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AWS Named Most 'Developer Friendly' Platform in Accenture Survey

• By David Ramel
• February 20, 2018

Accenture is out with a new developer ecosystem study investigating what's important to developers and how they access resources. In gathering respondent data about 15 different platforms, the study found -- among many other things -- that Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS) ranks highly when it comes to friendliness.

More generally, the professional services company said the five main takeaways from the survey are:

• Education tops monetization in what developers want most from ecosystems
• Accurate content makes all the difference, especially for "workhorses" (those who program 50-plus hours per week)
• Effective support is a close second to content
• Market positioning matters, but marketing less so
• There's room for companies to differentiate

With more and more development resources moving to the cloud, it's perhaps no surprise that the AWS platform came in for special attention.

"Amazon Web Services (AWS) topped the list as being the most developer-friendly platform, with respondents citing how it keeps them informed and provides monetization opportunities," the company said about its Accenture 2018 Developer Ecosystem Survey. "Developers also see AWS as being the most future-looking platform."

Amazon's cloud rivals also scored some points among developers, who said "Google Cloud Platform is considered the most innovative and caring about the needs of professional developers." The study wasn't confined to cloud platforms, as other development platforms such as Android and iOS were among the 15 offerings compared.

Findings about other platforms include:

• Microsoft Azure's developers are most satisfied with the platform's accuracy, currency, findability and readability of content. They also expressed satisfaction with the timeliness and technical background of the support they receive.
• Android developers are most satisfied with the level of knowledgeable support they receive. Android also ranks high for personalized support.
• iOS has the most credibility among hard-core developers.

In the report published earlier this month, factors that developers value most are:

• Platform market position (cited by 90 percent of the professional developers surveyed)
• Technically accurate content (82 percent)
• Timely support (81 percent)
• Learning new skills and improving skills (78 percent)
• Integration with other leading platforms (76 percent)

Developers also weighed in with thoughts about how the various platforms could differentiate themselves, including:

• Continually push technology boundaries, and expand developers' opportunities to innovate
• Open source their code and grant access to their libraries and repositories
• Provide relevant and perpetually up-to-date information written exactly as developers need it
• Be there when needed most, in the ways that each developer group needs them to be
• Understand what developers need to be successful and enable mutually valuable relationships to grow
• Recognize the value developers provide, the knowledge they possess and that their collective success is intertwined

Overall, Accenture concluded that when judging development ecosystems, the opportunity for education trumps monetization possibilities.

"Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents want to learn new skills, or improve current skills, when engaging with a developer ecosystem," the report says. "Learning is particularly important to professional developers (78 percent agree) and to those working in medium-sized organizations and enterprises. The desire for education spans generations, as all age groups are equally interested in keeping their skills current."

The report is based on proprietary research with more than 750 U.S.-based developers.