2021 was supposed to be the year we returned to normal. Instead, we got hybrid work challenges, major supply chain attacks, and ended with one of the worst vulnerabilities in software history. But there were also significant advances in developer experience, cloud infrastructure, and AI tooling.
Here’s what defined 2021 in technology.
The Security Reckoning
Supply Chain Under Attack
supply_chain_incidents:
solarwinds_aftermath:
- Discovered late 2020, impact felt through 2021
- Government mandates for SBOM
- Industry focus on software supply chain
codecov:
- April: Bash Uploader compromised
- Credentials harvested from CI/CD
- Months of exposure before detection
kaseya:
- July: REvil ransomware via Kaseya VSA
- Hundreds of businesses affected
- Supply chain as attack vector proven again
npm_incidents:
- Multiple package compromises
- ua-parser-js, coa, rc
- Millions of downloads of malicious code
lesson: |
Supply chain attacks scaled in 2021. Build systems,
dependencies, and tooling are now primary attack targets.
The Log4j Emergency
log4j_impact:
timeline:
- December 9: CVE-2021-44228 disclosed
- December 10-15: Mass exploitation begins
- December: Multiple follow-up CVEs
significance:
- CVSS 10.0 (maximum severity)
- Ubiquitous in Java ecosystem
- Trivial to exploit
- Many organizations still patching
industry_response:
- Emergency patches globally
- CISA emergency directive
- Highlighted dependency blindness
lesson: |
Many organizations didn't know Log4j was in their stack.
Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) became essential.
The Hybrid Work Experiment
Neither Fully Remote Nor Office
hybrid_reality:
challenges:
- Meeting equality (in-room vs. remote)
- Information asymmetry
- Culture maintenance
- Coordination complexity
what_worked:
- Async-first communication
- Documentation emphasis
- Flexible scheduling
- Results-focused management
what_didn't:
- Partial return mandates
- Ignoring remote workers
- Maintaining old office processes
lesson: |
Hybrid requires intentional design. It's harder than
full remote or full office, not a simple compromise.
The Great Resignation
talent_market:
trends:
- Record job switching
- Salary increases (especially tech)
- Remote work as expectation
- Work-life boundaries valued
for_companies:
- Retention became critical
- Compensation reevaluation
- Flexibility as requirement
- Culture matters more than office
for_engineers:
- More options than ever
- Remote-first companies competing globally
- Leverage for better conditions
Developer Experience Emerged
GitHub Copilot
copilot_impact:
launched: June 2021
significance:
- AI pair programming became real
- Not just autocomplete—context aware
- Started conversation about AI in coding
reactions:
- Productivity gains for many
- Concerns about code licensing
- Debate about developer skill impact
lesson: |
AI-assisted development is here. It won't replace
developers, but it's changing how we work.
Platform Engineering
platform_engineering_rise:
trend: Internal developer platforms
drivers:
- Developer experience as competitive advantage
- Self-service infrastructure
- Reducing cognitive load
tools:
- Backstage (Spotify) gained adoption
- Internal developer portals
- Service catalogs
- Golden paths
lesson: |
Platform teams building for developers, not just
infrastructure, became a recognized discipline.
Cloud and Infrastructure
Cloud Continues Growth
cloud_2021:
market:
- AWS, Azure, GCP all grew significantly
- Enterprise adoption accelerated
- Multi-cloud strategies formalized
technologies:
- Kubernetes matured further
- Serverless became mainstream
- Edge computing expanded
- FinOps gained importance
events:
- AWS us-east-1 December outage
- Azure AD outage impacts Microsoft 365
- Multi-region became more important
Infrastructure as Code Matured
iac_2021:
terraform:
- Continued dominance
- Terraform Cloud growth
- CDK for Terraform launched
pulumi:
- Gained adoption
- Programming language IaC appeal
aws_cdk:
- v2 released
- Construct Hub launched
gitops:
- Argo CD adoption increased
- Flux v2 released
- GitOps as standard practice
Observability Evolution
OpenTelemetry Progress
opentelemetry_2021:
status:
- Tracing spec stable
- Metrics approaching stable
- Logs in development
adoption:
- Major vendors supporting
- Migration from proprietary SDKs
- Collector as standard component
significance:
- Vendor-neutral observability
- Unified traces, metrics, logs
- Reduced lock-in
eBPF Mainstream
ebpf_2021:
trend: Observability without instrumentation
tools:
- Cilium for networking
- Pixie for observability
- Falco for security
significance:
- Kernel-level visibility
- No application changes
- Performance with detail
Looking to 2022
What to Watch
predictions_2022:
security:
- Supply chain security mandates
- Zero trust adoption accelerates
- SBOM becomes standard
developer_experience:
- AI coding assistants mature
- Platform engineering expands
- Developer productivity measurement
infrastructure:
- FinOps practices spread
- Multi-cloud tooling improves
- Edge computing grows
remote_work:
- Hybrid models stabilize
- Async-first becomes normal
- Global talent competition continues
Personal Learning Focus
skills_for_2022:
security:
- Supply chain security practices
- Zero trust architecture
- Secure development lifecycle
infrastructure:
- Multi-cloud patterns
- Cost optimization
- Platform engineering
development:
- Rust for systems programming
- AI/ML integration
- WebAssembly applications
Top 2021 Takeaways
- Security is supply chain security: Dependencies, build systems, and tooling are attack vectors
- Know your dependencies: Log4j showed most organizations have dependency blindness
- Hybrid work needs design: Neither fully remote nor office—requires intentional practices
- Developer experience matters: Platform teams and DX investment are competitive advantages
- AI assists, doesn’t replace: Copilot and similar tools augment developers
- Cloud resilience is your job: AWS outages remind us multi-region matters
- Observability is converging: OpenTelemetry unifying traces, metrics, and logs
- Talent market shifted: Remote work and flexibility are expectations, not perks
Key Takeaways
2021 was a year of reckoning—for security assumptions, work arrangements, and cloud reliance. The lessons are clear:
- Invest in software supply chain security
- Build multi-region resilience
- Design hybrid work intentionally
- Prioritize developer experience
- Embrace AI assistance thoughtfully
- Know what’s in your software
Here’s to applying these lessons in 2022.