifying existing code and proofreading (66%), and debugging and explaining concepts (62%).

The most common AI interface is chatbots, which are used by 78.2% of DevOps professionals (DORA)

Chatbots are followed in popularity by external web interfaces, which are used by 73.9% of professionals. Less common are internal web interfaces (58.1% of professionals) and AI tools integrated into automated CI/CD pipelines (50.2%). 

Adopting AI by 25% increases productivity by 2.1% (DORA)

Even a minor adoption of AI can bring benefits to an individual. It increases flow by 2.6% and job satisfaction by 2.2%.

But decreases time doing valuable work by 2.6% (DORA)

This might seem strange. How is it that DevOps professionals who adopt AI become more productive and satisfied, while also spending less time on valuable work? The researchers’ hypothesis is that AI helps people work more efficiently, meaning they complete valuable work faster. That work, therefore, becomes a relatively smaller proportion of time spent working.

In contrast, a 25% increase in AI adoption results in a 0.4% increase in time spent doing toilsome work.

DevOps teams that increase AI adoption see a 7.5% increase in documentation quality (DORA)

AI adoption can help DevOps teams even more than individuals. Increasing AI adoption by just 25% enabled DevOps teams to increase code quality by 3.4%. 

However, the increased adoption also lowers code complexity by 1.8% and delivery/stability by a challenging 7.2%. 

DevOps Industry Statistics

DevOps is the 5th-most demanded technical profession by recruiters (Statista)

DevOps has become slightly less in demand in recent years, but it remains one of the most in-demand technical professions. The most in-demand IT roles are full-stack and back-end developers, according to Statista.

With an average annual salary of $182,764, Annapolis Junction, Maryland is the highest-paying city for DevOps engineers (Indeed)

It’s followed by Washington, D.C. ($142,884), New York City ($141,151), Chicago ($139,142), and Dallas ($135,146).

According to BuiltIn’s survey of DevOps engineers in the US, the highest-paying city is San Francisco, with an average annual salary of $174,390. It’s followed by fully remote positions ($161,468), New York City ($143,138), Los Angeles ($142,896), and San Diego ($139,088).

Both of these lists roughly align with an analysis by Talent.com, based on 10,000 salaries, which ranks the average salary for DevOps engineers in each state. The top-paying states are California ($142,077), Maryland ($137,487), Virginia ($134,558), Washington ($133,805), and New York ($126,404). 

In contrast, the states with the lowest average annual salaries are South Dakota ($84,492), North Dakota ($91,286), and Indiana ($91,585). 

An analysis by Coursera generated a notably different list. Here, the highest-paying cities are Cupertino and Redwood City in California at $155,339. In Coursera’s list, these are followed by Jewett, Texas ($154,381).

90% of organizations have at least one dedicated internal developer platform team (DORA)

That means 10% of organizations have an internal platform but lack a dedicated team.

Just 13.8% of DevOps engineers are women (Zippia)

The percentage of female DevOps engineers is decreasing. In 2010, 15.81% were women.

Female DevOps engineers earn 94% of what men earn, on average (Zippia)

That’s a smaller wage gap than among all US workers, where women earn 85% of what men earn on average. But it’s larger than the gap among young workers aged 25-34, where women earn 95% of what men earn. 

55% of DevOps engineers work at public companies (Zippia)

43% work at private companies and 2% work in education.

DevOps Engineer Statistics

The average DevOps engineer’s base salary is $134,537 (Indeed)

The average DevOps engineer’s base salary is $134,537 (Indeed)

That’s based on 4,400 salaries tracked in the 36 months leading up to September 2026.

Other analyses provide slightly different figures. One based on 10,000 salaries on Talent.com has the average annual salary at $130,175. A survey of DevOps engineers by BuiltIn puts the average annual salary at $133,817.

Plus yearly additional compensation of $16,538, on average (BuiltIn)

Annual salary figures often don’t include additional compensation, which is common for DevOps engineers. Additional compensation can come in the form of performance bonuses, profit sharing, and even commissions, according to Boot Dev. As with base salary, the average amount of additional compensation earned each year generally increases with seniority. 

Combining BuiltIn’s figure for average base salary and additional compensation results in a total average annual compensation of $150,355. That’s significantly higher than the median salary of many computer and IT professions tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics; for example, the median pay for computer programmers is $100,390. 

Average annual base salary increases to $179,000 for senior DevOps engineers (Indeed)

DevOps engineers can expect to earn almost $60,000 more per year by rising in seniority. And that’s not accounting for additional compensation, which also generally rises over time. According to ValidGrad, a DevOps engineer with several years of experience can expect to take home between $25,000 and $40,000 (or more) each year in additional compensation.

45% of DevOps engineers work at organizations with over 10,000 employees (Zippia)

DevOps engineers are clearly vital to large organizations. Brokee provides a more conservative estimate, putting the figure at just 22%. 

27% work at Fortune 500 companies (Zippia)

DevOps engineers are crucial to the functioning of leading companies that can afford the associated costs.

58% of DevOps engineers work hybrid (Google via Brokee)

33% work fully remote, and 9% are fully in-office. Despite an increase in return-to-office mandates, the percentage of remote-capable employees in the US working hybrid has remained steady over the last few years, hovering in the low 50s. 

DevOps engineers are therefore slightly more likely to work on a hybrid schedule than the average remote-capable employee in the US. Offering flexible working models could make organizations more competitive and allow them to retain top talent; in one survey, roughly half of remote or hybrid workers said they would consider leaving their job if they were required to return to the office full-time. 

The average DevOps engineer is 39 years old (Zippia)

Just 18% of DevOps engineers are 20-30 years old.

75% of DevOps engineers have a Bachelor’s degree (Zippia)

20% have a Master’s degree. However, higher degrees correlate with higher average annual earnings: DevOps engineers with a Master’s earn several thousand dollars more per year than their peers with a Bachelor’s, and engineers with doctorates earn over $15,000 more than those with a Bachelor’s. 

The average DevOps engineer stays at their job for 1-2 years (Zippia)

Job-hopping is increasingly common. According to Forbes, 47% of full-time workers think changing jobs will be more financially profitable than staying. Those who did hop jobs saw their salary increase by 35%, almost double that of their peers. Job hoppers also say it helps their career progression.

Still, 33% of DevOps engineers stay at their job for 5-7 years. But despite Zippia analyzing 30 million profiles, 0% of DevOps engineers stay at a job for more than 11 years.