In the world of business technology, automation is king. CI/CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery) and DevOps practices have become an absolute priority for companies, overtaking even hot topics like AI or cyber security. Research for 2025 shows that 52% of professionals identify CI/CD as a key area of use for open source software – more than for artificial intelligence (41%) or security (36%).
The promise is enticing: full automation of software development and delivery processes. In practice, this means faster time-to-market, higher code quality, fewer bugs and failures, and therefore lower costs and higher competitiveness.
The problem is that there is a deep chasm between ambition and realisation.
Implementing CI/CD is not a simple installation of a new tool. It is a fundamental change in the way we work, and the data shows that companies are not ready for it.
The main barrier holding back CI/CD adoption is not money or missing software, but the skills gap.
Market analysis shows that more than 45% of organisations surveyed cite a lack of employee experience and skills as a key challenge. This is more than purely technical problems, such as complex configuration and upgrade of solutions (39%) or trouble keeping up with updates (35%).
Interestingly, this problem is more acute in the largest organisations. In companies with more than 5,000 employees, as many as 50% of respondents complain about competency shortages, while in start-ups, only 34% do so.
This paradox has a logical explanation. Implementing CI/CD is a cultural revolution that requires breaking down traditional organisational silos. As Tomasz Dziedzic, CTO of Linux Polska, notes, in large companies the process is more difficult both technically and organisationally.
CI/CD forces seamless collaboration between developers, testers and system administrators. Implementing automation in a complex infrastructure that has been developed for years is a challenge, and decision-making and change approval processes take much longer than in agile, small teams.
Companies are aware of the problem and have a plan to address it. The vast majority (66%) intend to increase the competencies and qualifications of existing employees in 2025. Only 21% plan to actively recruit new specialists and 13% intend to use external consultants.
However, experts warn that technical training on tools alone is not enough. As Kamil Kwiatkowski, Senior Solutions Architect at Linux Polska, points out, it is crucial to promote a new organisational culture and engage employees in the change process. Teams need to feel confident in the new reality, and this requires not only knowledge of the technology, but above all understanding and acceptance of the new collaboration processes. The gap in CI/CD is as much a gap in soft skills and culture as it is in knowledge of specific platforms.
