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Fastly: How This Company with The Right Values is Growing at The Speed of Light

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Data is everywhere now thanks to the Internet Age. According to studies, the amount of total data collected doubles, every two years. Everything from our Internet history to our calendar schedule forms a part of digital data that is important. Research shows that by 2020, we will be producing 1.7 MB worth of data every second! So where does all this data go? Due to Hardware constraints, all computers and mobile phones come with a stipulated storage limit. Also, external hard drives we purchase also have stringent limits on how much space they have. So how do we store the massive amounts of data we create?

Why We Need Cloud Computing

We all want to retain those videos from our first college performance, and also need quick access to our work documents. How can we come up with a system that is secure and at the same time, large enough to store everything? Well, cloud computing has helped most people deal with their storage woes by providing huge amounts of space! Not only do you get to keep your precious memories, but you also get to do so without cluttering up your home.

All your information is locked away in a vault in the sky, so you can loop up baby pictures, and schedule appointments on the go. This time around, we are going to look at one of the fastest-growing cloud computing service providers in the world!

What is Fastly Inc

Fastly Inc.’s highly efficient edge cloud platform allows users access to an extremely fast content delivery network that helps them keep all their memories. Furthermore, the company also provides security services, video streaming, and load balancing. Headquartered at San Francisco, this American juggernaut has offices in New York, London, Portland, Tokyo, and Denver.

Founding Fastly

Artur Bergman founded Fastly in 2011 because he felt the need for a fast and efficient cloud computing service. Prior to founding Fastly, Bergman worked as the VTO of Wikia. Three years into its founding, Google paired up with them to offer users CDN services. This served as a huge boost to the company, which then grew at unprecedented rates.

Image Source – Twitter

So much so, that in 2017, the company launched its own edge cloud platform that supported a ton of new features. The same year, they acquired a Texas-based content delivery network named CDN Sumo. The company helps users extend and expand their existing cloud infrastructure using their network. Furthermore, the service also includes several features such as load balancing, image optimization, and video streaming.

Software Structure

The company’s software works on Varnish, which is an open-source HTTP accelerator. Since they use an open-source product, Bergman has also made it a point to give back to the open-source community. The company supports several non-profit projects such as Hackage, Drupal and DonorsChoose.org. Varnish became the platform for Fastly because it allowed them to reverse proxy and is highly customizable. The software designers always kept performance in mind and then scaled their applications using Varnish. The particular version of Varnish used by them is optimized for large applications, due to the presence of caches.

Giving Back to The Community

Bergman attributes his desire to give back to his raising in a feminist environment such as Sweden. Due to their smaller power distance culture; being inclusive was a way of life rather than a magnanimity. Bergman also believes that diverse teams improve the workspace environment leading to higher productivity. The more diverse the leadership, the easier it becomes to find and encourage diverse talents. This, in turn, makes it possible to create and design diverse products that change the world.

Company Values

Furthermore, Fastly takes both employee and customer satisfaction quite seriously. Since the company works on projects that help people, employees feel great about their work. More people are happy, meaning they genuinely want to look after their users, which makes for great customer engagement and satisfaction. Over 90 employees at Fastly, which constitutes 25% of their workforce, have been there for more than four years.

This proves without a doubt, how important the company views its internal policies and values. The company’s executive team has an almost equal number of men and women. Furthermore, more than 50 percent of their engineers fall into trans, people of color and LGBTQ communities.

Resounding Success

Fastly recently added another $75 million via Series D funding, making the total money hit $130 million! After the financing round, the company named ex-VP of Netsuite, Dan Miller, their CFO. Furthermore, the company recruited ex- Apple privacy strategist, and Mozilla’s security chief to their already impressive employee roster. The company is growing at over 300% year after years, with a team that has grown to over 450 employees now. While the company pushed 40 TB a day in 2012, the data limit per day now stands at 5 PT!

The company already has several high-profile customers such as Twitter, The Guardian, Pinterest, and Wayfair. The company also helped Stripe improve their checkout time by 80%, leading to even more popularity and goodwill within the industry. The company keeps growing from strength to strength having made $144 million in 2018, with revenue growing at 37.8%! Around the world, over 3 billion people see content that served via Fastly, and this is 75% of the world’s internet users. Sure enough, there might come a day, wherein every internet user receives content through a Fastly platform!

