RedMonk January 2025 Update
A small, sharp research firm focusing on developer-led technology adoption and developer culture. We help folks understand the industry by understanding you.
My daughter opened a detective agency. When she’s on the case, no clue is too subtle to evade her notice (not even the imaginary ones.) So long as you’ve caught her during business hours, your problem is sure to be solved.
After our reposeful winter break, RedMonk, too, is open for business. (Or ‘bisnus’ as I now propose we all spell it.) I must say that December Rachel sure left a lot of “let’s pick this up after the holidays” work for January Rachel. It’s been a busy start to the year already, with more work building every day.
But before the pace of the year hits full stride and before we all get wrapped in our own to do lists, I want to encourage us to pause. It does not take deep detective work to find places where we can help in the world. From the large-scale disasters like the California fires to the quietly small crises in our own communities, there are plenty of ways our care can make an impact.
Yes, we’re technologists, so of course let’s build, create, and do cool shit. While we do that, let’s give more than we take. Let’s share our knowledge, time, and opportunities with the people around us. Let’s help the communities around us thrive.
Be gracious. Be generous. Be kind. Happy 2025.
-Rachel Stephens
Links Roundup
News about Microsoft's Recall regarding sensitive data: "The concern with Recall is that it’s keeping a digital record of everything you do and, no matter how secure, the record is there for bad actors to find."
This is notable because Vultr has self-funded their cloud infrastructure buildout from their operating cash flow up to now.
Sharing just so we can make a cola-location joke.
Tickets are on sale for Write the Docs Portland in May! And the CFP closes January 21. In other WtD news: the deadline for the Documentation Salary Survey 2024 has been extended to January 31.
Check out Simon Willinson’s Things we learned about LLMs in 2024.
Angela Andrews and Michael Jenkins are doing a tech bookclub!
Recent RedMonk Research
The deluge of tech announcements that comes during the KubeCon-to-reInvent gauntlet is intense. Here are a handful of new items from this conference season, along with some brief notes from Rachel Stephens about why they caught her attention: Conference-Driven Development: Selected News Releases from Fall 2024 RM clients mentioned: Akamai, AWS, Crunchy Data, and GitLab
There were probably not very many people thinking about the pricing of agentic AI on December 23, but Rachel Stephens apparently was one of them. Hypothesis Around the Pricing of Agentic AI
Steve O'Grady has had this conversation several times now, so figured it was time to write it up: Open Source Discussion Archetypes
A look at the convergence of data platforms and AI, including a trip down memory lane through some hadoop history: The Dream of Hadoop is Alive in AI RM clients mentioned: AWS, Google, IBM and Microsoft
Recent Videos and Media Appearances
James Governor discussed his takeaways from AWS re:Invent 2024, including the announced partnership around Amazon Q and GitLab Duo, in this RedMonk QuickTake: AWS re:Invent 2024, Amazon Q meets GitLab Duo
Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal were joined by Theo Schlossnagle, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, and Steve O’Grady to talk about conferences in tech. A lot has changed in the past couple of decades about the impetus for conferences and what makes it worthwhile to attend: Conferences in Tech: Steve O’Grady and Kelly Fitzpatrick on Oxide and Friends
Exclusively on the MonkCast
A RedMonk Conversation: JJ Tang on Incident Management, Cold Emailing CEOs, and the Origins of Rootly: JJ Tang, CEO of Rootly on the evolving landscape of incident management. Also discussed: his career journey from landing a job at IBM (involving cold emailing the CEO) to building incident management tools at Instacart, to starting Rootly with cofounder Quentin Rousseau. Tang also reflects on the challenges of running a startup during economic shifts and offers valuable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.
RedMonk Recommends
This part of our newsletter introduces those of you looking to hire talented individuals to people we know who are looking for new opportunities.
This month RedMonk recommends Matty Stratton, an esteemed member of the DevOps community. You may have found him via his work hosting the Arrested DevOps podcast, or maybe you were fortunate to have the privilege of listening to him speak at a conference. Perhaps you’ve attended a DevOpsDays conference, in which case you experienced his work as one of the event’s global organizers. You probably have run into him online, where he brings folks together with his unique blend of charm, wit, and just a touch of shitposting.
Matty has over 20 years of experience in IT operations and is well-respected in many technical communities, including DevOps, cloud native, and infrastructure engineering. As a DevRel leader with a background in developer marketing and growth, Matty has experience aligning the efforts of community and advocacy teams with tangible marketing outcomes.
Matty is looking for full-time roles in either Developer Relations or Developer Marketing with a focus on growth. He is especially well-suited for a product that is aligned with cloud engineering, infrastructure (IAC or automation), or developer/practitioner workflow and effectiveness. Matty is open to player/coach or IC roles in a smaller organization.
Please check out Matty’s Linkedin profile for more details about his expertise.
Monki Gras Tickets On Sale
Monki Gras, the tech conference about craft and tech culture returns March 27th/28th 2025 in London. Our theme this year is Sustaining Software Development Craft. Monki Gras 2025 is all about tackling the big changes shaping the software industry, from the pressures on open source to the way AI is transforming how we work. We'll dig into how developers can stay relevant, why preserving disappearing crafts and skills matters, and what open source means in a world where companies often shift to proprietary models. Along the way, expect great conversations and plenty of amazing craft beers, ciders, wines, and food. It’s an intimate, inspiring event for anyone who cares about the future of software and its culture.
Buy tickets here.
And a PSA to US travelers to the UK:
Meet the Monks
Events we'll be attending:
Dynatrace Perform 2025: 2 - 5 February 2025, Las Vegas, NV
State of Open Con 25: 4-5 February 2025, London, UK
ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium 2025: February 26 - March 1 2025, Pittsburgh, PA
Devnexus 2025: 4 - 6 March 2025, Atlanta, GA
KubeCon + CloudNativeCon EU 2025: 1- 4 April 2025, London, UK
Google Cloud Next ’25: 9 - 11 April 2025, Las Vegas, NV
Events we'll be hosting:
Monki Gras 2025: 27 - 28 March 2025, London, UK
Our mailing address is:
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