Company CEO Ori Keren said the issue DevOps teams find most frustrating when it comes to managing software development projects is collecting the data that’s required to track the progress of any given project when much of that data already resides in the DevOps tools being employed. LinearB automates the collection and display of that data that DevOps teams previously spent hours collecting, he said.

That approach makes it easier to then identify which teams and projects need additional help in near real-time using metrics surfaced in dashboards provided by LinearB, Keren noted, adding metrics such as the tracking of cycle times also make it easier for DevOps leaders to justify those investments to business executives.

Keren said DevOps leaders also gain better insights in how DevOps teams are actually functioning in a way that makes it easier to predict and eliminate project delays, remediate high-risk code before it is included in a production environment, eliminate bottlenecks and make certain the focus of the DevOps team remains on tasks of the highest priority.

LinearB is making use of the application programming interfaces (APIs) that DevOps tools expose to gather the metadata that exists about the status of any given project. LinearB then employs machine learning algorithms to construct and correlate that data to give DevOps leaders more accurate insights into the status a project when compared to a project management application that requires data to be entered manually. Given the rate at which application development projects are now updated, much of the data in a project management application is outdated shortly after its entered.

Project managers also often spend a significant amount of time trying to encourage various members of a DevOps teams to update the data that resides in those project management applications.

At a time when many members of those DevOps teams are now working from home to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Keren noted that manually collecting that data has never been more problematic.

While many DevOps teams are embracing value stream management tools to optimize DevOps workflow, Keren added most of those tools do not collect data at a granular enough level to provide DevOps leaders with enough software deliver intelligence to meaningfully impact DevOps workflows in near real-time.

In general, Keren said most DevOps teams are too focused on metrics such as the number of lines of code or the number of commits being made. Metrics such as cycle times are more indicative of the productivity of a DevOps team.

It’s not clear how the ability to automatically pull metrics from DevOps tools might impact the role of project managers. In theory at least, they should be able to spend more time helping DevOps leaders identify issues proactively versus badgering DevOps teams to fill out reports.

Regardless of how the role of the project manager evolves, the one thing that is for certain is most members of a DevOps team would happily prefer to see as much of that process become automated as possible.

New Relic has announced its intent to acquire Pixie Labs, a startup that has developed an observability platform that runs natively on Kubernetes.

Pixie Labs CEO Zain Asgar, who is also adjunct professor of computer science at Stanford University, says the acquisition will result in the melding of an observability platform designed primarily for developers who need to debug applications with New Relic’s observability platform, which is employed primarily by IT operations teams.

Observability, a core tenet of any set of best DevOps practices, has become a larger issue as IT organizations begin to deploy microservices-based applications based on containers on Kubernetes clusters that have lots of dependencies. The only way to manage those applications effectively is to find a way to gather metrics in real time.

Pixie Labs employs the extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) at the Linux kernel level to automatically collect baseline data such as metrics, traces, logs and events. That approach eliminates the need to individually instrument every application deployed on a Kubernetes cluster using agent software that needs to be maintained, updated and secured.

The company addresses that challenge using a distributed machine data system it developed that creates streaming telemetry pipelines. The data from those pipelines can be employed to create artificial intelligence (AI) models to optimize Kubernetes environments or, alternatively, consumed via scripts and debugging interfaces fed into existing monitoring tools.

Asgar says the New Relic approach to unifying the monitoring of applications and infrastructure aligns with the Pixie Labs approach because the data it collects tends to focus more on what’s occurred in a Kubernetes environment in the last 24 hours to help developers debug applications. The New Relic platform will use that data to augment the platform, which is widely employed to optimize both microservices-based applications and monolithic applications.

While observability as a concept has been around since the dawn of DevOps, it’s only recently that many of the providers of what historically have been known as application performance management (APM) tools have begun to recast their offerings as observability platforms.

Part of that shift can be attributed to the rise of microservices, which require deep levels of instrumentation to effectively manage given all the dependencies that exist between them. Previously. Most IT organizations limited their use of APM platforms to their most critical monolithic applications because of the costs and the challenges associated with injecting and updating agent software embedded within those applications. Pixie Labs solves that latter issue by eliminating the need for agent software altogether.