Fortinet

Fortifying Your Networks: This Volleyball-loving 6’5 Entrepreneur Runs a $13 Billion Dollar Business

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We all rely on the Internet for most of our things. Everything from our family photos to important work details is on the Internet. Therefore, we need to be sure that they are in safe hands. So, how do we make sure that our data is safe? Well, Cybersecurity software helps us with this by using a combination of measures such as firewalls, privacy protection, and anti-virus software. Thanks to high-profile data breaches, malicious hacks, and extortion scams, maintaining good Cyber-measures has become a priority for companies. This time, we will be taking a look at one of the most prominent Cybersecurity firms in the world. Here’s how Fortinet founder Ken Xie helps to make the world wide web a safer, better place!

About the Founders

Ken Xie did his electrical engineering from Stanford and started his first Cyber-security firm named SIS while in college. One of his early ventures was bought by Juniper for $4 billion, and two decades later, his company is worth $13 billion, exceeding that of Juniper! Meanwhile, Michael Xie, who serves as the firm’s president and CTO, did his electrical engineering from the University of Manitoba. Ken is also a gifted athlete, who wanted to be a professional volleyball player while growing up. He stands tall at six feet and five inches, but his parents who worked at the Tsinghua University in China didn’t agree with his career plan. Instead, they got him interested in engineering and Xie’s life transformed.

A Family Initiative

Brothers Michael and Ken Xie founded Fortinet in 2000, by launching their first firewall Fortigate. They then added new features such as wireless access points, messaging options and sandboxing in later years. Within three years, the company raised more than $90 million in funding. Fortinet went public in 2009, after raising over $156 million through its IPO. Fortinet released its Security Fabric system in 2016, and since then, the product has added several new features such as IoT and WAN.

Earlier Efforts

Before starting Fortinet, Ken Xie founded NetScreen, while Michael Xie was as an executive at ServeGate. The duo built Appligation Inc in 2000, later renamed to ApSecure the same year, which finally became Fortinet. The pair got the idea to name their company Fortnite through the phrase Fortified Networks. While trying to raise funds for Fortinet, Ken’s earlier effort, NetScreen got acquired by Juniper Networks for around $4 billion.

Early Years

Their first product came out only two years later, after stringent research and development. Between the years of 2000 and 2003, the company was able to raise over $13 million through private funding. By August of 2003, they brought in another $30 million, while they added an additional $50 million in 2004. In 2003, they launched their first channel program and began distribution in Canada the same year, via Westcon Canada. They expanded to the UK through Norwood Adam in 2004 through Norwood Adam. They also expanded to other countries and had set up other international offices in Europe, Asia, and North America by 2004.

Profits and Early Growth

The company turned cash positive in 2008 and acquired database security firm IPLocks the same year. All 28 employees of the company were extended job opportunities by Fortinite, as a very thoughtful gesture. A year later, they acquired the Ethernet-based company, Woven Systems. By the end of 2009, Fortnite commanded almost 15% of the total market, making them an industry stalwart. CRN Magazine also named them first in security hardware, a huge improvement from the seventh pace they got the year before.

IPO and Huge Success

The company sold 5.8 million shares and raised $52.4 million through its IPO in 2009. Another 6 million shares were sold by stockholders, leading to an increase in the share price from $9 to $12.50. By the end of that one single day, the company had raised over $156 million in financing. Fast forward two years, Fortinet was making $324 million a year, commanding the largest share in the market. In 2013, they launched monthly subscription options for customers with less capital. The company also acquired XDN, Coyote Point, Meru Networks and AccelOps between 2012 and 2016.

New Initiatives

They expanded to new ventures in 2014 by launching a technical certification named Network Security Expert. Two years later, the company found a way to fill Cybersecurity vacancies by launching the Network Security Academy. Through this program, the donated equipment and helped Universities train students for jobs. Furthermore, in 2016 they launched a program that encouraged military veterans to try their hand at Cyber-security, named FortiVet.

