European Enterprises Embrace Containers to Speed Up App Development

Enterprises across Europe are turning to container technology to create fast and flexible software applications, with many using providers to help overcome technical and cultural challenges, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Container Services and Solutions Report for Europe finds companies across the region embracing containers as a way to efficiently upgrade applications and to scale resources to meet business demand.

“European enterprises see containerized solutions, including Kubernetes, as crucial to enabling platform versatility,” said Heiko Henkes, director, ISG Provider Lens Research. “As a general-purpose technology, containers can be deployed across on-premises data centers, workstations, cloud and, increasingly, edge and internet-of-things devices.”

The report sees the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the demand for container technology in Europe. With the dramatic shift to remote working and online consumption, the demand for cloud-native services and container solutions has increased. Music streaming, food delivery, home exercise and finance are some of the online services that have deployed Kubernetes to manage the rise in demand.

Adopting container technology, however, can come with several technical, human and cultural challenges, the report adds. Containers can bring new security risks, and with companies often deploying thousands of container clusters across cloud and on-premises data centers, observability can be a concern. Enterprises want to know what is going on within and between containers and identify where there might be degradation of service or a potential problem emerging.

Finding the right mix of observability tools and solutions—from traditional log monitoring and fault tracing to newer tools such as pseudo transactions, remote telemetry and chaos engineering—is essential given the growing complexity of containers and their supporting ecosystem, the report says. Some European companies are turning to container observability solution providers to deal with this issue.

However, the biggest challenges to adopting container technology are often human and cultural in nature, the report says. Containers and Kubernetes represent not just a new set of technologies, but a different philosophy of how to manage enterprise IT, involving reliance on a complex ecosystem of open-source and commercial partners, and a blurring of traditional lines between development, operations and security.

Many enterprises in Europe seek commercial solutions and providers that can ease the implementation process of the Kubernetes container technology and provide additional service layers on top, the report says. Many companies turn to hyperscalers for a full suite of infrastructure and specific Kubernetes tools, while others look to traditional IT service providers and global system integrators for legacy migrations and managed services using containers.

The report also sees growing demand in Europe for service providers located within the region or with a major footprint there. European data sovereignty and data residency requirements will impact container service providers, and many of them are developing container management and Kubernetes solutions designed to address complex data location and access rules.

Meanwhile, many companies in Europe are seeing a shortage of in-house cloud and Kubernetes talent, the report says. In some cases, companies are either creating their own on-the-job training programs or are turning to service providers to help train employees in container-related skills.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Container Services and Solutions Report for Europe evaluates the capabilities of 55 providers across four quadrants: Managed Container Services, Kubernetes Platform Services, Hyperscaler Cloud Container Platforms, and Cloud Native Observability Solutions.

The report names Accenture, Atos, AWS, Cognizant, Datadog, Dynatrace, Google Cloud, HCL, HPE, IBM, Microsoft, Mirantis, New Relic, Oracle, Rancher (SUSE), Red Hat, Splunk, Sysdig, VMware and Wipro as Leaders in one quadrant.

In addition, Claranet, Kubermatic and OVHcloud were named Rising Stars—companies with “promising portfolios” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition—in one quadrant each.

A customized version of the report is available from Dynatrace.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Container Services and Solutions Report for Europe is available to subscribers or for one-time purchase on this webpage.

About ISG Provider Lens™ Research

The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG's enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across Europe, as well as in the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, the U.K., France, the Nordics, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.

A companion research series, the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.

About ISG

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including more than 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.

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Contact information

Will Thoretz, ISG
+1 203 517 3119
will.thoretz@isg-one.com

Kate Hartley, Carrot Communications for ISG
+44 (0)20 3457 6403
kate.hartley@carrotcomms.co.uk