It’s unclear to what degree agent software may be required to instrument IT environments going forward, especially as eBPF becomes more widely employed. The one thing that is certain is there’s no shortage of observability platforms, as competition among the providers of these platforms becomes increasingly fierce.

Each IT organization naturally will need to decide to what degree it wants to continue using its existing observability platform that will evolve over time versus adopting a new platform. Regardless of the path chosen, IT teams have never had better visibility into their IT environments.

As I talk with construction professionals, there seems to be a lot of confusion about ‘the cloud.’ Recently, for example, I read an online conversation prompted by a CFO’s question about what is a true cloud ERP system. The responses were as varied as opinions on what is a true high-performance car.

Why the confusion? Part of it stems from the broad definition of cloud computing itself.

A variety of cloud options
In simplest terms, cloud computing is the delivery of on-demand computing resources, usually as a service, over the Internet. That definition leaves a lot of room for different approaches to cloud computing. For construction companies, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it provides construction firms with a lot more choices in how they want to use the cloud.

For example, on one side of the cloud spectrum is software as a service (SaaS). A SaaS solution is your purest form of cloud software. It is an all-inclusive cloud option in which you don’t have to install, update, or troubleshoot problems with the software. All you do is pay a subscription fee to access and use the application via the Internet. Your use of the solution can be via a ‘browser’ or a ‘native application’ written for the specific device.

On the other end of the spectrum is on-premises software that you own, install, and run on your own machines within your company’s walls. This is a completely non-cloud scenario. In between full on-premises software and SaaS, however, are a variety of cloud variations that construction companies are using. These include, but are not limited to:

Windows remote desktop
Remote desktop virtualization has been around for a while. It allows you to store Windows applications and data on your local corporate server but provide access to the applications via a private connection over a local (LAN) or wide area network (WAN). Two of the most common types of Windows remote desktop solutions are Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (previously known as Terminal Services) and Citrix.

Today remote desktop virtualization has expanded to the cloud, allowing you to tap into Windows and other business applications over the Internet using any device. There are a number of ways to do this, including using a virtual private network (VPN). In this case, the VPN is essentially another wide area network that allows information to securely pass over the less secure public Internet using encryption, user authentication, and other protective measures.

Cloud hosting services
Many contractors, faced with aging servers, hardware, and networking components, have opted for a cloud-hosting option rather than invest in new equipment. Hosting services will run your Windows applications for you on equipment in cloud data centers. In addition to helping you offload IT equipment and tasks, cloud hosting services also allow you to access your applications anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Some hosting services, such as Swizznet, specialize in applications like Sage to provide more customized service.

Browser-based software
Some on-premises Windows applications are browser-based and mobile-enabled via services like Azure Active Directory Application Proxy This allows you to provide greater authorized access to backend information (such as accounting) without putting the data directly into the cloud. Essentially, contractors can keep their on-premises software and data on their own machines or in a data center. Cloud technology, in this case, is used more as a secure ‘browser’ or gateway into your backend systems to provide the mobile access you need.

SaaS software integrated with Windows on-premises software
Integration between pure on-premises software and pure SaaS apps is also happening, providing yet another way to more easily share data among your team. This is usually accomplished via some sort of a ‘synchronization connector’ that sits with your on-premises software and talks to the SaaS solution.

Too much focus on the cloud?
Perhaps it’s time to change the conversation. Instead of focusing on the nuances of cloud computing, the discussion is more about business needs. Do you want to access information anytime and anywhere? How much of your IT do you want to manage yourself? What are your security requirements and restrictions? Do you need scalability?

Understanding what you want to get out of the cloud can guide your interaction with cloud providers and help you select the best solution for your company. ‘The key to a successful cloud strategy is to evaluate your business’s individual workflows and work with a solution provider to select and integrate all the types of offerings needed to meet your specific requirements, enabling you to work seamlessly in one pane of glass,’ says Mike Callan, CEO of Swizznet.

Final thoughts
The cloud is continuing to mature and change. In fact, at some point, talk about what the cloud is and isn’t may stop entirely, as the technology itself takes a back seat to the capabilities it offers.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published September 2017 as ‘Confused about the cloud? How to achieve clarity.’

