If you want to keep your enterprise IT skills up-to-date, you should familiarize yourself with these projects.
1. Docker
The twin trends of DevOps and cloud computing are dramatically increasing interest in container technology, and Docker is the undisputed leader in containerization. In the Rightscale 2017 State of the Cloud report, 70 percent of enterprises said that they either already were using Docker or were planning to do so. And in the same survey Docker was the number one DevOps tools deployed by enterprises. Docker allows developers to package together an application and all of its dependencies in a lightweight container. That makes it easy to move applications from one place to another and is especially helpful in hybrid cloud environments.
2. Kubernetes
While Docker allows you to use containers, Kubernetes makes it easier to manage containers. First developed by Google, this container orchestration tool is making its way into a number of other container-related solutions and services, including container services offered by Amazon, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Even Docker itself, which originally backed a separate orchestration tool called Swarm, now incorporates Kubernetes. The analysts at Forrester have gone so far as to say, "Kubernetes has won the war for container orchestration dominance." And in GitHub's Octoverse report for 2017, Kubernetes was the second most frequently reviewed open source project and the number one most-discussed repository.
3. Git
Git has become the most popular version control solution — by a wide margin. In the 2017 Stack Overflow developer survey, 69.2 percent of developers said that they used Git, making it the number one choice. By comparison, the second most popular version control system, Subversion, was selected by just 9.1 percent of respondents. In the open source world, the rise of GitHub, which is based on Git, has helped this version control system increase its reach. And as more enterprises have embraced open source, they have also embraced Git.
4. JavaScript
Depending on which report you read, JavaScript is either one of the most popular programming languages in the world or the number one most popular programming language in the world. In the Stack Overflow survey, developers selected JavaScript as the most popular language, with 62.5 percent of them saying they used it. JavaScript is also the most popular language on GitHub, used nearly twice as often as the second most popular language on the site, Python. On the PYPL index of programming language popularity JavaScript is currently number four, and in the competing TIOBE index, it is sixth. JavaScript is particularly popular for Web development, and it has also found its way into back-end and mobile development as well.
5. Node.js
One part of the popularity of JavaScript is due to the growing popularity of Node.js. This runtime environment allows developers to write server-side code in JavaScript. That means that developers can use the same language to write both the front-end of their Web applications (what the users see) and the back-end (what runs on the server). In the GitHub Octoverse report, Node.js made the list of the projects with the most reviews and the list of the most-discussed repositories. And in the Stack Overflow survey, 47.1 percent of developers said that they use Node.js, and 62.1 percent of developers said they love the framework, making it the second most loved framework, library or other technology. In addition, it was also the number one most wanted technology.
6. React/React Native
Creating by Facebook, React is a JavaScript library for developing user interfaces. A related project React Native allows developers to create cross-platform native mobile apps using React. Although React and React Native are fairly new technologies, they have become immensely popular. In the GitHub report, React was one of the most-forked projects, and React Native had the second most contributors of any open source project. In the Stack Overflow survey, 19.5 percent of developers said that they use React, but a full 66.9 percent said they love the library, making it the most loved technology in its category. And in an Indeed.com report on the fastest-growing tech job skills for 2018, React topped the list. Job candidate searches for the term have increased 313 percent, while employer searches grew by 229 percent.
7. Angular
Angular also made that Indeed.com list of fast-growing job searches. Candidate searches for Angular jobs have increased 50 percent, while employer searches for resumes that feature the term were up 6 percent. And it was the second most popular, sixth most loved and second most wanted technology in the Stack Overflow survey. It also showed up on the GitHub report as one of the projects with the most contributors. Like Node.js and React/React-Native, Angular is part of the JavaScript ecosystem (although the latest iteration of Angular is actually based on TypeScript, which compiles to JavaScript). It's an open source framework for building cross-platform applications for native mobile, Web, mobile Web and native desktop applications.
8. Hadoop
Tremendously popular for use in big data solutions Hadoop is an open source tool for processing large sets of data across a cluster of distributed systems. In the Stack Overflow report, Hadoop made both the lists of the most loved and the most wanted technologies. However, some analysts have begun to question how much longer Hadoop will be a key part of the big data ecosystem as enterprises are beginning to investigate other technologies which might better meet their needs. Still, it looks to be one of the key open source projects used by enterprises in 2018.
9. Spark
One of those newer big data technologies that is increasing in importance is Spark. Like Hadoop, it is managed by the Apache Software Foundation, but it is much faster than Hadoop's standard MapReduce engine. Many organizations use Spark along with Hadoop for applications that need to process real-time streaming data. According to Indeed.com, searches for Spark-related jobs have increased 39 percent among job seekers, and searches for candidates with Spark skills have grown 14 percent. Spark was also one of the projects with the most reviews in the Octoverse report, and it was the fourth most loved technology in the Stack Overflow survey.
10. TensorFlow
A recent report from Digital Ocean found that 83 percent of developers have not yet worked with artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML). However, 72 percent of those who hadn't planned to learn more about the tech next year. Many of those will likely investigate TensorFlow, the open source machine learning library created by the Google Brain team. Several of the leading public cloud computing vendors now offer TensorFlow-based services. And in the GitHub report, TensorFlow was the most-forked project of the year, as well as making the lists of projects with the most contributors and most reviews.
