Remote Dev

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The goal of remote development is to give developers the freedom to work in a way that’s most productive for them. That includes overcoming the resource limitations of laptops, working from anywhere, and minimizing the amount of time to start a project. Source code security is an additional benefit, since it’s always stored on a remote machine fully controlled by the company.

Last year, we introduced a remote development solution for JetBrains IDEs, and since the release, we’ve seen increasing demand for this solution, both from individual developers and IT companies. According to the DevEco 2022 results, 53% of developers have edited code on remote machines.

When you develop remotely, how do you connect to a remote machine?

80%

SSH

45%

Remote Desktop

3%

Other

SSH is the most frequently used way to connect to a remote machine (80%). Despite not being 100% suitable for software development, remote desktop solutions are also popular and are used by 45% of those who develop remotely.

When you develop remotely, do you connect to virtual machines or a physical computer / server?

35%

Virtual machines

34%

Both

30%

Physical computer / server

When you develop remotely, do you connect to your own computer / server or do you use cloud development environments (e.g. Codespaces, JetBrains Space, Gitpod, Google Cloud Workstations)?

74%

Your own computer / server

17%

Both

8%

Сloud development environments

The majority of those who develop remotely connect to their own computer or server (either a virtual machine or a physical one).

What are you using to access your remote machine?

43%

VS Code

21%

JetBrains IDE

8%

Visual Studio

6%

JetBrains Gateway

1%

JetBrains Fleet

17%

Other

23%

None

We see strong demand for remote development solutions from both individual developers and IT companies.

35%

of remote development users claim their computers don’t have enough performance for a pleasant development experience.

22%

of remote development users must develop in the cloud because their applications target the same cloud services.

For individual developers, remote development is driven by the need for flexibility. 68% of those involved in remote development would like to be able to access development projects from various devices and locations.

For companies, security is a strong driver of remote development – 29% say it’s important not to store source code on a laptop.

Collaborative development

Do you practice collaborative development?

50%

Yes, remote collaborative development

28%

Yes, face-to-face collaborative development

36%

No

The interest in remote collaborative development is growing. While a year ago 30% of developers practiced remote programming, half of developers reported they are involved in remote collaborative development in 2022.

What tools do you use for remote collaborative development?

49%

Video call with screen sharing

20%

Editor / IDE with collaboration feature

19%

Remote desktop

1%

Other

34%

None

Although this is not the perfect solution for developers, the most common way of collaborative development is still screen sharing during a video call (49%). Using an editor or IDE with a collaboration feature is used by 20%.

What tool do you use for collaborative development?

47%

Code With Me

46%

LiveShare

10%

Code Together

5%

SublimeText RemoteCollab

3%

Atom Teletype

1%

Brackets Multihack

8%

Other

What do you use collaborative development for?

67%

When I need help

63%

Bug fixing

47%

Teaching sessions

42%

To learn new things

5%

Other

Collaborative development is mostly used to get help and for fixing bugs. Educational purposes are also a common reason for collaborative development.

Remote Dev:

2022

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