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Bengaluru: US-based Cloud computing company Nutanix on Thursday it has appointed VMware veteran Rajiv Ramaswami as President and CEO.

Ramaswami succeeds co-founder Dheeraj Pandey, who previously announced his plans to retire as CEO of Nutanix upon the appointment of a successor

“The talented Nutanix team, under Ramaswami’s leadership, is well-positioned to drive sustained growth, to improve efficiency and to advance leadership in the emerging hybrid cloud infrastructure category,” said Sohaib Abbasi, Lead Independent Director of Nutanix.

Ramaswami has held senior executive roles at industry leaders including Broadcom, Cisco and Nortel, after beginning his career at IBM.

“Working closely with the Board, the management team, and the more than 6,000 talented Nutanix employees around the world, we will build on Nutanix’s strong foundation of continuous innovation, collaboration and customer delight,” said Ramaswami.

At VMware, Ramaswami served as Chief Operating Officer of Products and Cloud Services.

Prior to this role, Ramaswami led VMware’s Networking and Security business, one of the fastest-growing units in the company, as Executive Vice President and General Manager.

“This is the decade to watch for a company that so values simple, secure, and seamless. On a personal note, it has been a privilege to serve our customers and partners, working closely alongside Nutanix employees,” said Pandey who will step down from the Board effective from December 14.

In February this year, Nutanix officially commissioned its new India headquarters in Bengaluru.

The facility brought together the sales, engineering, R&D, service and support functions under one roof, and boasts a modern, open plan and engaging workplace, with multiple collaborative and creative spaces as well as an in-house gym, sleep pods, and gaming zones.

OpenText EnCase solutions are now certified on Microsoft Azure

OpenText announced OpenText EnCase Forensic and OpenText™ EnCase Endpoint Investigator are now certified on Microsoft Azure. With OpenText Encase solutions in the cloud, law enforcement and corporate investigators can more easily collaborate, enhance evidence processing, investigate in cloud environments, and adjust more quickly to the needs of a remote workforce.

“Industries, employees, and even criminals across the world are embracing new ways to work,” said OpenText Chief Product Officer Muhi Majzoub. “Digital forensic investigators need to be just as agile. OpenText supports the investigators at the frontlines, finding the digital evidence needed to seek justice or respond to a cyberattack. Embracing the power, scale, and efficiency of the cloud will help digital investigators be more effective.”

OpenText worked to support Microsoft’s focus on public safety and justice to bring the benefits of Microsoft Azure – efficiency, power, and scalability – to OpenText EnCase solutions for digital investigations. Additional EnCase security solutions will be available on Azure.

“Microsoft is dedicated to delivering solutions to help public safety and justice organizations increase the safety of people and the security of the communities they serve,” said Kirk Arthur, Senior Director of Worldwide Government Industry, Microsoft. “Public sector, enterprise, and law enforcement organizations are beginning to take advantage of the scale, enterprise-grade security, and high availability of Microsoft Azure. We are pleased to see OpenText bringing the advantages of Azure to digital investigators all around the world.”

OpenText EnCase Forensic and OpenText EnCase Endpoint Investigator in Azure bring four core benefits of the cloud to law enforcement and enterprise investigators immediately:

Efficient, secure collaboration – Investigators can now tap into the power of Azure to quickly and easily share case data for better collaboration with other stakeholders via OpenText™ EnCase Evidence Viewer – an application that enables secure access to case data for outside consulting.
Enhanced evidence processing – Digital investigations often require analysis of terabytes of data. Traditional endpoints have hardware limitations, and processing evidence in extremely high volumes can cause unwanted delay. Investigators can now push evidence to the cloud for quick, efficient processing, alleviating the need for numerous forensic workstations.
Access to investigate evidence in the cloud – As organizations shift operations to the cloud and rely more on a universe of IoT devices, investigative teams must keep pace and increase visibility and control in cloud environments. User and application interactions in cloud environments are difficult to view and analyze without brokered access between the cloud vendor and investigative technology. With OpenText EnCase on Azure, investigators can comprehensively process digital evidence, both on-prem and in the cloud, for complete and accurate findings.
Investigate devices anytime, anywhere, with less reliance on corporate network or VPN – COVID-19 forced many businesses to new work-from-home models, complicating the task of corporate investigators to investigate employee devices for evidence of insider threat, HR issues, or other internal investigations. With OpenText EnCase Investigator, corporate investigators can more easily reach out through the cloud to access employee devices and conduct investigations, without disrupting employee productivity.

