Stephanie Worthington
Why London is one of the tech hubs of the world and how DevOps plays an important role in its success.
As technology is essential for everyone in everyday life, it calls for a vast and innovative industry. London is recognised, among others, for its world-class talent pool and great access to tech and sciences. Seen to be one of the tech hubs of the world, it has climbed the league tables in the last few years from number eight to number two in 2020 according to the Global Startup ecosystem report 2021. Although the US and China have long been considered the global superpowers for tech, Europe is quickly cementing its position on the global stage.
Why is London held in such high regard?
• London has a distinguished history as one of the leading cities in a variety of service industries with 5.8 million people employed, and an estimated more than Londoners 585,000 employed in digital businesses. It boasts the fifth largest city economy worldwide.
• Four of the world’s top ten universities are in or close to London offering a high number of tech-focused degree programs, helping to provide the perfect foundation in education. To ensure all tech professionals are highly skilled, firms place emphasis on attending coding schools and launching free online training programs like Tech City UK’s Digital Business Academy.
• The city consists of a multicultural community of over 357K software developers creating a society with strong education, peer support, and international connections.
• Creative and technology sectors in London are increasing, turning the city into a hub for high-tech industries. Many global technology companies such as Apple, Google, and Facebook have chosen to base their European offices in London, once again highlighting the importance and relevance of London as a creative and technology hub.
• One of the main reasons for London’s reputation as a tech hub is its thriving FinTech industry. Out of all 1.1 Million financial services jobs in the UK, half of this economic activity occurred in London. FinTechs are also the forefront of DevOps innovation, with some of the biggest London FinTech companies leading the way in DevOps.
London’s reputation is burgeoning thanks to the entrepreneurial efforts of the Silicon Roundabout and greater financial support for start-ups. It is the leading destination to grow a technology business outside of Silicon Valley. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, describes it as a “Fantastic place to grow and scale a global tech business.” If London continues to grow its tech industry, it will receive further recognition as a truly global tech hub.
DevOps and its importance to London’s Tech Industry
Although not new to the IT industry, the DevOps market has seen significant growth in the past few years as it helps organisations bridge the gap between strategic goals and day-to-day management of work. Companies can have the insights to support an outcome-driven approach to software development.
The pandemic called for further demand in the DevOps market; there was a need for software and online web-based applications among businesses as they sought to capitalise on the increased online presence of their customers. The rise in the number of Covid-19 cases caused the government and local authorities to enforce social distancing measures, self-isolation policies, and the closing of physical shops and businesses, forcing the population online. The trend of digitally transforming physical businesses increased the demand and reliance on DevOps solutions. There was a rise in requirement for continuous and fast application delivery and an increase in focus on reducing CAPEX and OPEX. Also, the growth in applications running in dynamic IT environments fuelled the growth of the tech market. Not only this but the various lockdowns allowed for current online businesses such as Amazon Web Services, IBM, Microsoft, and Google to develop their software, and adopt various strategies to increase market penetration strengthening their positions in the industry. The requirement for speed to ensure a company’s efficiency is enabled by DevOps, and as businesses have gone through a cultural and structural change to adapt to a more digitalised way of life, its demand continues to grow.
The growing need for Continuous and fast Application Delivery
DevOps solutions are allowing the integration and deployment of code without delays which is, in turn, improving the frequency and quality of software delivery. Furthermore, DevOps accelerates the prototype development cycle and reduce deployment time by cutting the development time from months or weeks to days or even hours as application changes are being made faster and frequently reach the production environment.
DevOps is a safe, secure, and cost-efficient process that improves the quality of application development. It reduces time to market, incorporates security aspects, and allows the breaking of codebases into smaller manageable portions. This helps to seize market opportunities quickly, reduce the time to include customer feedback as well as to change and advance the relationship by advocating better communication and collaboration between different business units. It is transferable to various industries from shopping and leisure to banking. The cruciality of DevOps within the tech industry and every business due to its co-dependence on the hardware and the embedded software that runs on it makes it unsurprising that by 2030 the market is expected to increase from £5.19Billion in 2020 to £44.28Billion.
DevOps is one of the most innovative things in tech right now, so the fact that London has such a big tech sector, it is natural that DevOps plays such a prominent role for London companies and their tech departments. Thus, this is why London has such a developed DevOps sector in particular.
If you’re interested in working in DevOps and being a crucial part of the Tech industry, have look at our live roles or call us on 020 3800 1234
