The Forrester Wave™: DevOps Platforms, Q2 2025
DevOps platforms consolidate continuous integration (CI), continuous delivery (CD), and security into one unified contract manageable by a platform team. They replace custom-made toolchains that hindered developer productivity when changing teams and prevented volume discounts. A great DevOps platform satisfies many stakeholders by unifying the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC), enabling teams to share information from requirements to operations and maintenance. The market is evolving toward AI-powered agents, enhanced security integration, and improved developer experience while maintaining flexibility and integration with legacy environments.
No common features specified.
Vendors must, among other requirements:
A: This research evaluates 11 DevOps platform providers across current offering capabilities and strategy. It covers platforms that consolidate continuous integration (CI), continuous delivery (CD), and security functions, focusing on vendors with broad enterprise-level support serving more than 250 large enterprises. The evaluation includes Leaders (Microsoft, Atlassian, GitLab, Harness), Strong Performers (Red Hat, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services), and Contenders (CircleCI, IBM, CloudBees, Octopus Deploy). The research assesses capabilities including developer experience, build automation, deployment automation, security integration, AI infusion, and day-two operations.
A: DevOps platform customers should use this research to inform purchase decisions by considering: 1) A breadth of distinguishing features that extend left and right of the build/test/secure/deploy process, including ML-based root cause analysis with autoremediation; 2) Ease of integration into legacy environments with robust support for third-party tools and migration utilities; 3) Improvement of developer and operations experience to reduce cognitive load and simplify infrastructure management. Organizations should adapt the findings based on their specific priorities using Forrester's interactive provider comparison experience, considering their existing toolchains, deployment environments, team structure, and whether they need all-in-one consolidation or modular components.
A: Mandatory features for vendors included in this DevOps platforms market are: (1) Broad enterprise-level support with a track record of supporting more than 250 large enterprises; (2) Out-of-the-box support for CI, CD, and DevSecOps core functions without requiring additional integrations; (3) General-purpose utility not tied to a single application or technology; (4) Availability as a standalone product with its own SKUs and pricing; (5) At least $20 million in annual revenue from the DevOps platform product; and (6) Mindshare among Forrester's enterprise clients demonstrated through frequent mentions in inquiries, advisories, and competitive discussions.
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A: Strength of Offering evaluates the vendor's current product capabilities across 20 criteria including technical features like CI/CD, security, testing, deployment platforms, AI infusion, and platform cohesion. It measures what the product can do today. Strength of Strategy evaluates the vendor's future direction and market approach across 6 criteria including vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, pricing, and community engagement. It measures where the vendor is heading and how well-positioned they are for future success.