Digital investigators, be they law enforcement or corporate investigators, must collect, decrypt, process, and analyze evidence from a wide variety of devices and data repositories while maintaining the highest degrees of data integrity,” said OpenText Chief Product Officer Muhi Majzoub. “OpenText EnCase is recognized globally as the market leader for digital forensics. Microsoft Azure lets us tap into the processing power and efficiency of the cloud to deliver better, faster results to investigators.”

OpenText introduced the new cloud functionality at OpenText Enfuse On Air 2020. The #1 conference for digital investigators, security professionals, IT, and legal tech teams. Enfuse On Air 2020 features a new four-week digital format, registered attendees can leverage live and on-demand content reflecting a weekly theme. Register now for more content on OpenText™ EnCase solutions on Azure and the full suite of OpenText solutions for digital investigations, cybersecurity, and legal technology. Attendees can also join keynote sessions from OpenText CEO & CTO Mark J. Barrenechea, Cybersecurity Policy Fellow at New America Tarah Wheeler, and the 44th U.S. Army Surgeon General Nadja West.

Jelastic,multi-cloud PaaS company, and Savecore, Swedish hosting service provider, today announce a strategic partnership to serve organizations in need of a mission-critical cloud application and infrastructure management platform with local datacenter availability.

“We are very pleased to announce the addition of Jelastic PaaS to our as-a-service portfolio,” said Nicklas Ericsson, CEO Savecore AB, “Jelastic PaaS is perfect for our developers who want their critical applications on a reliable platform with easy access to all available tools. Everything is in the Jelastic platform in one place, so we no longer waste any time building and maintaining the infrastructure that was previously necessary to support service and application development.” added Ericsson.

With PaaS, organizations can more rapidly develop, run and manage projects, and then smoothly update or expand the functionality of applications. Another major benefit of the partnership is the Jelastic PaaS pay-per-use pricing model that fully solves the right-sizing problem for customers. Additionally, Jelastic’s automatic scaling helps cloud hosting organizations like Savecore to gain a more thorough understanding of their used resources and maximize efficiency while optimizing performance.

Ruslan Synytsky, CEO and co-founder of Jelastic said, “We are proud to empower forward-thinking hosting companies like Savecore to become an advanced cloud choice for ISVs, digital agencies, e-commerce projects and developers in need of scalable and highly available environments.”

Savecore’s in-house data center located in Sweden was put into operation at the end of 2017, and since then the company has expanded its range of services and is steadily continuing to develop new cloud services for better security. And today, Jelastic PaaS is being rolled-out as another addition to their as-a-service portfolio.

Savecore customers now have access to a wide choice of features within a turnkey Platform-as-a-Service, including:

Intuitive developer web portal for easy provisioning, updating and managing of environments
Automatic vertical and horizontal scaling according to applications load
Support of microservices and traditional applications with zero code change deployment
More than 50 certified container runtimes out-of-the-box
Enterprise WordPress hosting with pre-configured optimization
Multi-tenant Kubernetes and Docker container support
Auto-clustering for automated replication configuration of application servers, databases, storage and load balancing runtimes
Multi-region traffic distribution and management unification
Open API, CLI and SSH access for deeper containers management
Integration with modern Continuous Integration and Delivery tools
Comprehensive billing engine with granular Pay-Per-Use pricing model
Advanced access control policies and collaboration tools
Built-in full life cycle metering, monitoring and troubleshooting utilities
Companies interested in trying the advanced Jelastic PaaS can sign up here for a free trial at Savecore.

