Pluralsight 2022: The Year in Tech

When it comes to technology, no one knows exactly what’s coming. But 12 months of data holds invaluable insight into what the next era of tech progress might look like. Let's take a look back in time at the state of tech in 2022.

1. The most popular programming languages in 2022
   
2. The most loved programming languages in 2022
3. Other trending technologies in 2022
4. Tech skill trends in 2022
5. Most benchmarked skills in 2022 (Skill IQs)
6. The rise of multicloud, Kubernetes, and Terraform
7. Cloud provider trends in 2022
8. Top Pluralsight cloud courses in 2022
9. The Year In Tech - Methodology

Python was overwhelmingly the most popular programming language in 2022. Not only was it the most searched-for term in the Pluralsight platform (and topped our Skill IQs), but it also made Gartner’s “Critical Skill” list for technology professionals. Python also topped the list of Tiobe’s analysis of search engine queries. In a StackOverflow survey of 71k developers, 48% said they were “doing extensive development work” using Python or planning to in 2022. 

Java came in at #2, no surprise for the ‘write once, run anywhere’ (WORA) programming language. It was second on the Pluralsight platform and considered by Gartner to be a “core skill” technologists must have, on par with Linux, API use, and network security. 

Javascript is still going strong at #3, given that 97% of websites still use the client-side programming language. C-based languages take the fourth to sixth slots (C#, C++, and C respectively). While Ruby did not make the list, our research did show it is being used more often than in 2021.

It’s also worth noting that while the above shows what languages are popular in terms of use, it doesn’t reflect how much developers actually like to use them, which is a much different story — one that Rust utterly dominates. Not only is Rust the most loved language, it’s also the language most developers want to use who aren’t using it (17.6%). This is a smidgeon more than Python (17.59%) — it’s a close race!

Why do people love Rust? According to enthusiasts, it’s got genuinely new and well-considered features, and it solves a lot of C’s problems, with which it is performance-competitive. However, time will tell if it goes the distance from 2023 onwards.

Other changes of note in 2022’s most loved languages:

1. While it doesn’t show in this chart, Solidity now ranks #15 in people’s most loved language, previously non-existent in the 2021 survey. 
2. Delphi skyrocketed in the ranks, jumping right into the top 10.
3. Swift became a bit less loved, dropping from 8th place to 12th.

Cloud skills were in significant demand this year, but not many tech professionals had the expertise to match it. In our recent State of Cloud 2022 report, 75% of tech leaders said they’re building all new products and features in the cloud moving forward, but only 8% of technologists have extensive experience working with cloud-related tools. Moreover, 64% of our learners noted they were brand-new to cloud computing and looking for basic training.

However, tech professionals aren’t just sitting on their hands! In 2022, they spent almost 85,000 days cumulatively working towards cloud certifications across all Pluralsight platforms.  

All of this lines up with Gartner’s 2022 report which listed working with cloud environments as one of the top 10 critical skills for technology professionals. Database management and traditional on-prem skillsets now fall into the “stagnant skills” category. In 2022, the demand for cloud skills became more relevant to mainstream devs as well; read our article on why learning cloud computing is becoming a must in software development.

The other major trend was an increased demand for cybersecurity specialists. In Pluralsight’s State of Upskilling 2022, tech professionals said the top skills gap was cybersecurity, beating out cloud computing as the number one gap for the first time in 2022. IT Security Professionals were also the most in-demand for important tech initiatives, according to the ITC 2022 Future Enterprise Resiliency & Spending Survey. 

Pluralsight Skill IQs are like the starting line on your fast track to skill development. They tell you where you’re proficient (or not), so you can focus your skill development where it’s needed most. Here were the most tested skills of 2022.

1. C#

2. Java Fundamentals

3. Python Core Language

4. JavaScript Core Language

5. Managing Source Code with Git

6. Microservices Architecture

7. Angular

8. Building Web Applications With React

9. DevOps Foundations

10. Building Websites with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

According to Gartner, 75% of organizations are deliberately adopting multicloud strategies, an increase from 49% in 2017. At the same time, there has been a jump of interest in services like Terraform and Kubernetes, which are provider-agnostic. Viewership of these courses increased 100% across all Pluralsight platforms in 2022.

This suggests businesses are shifting towards a “multicloud by default” strategy, which makes the cloud skills gap even more pressing. If businesses are pushing to use multiple cloud solutions, then multicloud fluency will become a more important career factor, influencing job opportunities and wage negotiation power.

In 2022, AWS still led the way, but Azure made substantial gains. We saw a year-on-year surge in Azure course consumption of 55% compared to AWS’s more modest 5.8%. Courses on Azure fundamentals (Services, Concepts, Security, DevOps Fundamentals) were also among the most viewed on Pluralsight. 

This tracks with Gartner reports of Azure’s 51% annual growth rate and the company slowly stealing market share back from AWS over the last few years — professionals seem to be sensing that and taking the time to get proficient in Azure basics. As in 2021, AWS certifications were still immensely popular.

Google's Cloud Platform still remains in third place in terms of cloud infrastructure market share at 8%. Over the last few years, the Google Cloud market share has fluctuated between 5-9.5%, with no strong upward or downward trend. GCP still offers a robust alternative to the other two leading platforms.

1. Microsoft Azure Services and Concepts

2. Fundamental Cloud Concepts for AWS

3. Understanding AWS Core Services

4. Microsoft Azure Security and Privacy Concepts

5. Microsoft Azure Cloud Concepts

6. Fundamentals of Cloud Computing

7. Microsoft Azure: The Big Picture

8. AWS Developer: Getting Started

9. Architecting for Reliability on AWS

10. Introduction to Security and Architecture on AWS

For A Cloud Guru, check out our article: Top 10 ACG Cloud Courses of 2022.

This is a meta-analysis of industry data from several data points. We examined anonymized data trends of technologists on the Pluralsight and A Cloud Guru platforms, as well as data from Gartner, StackOverflow, GitHub, Tiobe, and Redmonk. We also leveraged data points from our State of Upskilling and State of Cloud reports where we blind surveyed more than 1,750 technology leaders and experts.