An overwhelming 86 percent of respondents to a Chef survey of IT practitioners have completed or are in the progress of migrating from a physical infrastructure to a virtual one.

Chef interviewed more than 1,500 global IT workers that use Chef servers and found that many emerging and legacy technologies are being rebuilt around the needs of developers. In addition, companies are piloting and adapting new technologies like cloud, containers, and microservices in search of speed.

The study found that 81 percent of respondents said they are in the process of or have completed a project to run some applications in cloud-based architectures. Those surveyed said it typically takes an average of six months to complete this.

In addition, 75 percent of respondents said they are running these cloud-based applications in a public or hybrid environment, while 25 percent are solely using a private cloud. Cross-functional teams are most likely to have completed a project to run apps in cloud-based architectures.

Cross-functional teams are also leading the pack as far as containers go. These groups are most likely to use containers in their infrastructure. However, more than two-thirds of respondents are already using or plan to run containers in their infrastructure compared to 17 percent that are unsure and 15 percent that have no plans to do so.

Cross-functional teams refer to respondents that didn’t identify exclusively with any one given team (application, infrastructure, security, or other).

The majority of respondents have or are in progress of rebuilding monolithic apps into microservices. Not surprisingly, cross-functional teams are most likely to have completed this, based on this survey’s trend.

On average, respondents are running or plan to run 44 percent of their applications as microservices.

 According to the survey, 64 percent of respondents report their company is subject to regulatory compliance standards, and among that group, 22 percent said they don’t check compliance regularly and 23 percent said they don’t assess at all.

Security teams reported more regular compliance checks compared to application, infrastructure, or cross-functional teams.

After a compliance violation or security vulnerability is discovered, it takes 30 percent of respondents days to remediate them across all applications. Twenty-two percent said it takes weeks, 15 percent said hours, and 6 percent said months. 

“Teams should continue building expertise in applications, infrastructure, and security, and to further increase speed and performance of IT, teams must collaborate. Enterprises should build dedicated cross-functional teams who are committed to achieving common business goals,” the survey said.