Jelastic is a Multi-Cloud Platform-as-a-Service that helps customers to focus on their business growth instead of spending resources on IT infrastructure configuration and management. The platform is designed for ISVs, digital agencies, e-commerce service providers to accelerate and simplify application deployment, reduce infrastructure cost, improve uptime and enhance security of services. Jelastic automates creation, scaling, clustering and security updates of traditional and cloud-native applications. Jelastic’s unique pay-per-use pricing model is based-on actual consumption, and the PaaS is available as a public, private and hybrid cloud in over 70 data centers worldwide. Being a multi-cloud platform, it offers interoperability across AWS, Azure, GCP and other mega-clouds. The platform is language agnostic and provides certified runtimes for Java, PHP, Ruby, Node.js, Python, .NET and Go environments, SQL and NoSQL databases, load balancing and traffic distribution solutions, as well as Docker and Kubernetes clusters. Jelastic PaaS stands for freedom of choice, data sovereignty and privacy, as well as cost efficiency in digitalization and cloud hosting

In what it is pitching as a bid to free up capacity and “to move faster”, software development and collaboration tool provider Atlassian has made some changes to its server and Data Center products, pretty much giving on-premises users 3.5 years to either switch to the cloud or find an alternative somewhere else.

The company plans to end support for all server products on February 2, 2024. Tools affected by the change are Server versions of Jira Software, Jira Service Desk, Jira Core, Confluence, Bitbucket, Crowd, Bamboo, as well as Atlassian and Marketplace apps.

Organisations looking to renew or upgrade their server subscriptions until then will have to brace themselves for increased prices which are meant to “ensure the continued security and maintenance” of the server platform. The new cost model will be put into effect on February 2, 2021 – precisely the day on which Atlassian will stop selling new server licences.

According to Co-CEO Scott Farquhar, the move shouldn’t affect too many customers, since “more than 90 per cent” start with the company’s cloud products nowadays and “more server customers making the switch every day”. However, for a good percentage of the remaining server users this switch might not be an option. Governmental institutions for example still have some strict regulations in place which won’t just disappear because everyone else is jumping onto the cloud.

To not cut those off completely, Atlassian will continue to offer Data Center, which also provides an assortment of self-managed tools. The prices for that however will also experience a hike in 2021 to “support continuous innovation”. A preliminary list of the future pricing is already available and sees costs almost doubling for certain products if they are purchased for the first time.

Customers who’ve stuck to Atlassian for a couple of years might be eligible for loyalty discounts, while existing subscriptions “will receive a moderate increase upon their next annual renewal to help ease into our new Atlassian list prices”.

Users who are looking for a recommendation on where to go from here can either talk to Atlassian’s support team or wait until October 29, when a recommendation tool is supposed to become available. If moving to the cloud is an option, Farquhar suggests looking into the Atlassian Migration Program which, amongst other things provides guides and migration tools, as well as a support team.

VMware Bets Its Platform on Kubernetes

In August 2019, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger used the company’s fiscal second quarter earnings call to signal a decisive strategic shift: Kubernetes would become the foundational layer of VMware’s entire platform. The announcement came days before VMworld 2019 in San Francisco, where VMware planned to reveal the full scope of its Kubernetes roadmap.

“The transition to Kubernetes is underway and the time to move decisively is now,” Gelsinger said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of the earnings call.

The Acquisitions Powering the Strategy: Heptio and Pivotal

Two acquisitions formed the backbone of VMware’s Kubernetes push:

• Heptio — announced in November 2018, this Kubernetes-native startup was co-founded by two of Kubernetes’ original creators. Gelsinger credited the acquisition with making VMware a top-three contributor to the Kubernetes open-source project.
• Pivotal Software — VMware announced a deal to acquire a controlling stake in Pivotal as part of a combined $4.8 billion in transactions that also included the purchase of endpoint security vendor Carbon Black. VMware had previously held a minority stake in Pivotal and resold some of its products, including the jointly developed VMware Enterprise PKS (Pivotal Container Service).

Pivotal brought an enterprise application development platform and a customer base of approximately 350 organizations, including a significant number of Fortune 100 companies, many of which were already transitioning workloads to Kubernetes.

The “Build, Run, Manage” Framework

Gelsinger organized VMware’s Kubernetes strategy around three pillars:

Build

Pivotal filled a gap VMware acknowledged it had. Its developer tooling and application platform capabilities gave VMware the “build” layer — the ability to help enterprises develop cloud-native applications from the ground up. “We really did not have build assets,” Gelsinger said. “Pivotal and their capabilities are uniquely positioned in the industry to finish that stack.”

