This article is based on reporting originally published at ITPro Today (tprotoday.com) in December 2019.
DevOps in 2019: Stability, Open Source, and Platform Growth
Change is constant in software development, yet some tools and platforms demonstrate remarkable staying power. Looking back at 2019, two facts stand out: Java and .NET — both dominant a decade earlier — remained the backbone of enterprise development, and GitHub continued to grow as the central hub of the DevOps ecosystem, even after being acquired by Microsoft.
Each of these three pillars went through significant evolution in 2019 — evolution that shaped how teams build, share, and ship software. Here is a breakdown of the developments that defined DevOps that year.
Java Redefined Itself with Jakarta EE 8
2019 was arguably the most consequential year for enterprise Java in two decades. The release of Jakarta EE 8 in September 2019 marked the first time enterprise Java was governed entirely under an open source model, free from single-vendor control.
The transition had been in motion since September 2017, when Oracle announced it would hand Java EE over to the Eclipse Foundation. The Foundation renamed the project Jakarta EE and spent two years establishing a new governance process, intellectual property regime, and release pipeline before shipping the first official release.
Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, described the significance to ITPro Today:
“With Jakarta EE, we are able to deliver a set of specifications that are free for implementation and are available under an entirely new licensing regime that’s far more open and cost-effective than what was available under Oracle and the JCP. The thing to keep in mind is that Java, as the language and as a platform, is still one of the largest and most widely used programming languages in enterprise computing on the planet.”
— Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director, Eclipse Foundation
For DevOps teams running Java-based workloads, the shift to open governance matters in practical terms: specifications are now free to implement, vendor lock-in risk is reduced, and the community — rather than a single corporation — drives the roadmap.
.NET Core 3.0: Open Source Gets Desktop and Self-Contained Apps
Microsoft’s .NET has been Java’s historical counterpart in enterprise development. In September 2019, .NET Core 3.0 shipped with several changes relevant to DevOps engineers and application developers alike.
Key Features in .NET Core 3.0
- C# 8 support: .NET Core 3.0 added support for C# version 8, bringing nullable reference types, async streams, and other language improvements.
- Windows desktop frameworks: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows Forms gained support, allowing legacy Windows desktop applications to be built and run on .NET Core.
- Self-contained executables: Applications can now ship as a single executable that does not require a separate .NET runtime installation on the target machine — a meaningful step for simplified deployment and containerisation.
Microsoft reported at the time that more than one million developers were actively using .NET Core. Much like Jakarta EE, .NET Core is fully open source, reinforcing an industry-wide trend of major runtimes and frameworks moving away from proprietary licensing.
GitHub’s Dominance Continued Under Microsoft
2019 was GitHub’s first full calendar year operating as a Microsoft business unit, led by CEO Nat Friedman. Many in the developer community had expressed concern at the time of the 2018 acquisition that Microsoft’s ownership might drive users toward alternatives. Those concerns did not materialise in measurable numbers.
At the GitHub Universe conference in November 2019, Friedman reported that the platform had surpassed 40 million developers, with more than 10 million joining in the previous year alone.
“More developers are choosing GitHub every day than ever before. Just in the last year, over 10 million new developers joined GitHub and started contributing to projects on GitHub.”
— Nat Friedman, CEO, GitHub (GitHub Universe, November 2019)
GitHub Actions and GitHub Packages
The most significant platform additions announced at GitHub Universe 2019 were GitHub Actions and GitHub Packages, both of which became generally available in November 2019.
- GitHub Actions: A workflow automation system built directly into GitHub. Teams can define CI/CD pipelines, automate testing, releases, and other repository events using YAML-based workflow files stored alongside their code.
- GitHub Packages: A package registry integrated with GitHub that supports Docker images, npm, Maven, NuGet, and RubyGems packages. It works alongside GitHub Actions and existing CI systems to provide a unified build-and-publish workflow.
Together, these features positioned GitHub as more than a code hosting service — they made it a first-class component of modern DevOps pipelines, combining source control, CI/CD, and package distribution under one platform.
What These Trends Meant for DevOps Teams
Looking at 2019 in aggregate, several clear themes emerge for DevOps practitioners:
- Open source governance is now the expected norm for major runtimes. Both Jakarta EE and .NET Core moved control away from single vendors, giving enterprises more confidence in long-term platform stability.
- Platform consolidation around GitHub accelerated. The addition of Actions and Packages reduced the need for separate CI and package registry tools, simplifying toolchain decisions for smaller teams.
- Java and .NET are not legacy concerns. Both platforms received substantial investment in 2019 and continue to underpin a large share of enterprise workloads. DevOps tooling and pipelines built around these languages remained as relevant as ever.
For teams evaluating their DevOps strategy, the lessons of 2019 reinforce that choosing well-supported, community-governed platforms and consolidating toolchains around mature ecosystems reduces operational risk over time.