Research:Cloud Services Annual Survey/2020

Tracked in Phabricator:
Task T270122 resolved

The 2020 survey collected feedback from Toolforge project members and Cloud VPS project administrators on how the services offered can be improved to help their development and maintenance needs.

Participants

The participants of the survey are the members of the Wikimedia Toolforge project and Cloud VPS project administrators. 1825 participants were contacted via email. The emails were harvested from the Cloud Services' LDAP system ("developer accounts") and the Wikitech database. The final list was created by finding the union of the members of the Toolforge project and all users with "administrator" rights on one or more Cloud VPS projects. Users who have opted-out of email contact by other users in their Wikitech preferences or the survey specific opt-out page were excluded. Specific opt-outs for the Annual Survey can be made by users at wikitech:Annual Toolforge Survey/Opt out.

137 email recipients participated in the survey which represents 7.5% of those who were contacted.

Dates

The 2020 survey was active between 2021-01-14 and 2021-02-05.

Questions and answers

Basic demographics

Do you use Toolforge or Cloud VPS to run or develop tools?

Answer	%
No	13%
Yes	87%

How many tools have you developed on Toolforge or Cloud VPS?

Answer	%
0-1	25%
2	23%
3-6	34%
7+	17%

How many tools do you actively maintain in Toolforge or Cloud VPS?

Answer	%
0-1	37%
2	25%
3-5	25%
6+	13%

About how many hours per week do you spend developing or maintaining tools on Toolforge or Cloud VPS?

Answer	%
0	17%
1	36%
2-3	24%
4-8	13%
9+	11%

Are you currently employed by the Wikimedia Foundation as an employee, contractor, vendor, or intern?

Answer	%
No	84%
Yes	16%

Additional demographics

What kinds of tools do you work on?

Answer	%
Web apps (tools that are accessed through a web browser)	77%
Bots (including pywikibot)	63%
APIs for use by other tools	32%
On-wiki gadgets	24%
Microsites (small static websites)	18%
Dashboards and other data visualizations	14%
Extensions	2%
Data analysis	1%
Other	2%

Which Wikimedia projects are your tools built to work with?

Answer	%
Wikipedia	64%
Wikidata	36%
Wikimedia Commons	29%
All Wikimedia projects	26%
Wikisource	9%
Wiktionary	7%
Wikinews	6%
Wikiquote	6%
Wikibooks	4%
Wikiversity	4%
Wikivoyage	3%
Phabricator	3%
MediaWiki	2%
Wikispecies	2%
Gerrit	1%
Logstash	1%
Meta	1%
Toolforge	1%
Wikitech	1%

Wikimedia Cloud Services is one of many providers of cloud computing resources. What made you decide to choose Wikimedia Cloud Services as opposed to other options?

Answer	%
Access to Wikimedia-specific resources; including wiki replicas	74%
Cost	60%
Ease of collaborating with other Wikimedians	54%
Philosophical or ideological reasons	47%
Ease of use	34%
Privacy and security considerations	32%
Wikimedia staff	2%
Help with maintenance	1%
Reliability	1%

What storage/caching services do you use when running your tools?

Answer	%
Mysql/Mariadb (Not Including Toolsdb Or The Wiki Replicas)	63%
Redis	24%
Sqlite	18%
Filesystem	9%
Mongodb	6%
None	5%
Memcached	4%
Postgresql	2%
Toolsdb	2%
Elasticsearch	1%
Kafka	1%
Wiki Pages	1%

Toolforge

Are you a member of the Toolforge project?

Answer	%
No	14%
Yes	86%

About how many years have you used Toolforge?

Answer	%
1	20%
2-3	23%
4-5	24%
6+	33%

Which programming languages do you use on Toolforge?

Answer	%
Python 3	67%
Php	44%
Nodejs	16%
Python 2	15%
Java	8%
Perl	6%
Bash	5%
Ruby	3%
Rust	3%
Javascript	3%
Other	8%

When you develop a tool, how much of your work developing code to run on Toolforge is done locally on your machine (as opposed to remotely on Toolforge)?

Answer	%
Almost all of the work	60%
More than half of the work	14%
About half of the work	7%
Less than half of the work	15%
I don’t know	4%

Which source control mechanism do you use to manage your tool's source code?

Answer	%
Git	86%
I Do Not Use Source Control	13%
Mercurial	1%

Cloud VPS

Are you an administrator of one of more Cloud VPS projects?

Answer	%
No	68%
Yes	32%

About how many years have you used Cloud VPS?

Answer	%
1	22%
2-3	24%
4-5	29%
6+	24%

What do you use Cloud VPS for?

Answer	%
Hosting one or more tools or other public services such as a web app; bot; dashboard; API; etc.	72%
Testing and experimenting with software	44%
Running a backing service (database; cache; etc.) for a tool or other public service	37%
Running one or more MediaWiki instances	35%
Conducting data analysis or other large computational tasks	9%

Do you rely on NFS for accessing the same files across different servers?

Answer	%
I do not know	14%
No	63%
Yes	23%

Community, support & communication

Do you subscribe to the Cloud-Announce mailing list?