Run

The “run” layer centered on integrating Kubernetes directly into vSphere — VMware’s core hypervisor and the dominant platform in enterprise data centers. Gelsinger announced plans to rebuild both vCenter and vSphere on top of Kubernetes, positioning vSphere as a native Kubernetes platform capable of managing both virtual machines and containers within a unified control plane. “We will describe a major R&D effort to evolve VMware vSphere into a native Kubernetes platform for VMs and containers,” he said.

Manage

VMware positioned its existing multi-cloud management tooling, strengthened by Heptio’s Kubernetes expertise, as the management layer — enabling customers to operate Kubernetes workloads consistently across on-premises infrastructure and multiple public clouds.

“Together with Heptio and Pivotal, VMware will offer a comprehensive Kubernetes-based portfolio to build, run and manage modern applications on any cloud.”

— Pat Gelsinger, VMware CEO, Q2 FY2020 Earnings Call

Why This Mattered for Enterprise IT

VMware’s Kubernetes pivot was significant for several reasons:

• Installed base leverage: VMware’s vSphere ran in a large proportion of enterprise data centers worldwide. Embedding Kubernetes natively into vSphere meant enterprises could adopt container orchestration without replacing their existing virtualization infrastructure.
• Operator familiarity: Rather than forcing infrastructure teams to learn an entirely new operational model, VMware’s approach aimed to surface Kubernetes through familiar vCenter and vSphere interfaces.
• Multi-cloud consistency: The combined portfolio targeted a customer pain point — managing applications consistently across on-premises and multiple cloud environments — that was already driving demand for Kubernetes.
• A unified vendor relationship: Gelsinger cited direct customer feedback: “We want one place to come together for this technology pool.” Owning Heptio, Pivotal, and its own infrastructure stack let VMware offer that single relationship.

Digital Transformation Trends Driving the Shift

In his earnings call opening remarks, Gelsinger identified three macro trends shaping enterprise IT investment at the time, each directly relevant to VMware’s Kubernetes positioning:

1. Multi-cloud adoption — Enterprises were distributing workloads across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and private infrastructure, creating demand for a consistent operational layer.
2. Cloud-native application development — Development teams were moving toward microservices, containers, and CI/CD pipelines, areas where Pivotal’s platform and Kubernetes tooling were directly applicable.
3. Security — The concurrent acquisition of Carbon Black reflected VMware’s intent to embed security into its platform rather than treat it as a bolt-on, addressing growing concerns about workload and endpoint security in hybrid environments.

What VMworld 2019 Was Expected to Reveal

At the time of the earnings call, VMworld 2019 had not yet taken place. Gelsinger previewed that VMware would announce major expansions to its Kubernetes and application portfolio at the conference, including further detail on how Pivotal’s platform would integrate into VMware’s product lineup and the technical specifics of the vSphere-Kubernetes integration.

The vSphere-Kubernetes integration Gelsinger described would later ship as vSphere with Kubernetes (subsequently renamed VMware Tanzu), which embedded a Kubernetes supervisor cluster directly into the vSphere control plane — validating the direction he outlined on the call.

Key Takeaways

• VMware’s 2019 Kubernetes strategy was anchored by the acquisitions of Heptio (Kubernetes expertise and open-source contribution) and Pivotal (developer platform and enterprise customer base).
• The strategic framework — build, run, manage — gave VMware a clear narrative for positioning a full-stack Kubernetes offering to enterprise buyers.
• Rebuilding vSphere on Kubernetes was the most architecturally significant commitment, signaling that Kubernetes would become infrastructure, not just an application layer.
• The combined $4.8 billion in acquisitions (Pivotal and Carbon Black) reflected the scale of VMware’s investment in this direction.

Having crossed $3 billion in trailing twelve-month revenue, ServiceNow entered the second half of 2019 with two clear strategic bets: a suite of consumer-grade mobile applications for the enterprise and a deepening partnership with Microsoft built around Azure. Both themes emerged prominently during the company’s Q2 2019 earnings call, where CEO John Donahoe and CFO Michael Scarpelli outlined what they see as the drivers of the company’s next growth phase.

