Python remains among the most popular coding languages in the world. Thus, according to the survey, 30% of respondents reported that they want to learn it and 44.1% of developers chose the programming language for web and apps. It’s obvious that it is here not only to stay but keep growing in 2021 as well. In this post, we're going to highlight the main factors that will drive the growth of Python this year.

Top 5 Factors Driving Python Ahead in 2021

Currently, IBM, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Dropbox, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Uber, Spotify and many more famous companies and services use Python. What makes the language so popular among developers? Why does it grow so fast? Let’s start with a few quick facts that you should know about the coding language that makes it a real trend:

• It has simple and clean syntax;
• It's easy to get started, learn, and read;
• It's supported by Windows, macOS, Linux, Unix, etc.;
• It has an ever-growing ecosystem;
• It's versatile;
• It's open-source;
• It supports third-party packages.

Thanks to these advantages, the coding language is multipurpose and, thus, can perform different tasks from standard web and app development to applying Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and even data science. So, let’s elaborate on the top 5 factors driving Python ahead in 2021.

Machine Learning

Along with AI, ML is a hot topic and a must for all new projects, applications, programs, and services. The main task of ML engineers for developing intelligent algorithms is to extract, process, define, clear, arrange and understand data. Hence, data is the foundational element that makes ML projects so powerful.

Thanks to the ability of Python to process and deal with large amounts of data, it becomes one of the most popular and best languages to do ML. With Python programming language, developers can create ML-based systems or add them to the existing software products with ease. Not only does it help them develop high-quality ML models, but it also allows them to quickly put software solutions into production.

Data Science

To understand why data scientists choose Python, the 4 main stages of work with data should be considered:

1. Collection and purification;
2. Scanning;
3. Modeling;
4. Interpretation/visualization.

Python offers tools for each stage so that data scientists can work with large amounts of data more effectively and accurately. Thanks to the Python supportive community and a variety of libraries and frameworks combined with a simple syntax, data scientists are equipped to embed solutions, following the required algorithms and meeting all the standards.

Libraries and Frameworks

As we have already mentioned, Python includes an amazingly large collection of libraries (Pandas, as well as SciPy, or NumPy, statsmodels, scikit-learn, etc.) and frameworks (Django, Flask, TurboGears, web2py, etc.). This makes the language beloved by thousands of Python developers over the globe. Being an open-source language with a simple syntax, even a beginner can get a simple app up and run it. It’s true, thanks to the huge variety of modules and packages on offer, a few changes or lines of a code added can be enough to create an application.

The Internet of Things

It’s expected that the IoT market size will reach about $561 billion in 2022. So, it’s no surprise that IoT software development is in demand. Basically, IoT systems bridge the gap between the data networks and devices equipped with data sensing by connecting the sensor system with the data and providing information from the back-end. Hence, 2 tasks are to be performed at once:

1.Coding the IoT device;
2.Developing a backend that will interact with this device.

The highlight is that Python is perfect for both tasks. Besides that, keeping in mind the fact that there is a vast choice of libraries for all kinds of platforms available, a developer can write a code much faster than using any other coding language. What’s more, the IoT system can perform assigned functions in the same sitting with other languages and libraries.

Cybersecurity

Many cybersecurity specialists found the language a perfect coding choice because a lot of cybersecurity functions can be performed by the code. What’s more, there is no need in using any other third-party tools to perform the following functions:

1. Network/port scanning;
2. Malware analysis;
3. Host discovery;
4. Packet sending/decoding;
5. Server accessing/fingerprinting;
6. Creating intrusion detection along with prevention systems;
7. Simulation of attacks, and so on.

If you need to automate tasks, script and analyze data in a more effective way, then it's an additional reason to choose Python for cybersecurity.

Bottom Line

Knowing all the benefits and advantages provided by Python, it’s obvious that the programming language is here to stay in 2021 and beyond. Python is a modern language with a broad variety of tools and ways for creating recent innovations quickly and efficiently. Data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and IoT are just a few fields where Python can be helpful. Thanks to the clean syntax, a large number of libraries, an ever-growing ecosystem, scalability and versatility, this language keeps evolving, providing new possibilities for IT projects.