They expanded to new ventures in 2014 by launching a technical certification named Network Security Expert. Two years later, the company found a way to fill Cybersecurity vacancies by launching the Network Security Academy. Through this program, the donated equipment and helped Universities train students for jobs. Furthermore, in 2016 they launched a program that encouraged military veterans to try their hand at Cyber-security, named FortiVet.

Research Results

Research predicts that the Cyber-security market will grow 10 percent every year till 2023, and so things look good for this multi-million-dollar enterprise. Furthermore, Fortinet is growing at 20%, being valued at a staggering $13 billion in 2018. Their shares now stand around the $81 mark, which is six times more than their initial listing of $9.

Fortinet headquartered Sunnyvale, California is helping revolutionize the Cyber-security industry, and is now an industry giant. The company continues to grow at over 15%, raking in $416.7 million last year. With over 467 patents and another 291 pending, it is safe to say that the future looks safe and secure for Fortinet; much like how the Cyber-space is, thanks to them!

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How Bluehost Evolved to Become the Perfect Host

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Since companies shifted their services and business online, web hosting services have been having a great business. With the Internet Age being in full force, such companies that help other companies in maintaining websites have been seeing tremendous growth. One such company, which was able to make use of the internet boom to capture a large market share is Bluehost. Here’s a look at how this web hosting company grew to be one of the biggest players in the market.

Founding Bluehost

Matt Heaton, is in no way a stranger to cyberspace, being a serial entrepreneur with a love for all things cyber-related. He opened Computer Warehouse at the age of 21, then moved on to Free50, and HostMonster, before adding Bluehost to his resume. Matt Heaton began Bluehost as a free service named 0catch.com. But soon enough the service became so popular that he could upgrade it to a paid service.

Therefore, he renamed the company and re-launched it as a shared-hosting service in 2003. Very affordable plans, great customer service, and unique features helped propel the brand as they became a standard in the industry. One of the biggest selling points of the company was the fact that it provided different price points. Hence, everyone from an individual running a business to a multi-national conglomerate could find what they were looking for on Bluehost.

Early Years and Growth

The company invested in research and did pioneering work in the field of server hosting. In 2009, they launched CPU throttling, which helped in reducing CPU usage whenever a user pulled too many resources. Whenever a user took up too much of the server resources the software drastically reduced their usage, shutting down their sites. This innovative method that helped prevent CPU burnout, also helped the company keep its resources in play effectively. Furthermore, it also served as a great warning to other users from doing the same thing, helping substantially to improve the hosting platform’s performance.

Another feature that helped Bluehost stand a class apart from competitors was the fact that their service was easy to use. The company used templates that even less technologically-savvy can navigate and figure out. Throughout their growth and expansion strategies, the company has stuck to its principle of making their layouts as simple as possible. By providing plug and play website templates, the company makes setting up and running your own website an easy affair. Moreover, Bluehost was also the first to advertise their uptime record, which helped build a feeling of reliability for their brand.

Sustained Growth and Success

Endurance International acquired Bluehost in 2010, due to its stellar performance in the years following its founding. Even after the acquisition by Endurance International Group, the company made it clear that BlueHost would continue to work under its own name. Some of the other holdings that Endurance International has to include FatCow, Hostgator, JustHost, and Mojo Marketplace.

A year later, CEO Matt Heaton stepped down to work on the platform’s structure and COO Dan Handy took over. Bluehost introduced their own VPS and dedicated hosting in 2013, further expanding their business, and acquiring a larger share of the market. The company provides various services now, such as shared, VPS, dedicated, cloud and WordPress hosting. Most of their servers run on PHP 7 and HTTP/2 caching. In 2015, Mike Olson took over as the CEO, while Handy moved to the field of mobile and application development for small-scale businesses.

The company ran into trouble in 2009, when they censored websites hosted by citizens of countries the US considered rogue states. Furthermore, in 2011, they had to take down a religious website they hosted for making insensitive comments on minorities. But quick thinking, good crisis recovery methods, and smart branding have helped them navigate through such controversies and maintain a great brand image.