The Move to Mobile

One of Donahoe’s central arguments on the earnings call was a direct analogy between how consumer technology has transformed everyday life at home and how enterprise technology must now do the same at work. This framing represents an evolution of ServiceNow’s long-standing “make work, work better” positioning, adding an explicit consumer-experience dimension.

“People want technology to make their life at work simple, easy and convenient. And that’s exactly what’s happened over the past decade in our lives at home.”

John Donahoe, CEO, ServiceNow — Q2 2019 Earnings Call

Donahoe pointed specifically to two new applications — Now Mobile and Now Mobile Onboarding — as concrete examples of this consumer-like approach applied to enterprise workflows. The goal, as he framed it, is to deliver “easy and intuitive out-of-the-box mobile capabilities that enable consumer-like experiences across the enterprise.”

The underlying premise is straightforward: employees who routinely use polished, responsive consumer apps on their personal devices will increasingly expect the same quality of experience from the tools they use at work. ServiceNow is positioning its mobile investments as the answer to that expectation — a meaningful differentiator in a market where enterprise UX has historically lagged far behind consumer UX.

The Microsoft Factor

Around the same period, ServiceNow joined a growing list of major cloud vendors — including SAP and Oracle — in formalizing a strategic relationship with Microsoft. For ServiceNow, the partnership is grounded in product complementarity and a specific go-to-market opportunity in the government and regulated-industry sectors.

Donahoe noted that ServiceNow has built 20 integration solutions for Microsoft — more than with any other partner — and that customers already expect the two platforms to work together seamlessly. The formal partnership is designed to meet that expectation operationally, aligning go-to-market teams first in the U.S. federal market and eventually in the broader commercial market.

The Azure angle is particularly significant for public-sector and regulated-industry customers. CFO Michael Scarpelli explained the rationale clearly:

“While we expect Q3 will be a very strong federal quarter for us, I can’t stress enough that this isn’t just about the U.S. federal government. We’re doing business with governments around the world and that’s a key part of our Azure strategy. Many of those governments around the world have strict data-sovereignty requirements and we don’t have the global network of data centers to handle that. So that’s something else we’re leveraging out of Azure as well.”

Michael Scarpelli, CFO, ServiceNow — Q2 2019 Earnings Call

In practical terms, this means ServiceNow is using Microsoft’s global Azure data center footprint to meet data-residency and data-sovereignty requirements it could not satisfy with its own infrastructure alone. For government agencies and financial institutions that must keep data within specific geographic or jurisdictional boundaries, this is a meaningful capability unlock.

Q2 2019 Financial Highlights

Although ServiceNow’s stock pulled back slightly after Q2 revenue came in marginally below analyst consensus, the underlying business metrics were strong. Key highlights from the quarter include:

• Total revenue: $834 million for the quarter.
• 766 customers with annual contract value above $1 million — up 33% year-over-year — with 39 new deals in that category closed during Q2.
• 98% renewal rate, reflecting strong retention across the installed base.
• Multi-product adoption: 17 of the top 20 deals in Q2 included three or more ServiceNow products, indicating strong platform expansion within existing accounts.
• Large enterprise wins in financial services, technology and automotive sectors, each involving multiple product lines.
• One of the company’s largest-ever new-customer deals was with a major financial institution purchasing most of ServiceNow’s IT portfolio.
• Customer Service Management (CSM) momentum: three CSM deals each exceeded $1 million in value, signalling growing traction beyond ServiceNow’s core IT service management base.

What This Means for Enterprise Teams

For DevOps and IT operations teams evaluating the ServiceNow platform, the Q2 2019 signals carry a few practical implications:

• Mobile-first workflows are coming to ITSM. If your organization relies on ServiceNow for incident, change or HR service delivery, expect mobile applications to become a first-class interface rather than a secondary one. Evaluate how your team’s workflows map to mobile-optimized experiences.
• Azure integration will deepen. Organizations already running workloads on Azure — particularly in regulated industries — should review ServiceNow’s 20 Microsoft integrations and consider how closer platform alignment might reduce friction in areas like identity, monitoring and automation.
• Platform consolidation is accelerating. The fact that 17 of the top 20 Q2 deals spanned three or more ServiceNow products suggests that customers are moving toward ServiceNow as a unified platform rather than a point solution. If your organization uses ServiceNow only for ITSM, the economics of expanding to CSM, HR or Security Operations may be worth revisiting.

