State of Cloud Native Development Q1 2026

Drawing on research with more than 12,500 developers across 100 countries, CNCF and SlashData examine how teams build and operate cloud native software. The report shows why developers may use Kubernetes indirectly through an internal platform, and what that means for the teams running it.

Inside the whitepaper

• Compare infrastructure standardisation and platform adoption across development teams.
• Understand why direct Kubernetes usage can understate its role inside an organisation.
• Explore differences between the infrastructure needs of AI developers and backend engineers.