Bluehost is one of the largest web hosts in the world, with over 2 million domains. They also play a major role in the working of their sister concerns, iPage, HostMonster, and FastDomain. Headquartered in a massive 50,000 square feet server facility in Utah with HostMonster, Bluehost has over 700 employees in that facility alone. They are pioneers in the field of hosting, having been one of the earliest analyzers of collaborative virtual learning programs. BlueHost has grown to become one of the most recognized names in the field of Webhosting with decades’ worth of experience and by utilizing smart business acumen.

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Serving Up Those Domains: How This Company Got So Big It Caught Cisco’s Attention

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The Internet is an ever-changing environment with a lot of features and threats. Since the internet age started, more services have been shifting to digital platforms to grow and expand. Therefore, companies that provide services related to the internet have grown substantially in the last two decades. Today, we will be looking at one such company. Here’s how OpenDNS grew to become a multi-million-dollar business in the field of domain services.

What the Company Does

OpenDNS stands for Open Domain Name System. The company provides features such as protection against phishing content filtering. OpenDNS also has a product named Umbrella, which has tools providing cloud computing security. This product suite protects enterprise companies from all kinds of digital attacks including phishing, malware, and botnets. OpenDNS handles over 100 billion DNS queries daily and boasts of more than 85 million users around the world.

About the Founder

David Ulevitch grew up in Del Mar, California and showed an early interest in computers. He worked for a regional ISP, named ElectriCiti before starting high school. It was from here that he picked up his interest in network administration. While Ulevitch was at Washington University, he created EveryDNS to manage his DNS needs. The company grew from being a project to a company with over 100,000 users. In 2010, Dyn, Inc acquired EveryDNS. 

Launching OpenDNS

Launched in 2006, OpenDNS came to life due to the efforts of computer scientist David Ulevitch. The initial funding for the company came via venture capitalists like CNET founder, Halsey Minor. Later that year, they launched PhishTank. The service allows users to submit suspected phishing sites. The other members could then review these sites and decide whether it was a scam. 

In 2007, OpenDNS started a domain-blocking service to help users block and allow access to various sites. The categories of sites blocked worked on individually managed blacklists and whitelists that the company controlled. A year later, OpenDNS made the list community-driven allowing subscribers to suggest websites. If the site suggested got enough votes, then the site became a part of the blacklist, and subsequently blocked. By 2014, the list had grown and included over 60 categories. The former head of VMware, Nand Mulchandan joined OpenDNS as CEO in 2008, replacing David Ulevitch, who became the CTO. He resumed as CEO again in late 2009.

Continued Success 

Two years after launching the free DNS-O-Matic, they launched a premium service called Home VIP. The same year, in 2009, DNS started its foray into the world of enterprise network security through OpenDNS Enterprise. The suite included access managers, audit logs, statistic reports, and customized block page URLs. This product expanded in 2012 through the launch of OpenDNS Insights.

The new service integrated with Microsoft Active Directory, allowing admins granular control. The World Economic Forum named them a Technology Pioneer in 2011. Former CTO of Websense joined OpenDNS as CTO in 2012. Later that year, the company launched the Security Labs for research. They raised over $35 million via a Series C funding led by Glynn Capita, Northgate Capital and Cisco. 

Forming Umbrella

Their biggest launch came in 2012, in the form of Umbrella. The software helped enforce security guidelines for roaming devices like laptops, iPhones, iPads, and tablets. A year later, they came out with the OpenDNS Security Graph to further extend Umbrella. The same year, they introduced the Investigate feature which allowed teams to compare traffic data. Another feature came in 2014 via Intelligent Proxy, which provides proxies for suspicious domains.

Merger with Cisco

Owing to their massive success, industry giant Cisco acquired them in 2015, for US$635 million. The entire deal occurred via an all-cash transaction, and also included incentives for OpenDNS. After the acquisition, the company’s services became Cisco Umbrella, whereas home products remained under the OpenDNS name. Cisco clarified that they would continue developing cloud-based OpenDNS products. The company also mentioned that all existing services would be continued. After the acquisition, Ulevitch became the Senior VP and GM of Cisco’s Security Business in 2016. Two years later, he joined Andreessen Horowitz as a Partner. The company also mentioned that all existing services would be continued. After the acquisition, Ulevitch became the Senior VP and GM of Cisco’s Security Business in 2016. Two years later, he joined Andreessen Horowitz as a Partner. 

