Trends that fizzled, trends that triumphed

A full 10 years of global data from the annual F5 State of Application Strategy Survey reveal a decade of digital app evolution. Key findings from each year show how much has changed—and highlight our current trajectory to the future.

2015

Private Clouds Earn Enthusiasm Despite Public Cloud Hype

Private clouds were named the number 1 strategic trend in a year where all the hype centered on public clouds.

2016

Security Starts to Shift

35% of organizations use identity federation as location-based security begins giving way to a zero-trust focus on users, identity, and apps. In less than a decade, 9 in 10 organizations will follow.

2017

Clouds Thrive

After a decade of public cloud penetration, 47% of organizations say they’re cloud first, with consumer-facing apps most likely to be deployed in that model.

2018

Cloud Decisions Depend on the App

In an app-centric approach to their business, 56% of organizations choose clouds case-by-case for each app.

2019

Automation Skyrockets

62% of organizations deploy automation and orchestration to keep pace with digital transformation and increasingly distributed apps.


2020

Multicloud Operations Expand

87% of organizations manage multiple clouds and most struggle with security as a result.

2021

App Modernization Explodes

77% of organizations are modernizing their app portfolios to fuel a heated digital economy. That’s more than double the 2020 rate, driven in part by the impacts of COVID-19.

2022

AI Promises Disruption to Come

9 in 10 organizations plan to use AI to better serve customers (although 98% say they’re missing insights they need).

2023

Hybrid IT Endures

85% of organizations operate multiple deployment environments and delivery models, from on-premises data centers to Software as a Services (SaaS).

2024

APIs Rise Over Apps

95% of organizations use API gateways, way up from 35% in 2019—not least because 41% manage at least as many APIs as apps.

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