Answer	%
No	39%
Yes; but I usually don't read messages	16%
Yes; and I usually read messages	45%

Do you subscribe to the Cloud mailing list?

Answer	%
No	57%
Yes; but I usually don't read messages	13%
Yes; and I usually read messages	30%

When seeking help from WMCS staff, which support channels do you use?

Answer	%
Phabricator	73%
IRC	66%
Mailing list/Other email	30%
Telegram	2%
Other	3%

When discussing WMCS issues with other volunteers, what channels do you use?

Answer	%
IRC	63%
Phabricator	59%
On-wiki talk pages	39%
Mailing list/Other email	34%
Facebook	7%
Telegram	7%
Discord	6%
Slack	6%
Matrix	2%
Real life meet-ups	2%
Zulip	2%
Other	3%

If you access or have accessed documentation outside of the Wikitech site, please tell us about it!

Not a lot of people answered this question, so percentages are avoided here.

StackOverflow
In code repository
Debian wiki
Digital Ocean's tutorials
Kubernetes website
Meta wiki
Sourceforge

If you participate in existing WMCS-related communities outside of email, IRC, and phabricator, please tell us about them!

Not a lot of people answered this question, so percentages are avoided here.

Local user groups and events
Telegram
Telegram #wmhack
Twitter
Wikimedia Community Discord

Qualitative questions

A series of qualitative questions were asked in order to gauge general satisfaction with Toolforge and Cloud VPS.

Services provided by Wikimedia Cloud Services, including Toolforge and Cloud VPS, have high uptime.

Answer	All	1 Year	2-3 Years	4-5 Years	6+ Years	0-1 Tools	2 Tool	3-6 Tools	7+ Tools	0-1 Maintain	2 Maintain	3-5 Maintain	6+ Maintain	0 Hours	1 Hour	2-3 Hours	4-8 Hours	10+ Hours	Toolforge	Cloud VPS	Toolforge+Cloud VPS	Tools	No tools
Agree/Strongly Agree	82%	100%	83%	65%	92%	83%	92%	78%	95%	83%	89%	82%	93%	64%	90%	96%	80%	83%	80%	82%	94%	86%	59%
Disagree/Strongly Disagree	5%	0%	13%	8%	3%	4%	4%	5%	5%	6%	7%	0%	7%	14%	3%	4%	0%	8%	7%	0%	3%	5%	6%

It is easy to have code run on Toolforge or Cloud VPS.

Answer	All	1 Year	2-3 Years	4-5 Years	6+ Years	0-1 Tools	2 Tool	3-6 Tools	7+ Tools	0-1 Maintain	2 Maintain	3-5 Maintain	6+ Maintain	0 Hours	1 Hour	2-3 Hours	4-8 Hours	10+ Hours	Toolforge	Cloud VPS	Toolforge+Cloud VPS	Tools	No tools
Agree/Strongly Agree	63%	76%	68%	50%	69%	52%	69%	65%	80%	49%	79%	71%	73%	47%	69%	77%	47%	75%	59%	55%	81%	66%	41%
Disagree/Strongly Disagree	10%	0%	20%	12%	8%	16%	12%	8%	0%	16%	7%	7%	0%	27%	5%	12%	0%	8%	9%	36%	0%	9%	18%

I feel I am supported by the Cloud Services team when I contact them via cloud@lists.wikimedia.org, the #wikimedia-cloud IRC channel, or Phabricator.

Answer	All	1 Year	2-3 Years	4-5 Years	6+ Years	0-1 Tools	2 Tool	3-6 Tools	7+ Tools	0-1 Maintain	2 Maintain	3-5 Maintain	6+ Maintain	0 Hours	1 Hour	2-3 Hours	4-8 Hours	10+ Hours	Toolforge	Cloud VPS	Toolforge+Cloud VPS	Tools	No tools
Agree/Strongly Agree	64%	67%	61%	64%	76%	30%	60%	72%	100%	39%	73%	77%	93%	54%	57%	80%	73%	58%	60%	64%	84%	65%	59%
Disagree/Strongly Disagree	2%	5%	4%	0%	0%	9%	0%	0%	0%	6%	0%	0%	0%	8%	0%	0%	7%	0%	3%	0%	0%	2%	0%

I receive useful information via cloud-announce / cloud mailing list.

Answer	All	1 Year	2-3 Years	4-5 Years	6+ Years	0-1 Tools	2 Tool	3-6 Tools	7+ Tools	0-1 Maintain	2 Maintain	3-5 Maintain	6+ Maintain	0 Hours	1 Hour	2-3 Hours	4-8 Hours	10+ Hours	Toolforge	Cloud VPS	Toolforge+Cloud VPS	Tools	No tools
Agree/Strongly Agree	53%	48%	57%	63%	57%	39%	68%	57%	72%	36%	81%	56%	79%	43%	47%	72%	67%	75%	49%	27%	77%	59%	18%
Disagree/Strongly Disagree	7%	10%	4%	8%	3%	13%	4%	3%	6%	11%	4%	4%	0%	14%	8%	4%	0%	0%	10%	0%	0%	6%	12%

Cloud Services documentation is easy-to-find.