Ulevitch grew OpenDNS to become the world’s largest DNS service provider. The acquisition by Cisco is a testament to their growth and success in the field of security architecture.

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Cloud-Troopers- How Cloudflare Keeps the Internet and Your Data Safe

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Internet security and maintenance has never been more important than now. With most businesses and companies taking their markets online, ensuring that you have a great network is crucial to succeeding. It sure is a great time to be in the internet infrastructure business, and that is exactly what this company did right. They were in the right place at the right time and benefited from that immensely. Cloudflare, Inc. is a website security and infrastructure development company that provides various services. Here’s a look at how they shot up the ranks and got to where they are now.

Launching Cloudflare

In 2004, Matthew Prince and Lee Holloway built an application to analyze how spammers worked, creating Project Honey Pot. The project grew over the years and had participants from over 185 countries. All the websites which signed up requested the duo to not just track the villains, but also stop them. Fast forward five years, Matthew took a sabbatical to pursue an MBA from the Harvard Business School. Here he met Cloudflare’s COO Michelle Zatlyn. One day while talking, Matthew told Michelle about Project Honey Pot and she instantly connected with the idea. Soon the duo was working on a business plan to take the Project to the next level. A friend suggested the name Cloudflare as they were creating firewalls in the clouds, and the name stuck!

Heading West and Building the Brand

Meanwhile, Lee built the prototype and in 2009, Cloudflare won the Harvard Business Plan Competition. The trio then moved west and built their prototype. The company was formally launched at the 2010 Tech Crunch conference. In 2009, Cloudflare took help from Venrock and Pelion Ventures to raise over $2.1 million as Series A funding.

Two years later, they utilized New Enterprise Associates, Pelion Venture, and Venrock to raise another $20 million. A year later, the company ran into trouble for helping the hacking group LulzSec, with their website. They won the Wall Street Journal’s award for Most Innovative Internet Technology Company in 2011 and 2012.

In 2012, Cloudflare Inc collaborated with HostPapa, to bring into effect Railgun technology which boosts performance. Then, in 2012, the company raised $50 million via a Series C round adding Union Square Ventures and Greenspring as investors. Two years later, the company won laurels for mitigating the largest DDoS attack of the time. The attack peaked at 400 Gigabits/sec and targeted an undisclosed customer.

The same year, the company reported and mitigated another huge DDoS attack against independent media sites. The same year Cloudflare raised $110 million through Series D which saw them attract investors like Fidelity Investments, Microsoft and Qualcomm. Cloudflare acquired malware detection and removal software StopTheHacker in 2014. In 2015, Lee stepped down from the company due to Frontotemporal Dementia, which is a rare neurological disease.

Acquisitions and IPO

In December 2016, they acquired Eager to evolve their application platform. A year later, they acquired VPN startup Neumob. The company grew exponentially between 2015 and 2017 and provides services to over 12 million websites now. This year, Cloudflare raised $150 million via a Series E round, led by Franklin Templeton Investments. Their growth has been phenomenal as they add almost 10,000 new customers every day. The company went public in August this year on the New York Stock Exchange. They go by the ticker name NET and opened at $15 per share.

Controversies and Expansion

Cloudflare Inc provides DDoS mitigation, security, and domain server services throughout the world. Though headquartered in San Francisco, the company has offices around the world, including in Lisbon, London, Singapore, San Jose, New York City and Washington, D.C. Though they have faced their fair share of controversies, they have stood by the company and as a result, have been extremely successful. They did run into trouble in the late 2010s over supporting The Daily Stormer and 8chan. In 2017, the company severed all ties with The Daily Stormer. Two years later, Cloudflare stopped providing services for 8chan, helping to clear up their tarnished name.

In 2014, Cloudflare launched Project Galileo to prevent cyber-attacks against activists and human rights groups. The project allows such groups access to free services that help them protect their websites. Five years later, in 2019, they announced that the project now included over 600 users and organizations.

