Going from prototype to production is perilous when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). However, many organizations struggle moving from a prototype on a single machine to a scalable, production-grade deployment. In fact, research has found that the vast majority—87%—of AI projects never make it into production. And for the few models that are ever deployed, it takes 90 days or more to get there.

In response to the explosive growth of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, organizations are embracing edge computing systems to better access and understand the enormous amount of data produced by these devices. As the name suggests, edge computing moves some storage and computing resources out of the central data center and closer to where the data is generated at the edge of the network, whether that’s a factory floor, retail store, or automated car.

In a relatively short amount of time, Kubernetes has evolved from an internal container orchestration tool at Google to the most important cloud-native technology across the world. Its rise in popularity has made Kubernetes the preferred way to build new software experiences and modernize existing applications at scale in the cloud.

Running Kubernetes in production at scale can be a huge challenge for today’s organizations. And few companies have the right platform, experience, and skills to get there themselves. This was the case with Girls Who Code, an international nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology, who had to quickly change course and develop things that weren’t on their radar months ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are in the midst of a digital revolution that started with the PC, Internet, and mobile phone and has continued to accelerate. In this current wave, the cloud, Kubernetes, artificial intelligence (AI), and intelligent automation are combining to create the next major disruption, which we call smart cloud-native. Smart cloud-native is a powerful force that is transforming data centers, workforces, customer experiences, and the way enterprises do business.

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) recently released its annual survey on the state of Kubernetes and containers. The report highlighted the tremendous and continued growth in Kubernetes adoption, as well as some challenges that still persist. Both of these takeaways mirrored the corresponding data points from our 2021 Kubernetes in the Enterprise: Annual Report. However, as we dug into the data, we found gaps, or contradictions, between the two reports.