ServiceNow’s dual investment in mobile experience and the Microsoft ecosystem reflects a broader maturation of the enterprise software market — where user experience parity with consumer apps and seamless cloud interoperability are no longer nice-to-haves but baseline competitive requirements.

This article is based on publicly reported Q2 2019 earnings call statements and commentary originally published by cloudwars.co in August 2019.

Microsoft Becomes America’s Most Valuable Company

In early June 2019, Microsoft’s market capitalization crossed the $1 trillion mark after its share price rose nearly 10% over the course of four trading days, reaching a record high. At the time, second- and third-place rivals Amazon and Apple were both sitting at roughly $880 billion in market cap, making Microsoft’s lead notable. The milestone capped one of the most dramatic corporate turnarounds in modern technology history.

The Nadella Effect: From Windows-Centric to Cloud-First

Satya Nadella became Microsoft’s CEO in February 2014, inheriting a company widely perceived as having missed the mobile revolution and struggling to stay relevant in a market increasingly shaped by cloud computing, open source, and developer ecosystems. Over the following five years, he systematically repositioned Microsoft around three core pillars:

• Azure cloud platform: Microsoft Azure grew from a relatively minor player into a genuine competitor to AWS, attracting enterprise customers with hybrid cloud capabilities, compliance certifications, and deep integration with existing Microsoft infrastructure like Active Directory and Windows Server.
• Developer-first culture: Nadella reversed longstanding antagonism toward open source. Microsoft joined the Linux Foundation, open-sourced large parts of its developer toolchain, acquired GitHub in 2018, and embraced Linux on Azure—moves that rebuilt trust with engineering communities.
• Subscription and SaaS model: Shifting Office to a subscription-based cloud service (Microsoft 365) and Dynamics to a cloud platform created predictable, recurring revenue that analysts and investors rewarded with higher valuation multiples.

Why Investor Optimism Centered on Cloud

The share price surge heading into June 2019 was driven in large part by strong earnings reports showing accelerating growth in Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud segment, which houses Azure. Cloud infrastructure and platform services have structurally higher gross margins than traditional software licensing, and Wall Street rewarded Microsoft’s revenue mix shift accordingly. For DevOps and engineering teams, this translated into an expanding portfolio of managed services, CI/CD integrations, and Kubernetes tooling on Azure that Microsoft was increasingly investing in.

Nadella’s Own Take on the Milestone

Characteristically, Nadella himself refused to celebrate the $1 trillion figure. In an earlier interview with Bloomberg, he dismissed market capitalization as “not meaningful” and stated he would be “disgusted if somebody ever celebrated our market cap.” The comment reflected his public emphasis on measuring Microsoft’s success through customer outcomes and product impact rather than stock price—a framing that has become central to his leadership brand.

What This Means for DevOps Practitioners

Microsoft’s resurgence is not just a financial story—it has had direct, practical consequences for DevOps engineers and platform teams:

• Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS): Continued heavy investment in pipelines, artifact management, and board tooling gave enterprises a credible alternative to standalone CI/CD platforms.
• GitHub integration: The 2018 GitHub acquisition brought Actions, Packages, and Advanced Security into a tightly integrated development lifecycle that competes directly with GitLab and Atlassian.
• Kubernetes and container orchestration: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) became a first-class managed Kubernetes offering, and Microsoft became one of the top contributors to the upstream Kubernetes project.
• Hybrid and multi-cloud: Products like Azure Arc extended Azure management planes to on-premises and competing clouds, addressing the reality that most large enterprises run heterogeneous infrastructure.

The Broader Lesson

Microsoft’s trajectory under Nadella is frequently cited as a case study in large-scale organizational and technical transformation. A company that once treated open source as an existential threat became one of its largest corporate contributors. A company that nearly missed cloud entirely now earns tens of billions annually from cloud infrastructure. For engineering leaders, the lesson is less about the stock price and more about how deliberate platform strategy, developer relations, and cultural change can compound over years into durable competitive advantage.

Original reporting by Quartz, June 2019. Market capitalization figures reflect conditions at the time of original publication and have since changed substantially.