Answer	All	1 Year	2-3 Years	4-5 Years	6+ Years	0-1 Tools	2 Tool	3-6 Tools	7+ Tools	0-1 Maintain	2 Maintain	3-5 Maintain	6+ Maintain	0 Hours	1 Hour	2-3 Hours	4-8 Hours	10+ Hours	Toolforge	Cloud VPS	Toolforge+Cloud VPS	Tools	No tools
Agree/Strongly Agree	59%	48%	64%	65%	67%	48%	65%	62%	80%	49%	71%	68%	73%	50%	69%	65%	53%	67%	58%	50%	66%	63%	29%
Disagree/Strongly Disagree	16%	5%	28%	15%	8%	41%	12%	5%	5%	28%	14%	0%	13%	31%	13%	8%	13%	17%	19%	20%	3%	15%	18%

Cloud Services documentation is comprehensive.

Answer	All	1 Year	2-3 Years	4-5 Years	6+ Years	0-1 Tools	2 Tool	3-6 Tools	7+ Tools	0-1 Maintain	2 Maintain	3-5 Maintain	6+ Maintain	0 Hours	1 Hour	2-3 Hours	4-8 Hours	10+ Hours	Toolforge	Cloud VPS	Toolforge+Cloud VPS	Tools	No tools
Agree/Strongly Agree	58%	48%	56%	62%	66%	44%	60%	62%	80%	44%	67%	71%	73%	50%	66%	58%	47%	83%	55%	70%	63%	61%	38%
Disagree/Strongly Disagree	13%	10%	16%	15%	9%	26%	4%	14%	0%	21%	7%	7%	7%	25%	8%	12%	7%	8%	14%	10%	9%	12%	19%

Cloud Services documentation is clear.

Answer	All	1 Year	2-3 Years	4-5 Years	6+ Years	0-1 Tools	2 Tool	3-6 Tools	7+ Tools	0-1 Maintain	2 Maintain	3-5 Maintain	6+ Maintain	0 Hours	1 Hour	2-3 Hours	4-8 Hours	10+ Hours	Toolforge	Cloud VPS	Toolforge+Cloud VPS	Tools	No tools
Agree/Strongly Agree	48%	38%	56%	40%	61%	23%	62%	54%	70%	28%	59%	68%	67%	44%	47%	69%	40%	58%	47%	50%	56%	52%	25%
Disagree/Strongly Disagree	17%	24%	12%	20%	11%	31%	12%	14%	5%	23%	11%	11%	13%	25%	13%	15%	13%	8%	20%	0%	13%	15%	31%

Free form responses

The survey included several free form response sections. Survey participants were told that we would only publicly share their responses or survey results in aggregate or anonymized form.

If we could improve one thing in Toolforge in the next year, what should that be?

Responses to this question were varied, here is a summary of the comments clustered in different areas:

Documentation:

Improving documentation for beginners
Updating and removing outdated documentation
Better documentation for batch jobs / cron workflows

Support:

More responsive help desk
Help to beginners, people getting started
Centralized support site/forum

Workflow:

Deleting tools
Automated deployments
Development / Production environment parity for developing

Platform:

Replicas
- Local access
- Cross DB joins
- Reliability
- Stability (breaking changes)
- Performance
Kubernetes
- Usage for jobs is hard
- Memory quotas
- Tooling
NFS performance
Language / Version support
- Node.js versions
- Ruby on Rails support
- Rust support
Docker support
Logging
- Logs and emails from cron jobs
Monitoring
- Health checks and alerts
- Show general service availability

If we could improve one thing in Cloud VPS in the next year, what should that be?

Thank you for those who answered positive comments and praise, it is very much appreciated.

There are less responses in this question, so the summary will be less detailed.

Improve documentation
Better deployment workflows
Docker support
Managed Kubernetes clusters
Backups
Monitoring services

If you would like to share more about your experience finding, reading, or maintaining technical documentation on Wikitech, please do so here.

Hard to understand
- Beginner documentation is very hard to understand
- Needs more graphics
- Cloud VPS docs are harder to understand than Toolforge's
Lacking
- What should I use? What is supported?
- Reference lists for features, instead of all tutorials
- More documentation about effective workflows
Out of date
Structure
- Self-study is very hard, complicated to navigate the docs (guided-study is not so bad)
i18n

If you have any other comments, please share them with us here.

There were many praise responses, thanks a lot, they are very much appreciated.

Besides those, there were some comments about language/framework support, using propietary software for this surveys instead of OSS, and a variety of comments about topics mentioned in the other freeform questions.

Is there anything you have tried but not been able to do in Toolforge?

The responses here were very varied, the ones mentioned several times were:

Improve language support and use newer versions of languages and applications
Memory intensive work on Toolforge. People end up moving to Cloud VPS for these
Remote access issues (SSH, SFTP, etc.)
Analysis work and very CPU/IO intensive programs
Problems with blocked IPs

The rest were single comments and in interest of anonymity won't be detailed here.

Thank you

Thanks to everyone that took the time and participated in the 2020 survey. Your input is extremely valuable and very much appreciated.

See you soon in the 2021 survey!