With much more of business being conducted online, companies are having to become smarter when it comes to what is presented on the internet – enter DevOpsGuys.
As one of the GrowthBusiness 2014 Tech Innovators, DevOpsGuys take away the hassle of running online applications allowing companies to focus on consumer needs and market demands.
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Based in: Surrey Founded in: 2013 No. of employees: 2 full time and 2 contractors Company co-founder: Stephen Thair |
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Founder profile:
With nearly 25 years of IT experience, Steve Thair claims to have done pretty much done every web operations job from pulling thin-ethernet cabling through floor spaces, racking servers, deploying websites, load testing through to managing high-performing web operations teams. He’s a regular speaker on web performance and dev ops at conferences like O’Reilly Velocity.
Background business profile:
DevOpsGuys offer ‘web application management without the worry’. It is pioneering a new market segment of application management providers, which complement cloud hosting services by providing web application management for e-businesses. The company helps its customers launch, maintain and optimise online applications, allowing each to accelerate time-to-market and to focus on adding value to the business instead of worrying about day-to-day website operations.
Inside track:
A gap between a development team and hosting providers is being exploited by tech start-up DevOpsGuys. It was while Stephen Thair’s business partner and co-founder James Smith was working in a development capacity for clients such as Pizza Hut and KFC that he noticed a demand for the management of an application to be dealt with by the original developers.
With these kind of teams not geared up for this work, businesses were bringing in a selection of web operations individuals – people who were in way core to the business.
At the inception of DevOpsGuys the company joined the Rackspace Startup Programme, giving it access to free hosting and tech advice. It was then bootstrapped through consultancy and contract work, with the founding team identifying a number of specific areas around web performance to target.
Now a year old, the next significant benchmark for DevOpsGuys will be to secure an enterprise customer, one of which the business is in discussions with now.
‘We’re also in discussion with the Welsh government about relocating to Wales, and looking at getting some grant funding,’ Thair explains.
‘There is a real opportunity to build a real tech community there, to counterbalance what is going on with Silicon Roundabout in London.’
Despite some 12,000 ICT graduates coming out of Wales each year, Thair says that most leave and move to cities such as Bristol and London. The university set up in Wales is one that the entrepreneur believes would be well set to provide the kind of skilled workforce his business will require.
Recent milestones:
- Rackspace EMEA first ever Professional Services partner helping Rackspace deliver DevOps to customers
- Accredited on G-Cloud 5 Framework for Managed DevOps & DevOps consulting
- Strong delivery pipeline with continuous delivery and managed operations customers in UK and US.
Upcoming milestones:
- On target to turnover £250,000 in first full year of operation
- In discussion with Welsh government regading grant funding for relocation to Wales
- Starting proof-of-concept projects with two major UK financial services brands
Recent technology:
DevOpsGuys are leaders in the DevOps movement and in implementing DevOps in the Windows environment. It has extensive experience in implementing continuous delivery pipelines using TeamCity and Octopus Deploy, as well as application performance management using AppDynamics APM.
Products:
The business is building its own management layer on top of industry leading continuous delivery tools to enable it to better visualise application delivery for customers.
Alliances:
- Hosting partners with Rackspace, Peer1 and SkyScape Cloud
- AppDynamics Managed Services Partner
- TeamCity Consulting partner
- Octopus Deploy UK Consulting partner
Investors:
- Currently self-funded
Contact details:
Amelia House, Crescent Road,
Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 1QR
Tel: 0800 368 7378
Email: team@devopsguys.com
Website: www.devopsguys.com
