31% of Respondents Currently Have No Plan for Migrating to Python 3

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Jan. 14, 2020 – The end of life for Python 2 has arrived and many organizations are still struggling with their plans for migration to Python 3. That’s according to the findings of a new survey released today by ActiveState, which was conducted to determine whether and how organizations are preparing for Python 2 EOL. The full report is available for download here. 

Click to Tweet: Who’s ready for Python 2 EOL? Fewer people than you might think. Check out the #Python 2 EOL survey results from @ActiveState (https://ctt.ac/r5Px6+) #opensource 

The Python 2 series is being retired after nearly 20 years of development. The last major version, 2.7.18, will be released in April 2020, and then all development will cease for Python 2.  While ActiveState offers support for enterprises who can’t yet migrate from Python 2, users are urged to migrate to Python 3 to benefit from its many improvements while also avoiding potential security vulnerabilities in Python 2 after support ends. After April 2020, Python 3 will be the only version that will be updated for bugs and security vulnerabilities.

ActiveState surveyed more than 1,200 individuals, 84% of whom identified as professional developers. 

Key findings: 

  • 31% of respondents said their department didn’t have a plan for Python 2 EOL; 22% said they weren’t sure
  • Around 24% of respondents said their department had either all or most of their applications in Python 2
  • 66% of respondents said their department or organization planned to migrate or rewrite their Python 2 applications to Python 3
  • More than 48% of respondents had either only started preparing for EOL six months in advance or not at all
  • Only 32% said they were very prepared for the sunsetting 
  • More than 50% said they expected that finding replacements for Python 2 packages that haven’t been rewritten in Python 3 would be a significant challenge

Bart Copeland, president and CEO, ActiveState, said: “As Python’s popularity increases, more and more organizations rely on the open source language to run crucial applications. Yet, our survey found that only about half of respondents feel ready for Python 2 EOL. For security, reliability and ease of use, organizations must migrate to Python 3 – and the sooner, the better. ActiveState has a proven track record of providing commercial support for Python deployments in enterprises both large and small for the past 20 years. As a founding member of the Python Software Foundation, we are passionate about making open source easy for enterprises and inspiring coder passion with elegant solutions.” 

About ActiveState
ActiveState helps enterprises scale securely with open source languages and gives developers the kinds of tools they love to use. More than 2 million developers and 97 percent of Fortune 1,000 enterprises use ActiveState to support mission-critical systems and speed up software development while enhancing oversight and increasing quality. 

 

Media Contact:
Zak Greant
pr@activestate.com