CrowdStrike outage prompts surge in software investment

Adaptavist has launched global research revealing significant changes in software development processes following the CrowdStrike outage four months ago.

The research surveyed 400 software development professionals in organisations with annual revenues exceeding USD $10 million across the UK, USA, and Germany. Findings show that 86% of enterprises are increasing budgets for software development and hiring additional tech talent as a direct response to the outage.

According to the study, 74% of businesses have experienced overwhelmingly positive outcomes, including improved cyber awareness and development practices. Additionally, 68% of companies have managed to shorten development timelines, while 32% reported a reduction in delivery times by over a month.

The event highlighted an industry-wide lack of preparedness, with 82% of organisations initially lacking adequate incident response plans. Among those with plans, only 16% found them to be effective during the crisis. However, 41% of professionals now feel confident in their organisation's ability to prevent a similar outage.

The incident has propelled a transformation in many companies, with 81% instituting more robust development practices and 80% enhancing cybersecurity awareness among staff. New development practices have emerged, with 35% focusing on redundancy systems and 33% revamping their software update processes.

Accelerated development has been reported by numerous organisations, with shortened timelines and more robust security processes. Budget increases are evident, with 86% boosting funds for software development and 87% investing in team and technological enhancements.

Long-term strategic changes include a major increase in hiring, with 99.5% of organisations planning to expand their technical teams. Quality assurance is the top recruitment priority, followed by IT operations, software developers, and DevOps engineers. Vendor diversification is also on the rise, with 83% of businesses seeking to broaden their provider base.

Adoption of open-source solutions is growing, with 34% of companies increasing their reliance on these technologies. Simultaneously, 37% are strengthening partnerships with existing vendors to better manage risks.

Jon Mort, Chief Technology Officer of Adaptavist, stated: "The CrowdStrike incident was a call to arms for the software industry. While the widespread impact was concerning, with 98% of organisations affected, what's truly remarkable is how the industry has responded. We're seeing unprecedented levels of transformation - from massive investments in training and hiring to fundamental changes in how organisations approach development and vendor relationships."

Mort further noted: "However, the data also reveals that this transformation is far from complete. With only 12% of organisations expressing high confidence in preventing similar incidents, it's clear that building true resilience will require us to address deeper cultural and structural challenges. The fact that the majority of organisations report positive outcomes from this crisis suggests that, while painful, this incident may prove to be exactly the catalyst our industry needed to build more resilient, efficient, and secure systems for the future."