Since starting out as a prototype at a college fest, Cloudflare has gone on to launch several products and open offices in various countries. These efforts have helped Cloudflare improve its performance and reliability. The billion-dollar company now has over 250 employs and helps around 4 million websites. It will be interesting to see how this company grows further, pushing the boundaries of internet security.

LOGO

St Microelectronics – A European Semiconductor Conglomerate

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The usage and importance of semiconductors have increased in the modern era. To suffice the need for efficient telecommunication, semiconductors are of utmost importance. From making an integrated circuit to transistors and microcontrollers, everything falls under the domain of electronics. The demand for electronics engineers and semiconductor companies is rising exponentially with every passing day.

Major semiconductor companies around the world have either emerged from the US (Broadcom) or Asia (Samsung). Japan and China have also proved their excellence in this part. Seeing this Europe finally stepped out and harnessed its potential.

In 1987, STMicroelectronics was established and in 1957 the parent companies of ST were established. The parent companies of ST are SGS Microelettronica and Thomson-CSF Semiconductor. The company is currently based in Geneva, Switzerland.

The parent companies

With America, Korea, and Japan making a significant presence in the global marketplace, Europe was lagging a bit in this field. The Italian and the French government ran SGS Microelettronica and Thomson-CSF Semiconductor respectively before merging. And, they decided to merge the two companies to create something huge and worthy that can compete in the current industrial competition.

SGS was established in 1957 in Olivetti for producing semiconductors and related products. The company didn’t expand because the manufacturing unit was developed only for the local area. In the 1960s it made an agreement with Fairchild Semiconductors and the company started growing. But, very soon it reached saturation and was still insignificant compared to the other companies in the market.

Thomson-CSF was born back in 1879 by Elihu Thomson and Edwin Houston. It was known as a major electronics and defense contractor in France. The company merged with General Electric in 1892 and since then multiple companies merged with it. In the next century, few divisions of this company were sold and the existing parts were divided before privatization.

Formation of STMicroelectronics

The merging took place in 1987. Previously, the name of the new Italian-French conglomerate was SGS-THOMSON which was changed to ST in May 1998. The company changed its fate once the production started. By 2014, the company was ranked 14th on the top semiconductor’s company list.

By the end of 2013, the company made a sale worth $850 million and the annual revenue summed up to $8 billion. In 2014, the company became the 9th largest semiconductor company worldwide in terms of revenue. By this time, ST not only went international but established a market in ten different countries including manufacturing units and research centers. Around 45,000 employees were hired and were in full shape to beat the competitors.

The Success

The company soon filed for an IPO and the first one was completed on 4th December 1994. In 2002, the company started a partnership with Motorola and TSMC. By 2005, ST’s only competitors were Toshiba, Intel, Samsung, and Texas Instruments. It became the largest semiconductor company in Europe famous for making semiconductor chips.

In 2007, ST and Intel started a joint venture and merged Intel Flash Memory activities. In April 2008, ST and NXP started a new partnership concerning mobile activities. The major shareholder was ST owning 80% of the company. Next year welcomed another joint venture of ST-NXP Wireless with Ericsson Mobile Platforms.

ST contributes a very considerable amount in R&D. The main R&D centers of ST are in Geneva, Tours, Milan, and Catania.

Current Status of STMicroelectronics

By 2018, ST hired 46,000 employees among which more than 7,000 worked in the R&D centers. The annual revenue has summed up to $9.66 billion. ST has expanded to thirty-five different countries with 80 marketing offices.

Apart from the main headquarters in Geneva, ST has other headquarters too. The company has established its US headquarters in Texas followed by other branches in Amsterdam, Tokyo, Singapore, and Shanghai. Three headquarters in Asia concludes a rich business in this region.

Towards a better world

With the increasing crisis in our planet for every existing non-renewable resource, ST is more inclined towards producing smart solutions. Sustainability is a key feature of ST and throughout this journey, ST has maintained strict sustainability strategies. ST is a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact for the last nineteen years. The company actively participates in any kind of challenge concerning environmental protection and finds a solution to it.