Nov 3, 2011 The Enterprise Relies on Atlassian and Appfire
We were recently in New York City visiting with one of our customers and I couldn't help but reflect on how far both Atlassian and Appfire have come with the delivery of Atlassian-based solutions within the Enterprise. Hard to believe, but it's been over 5 years since our first enterprise deployment of Atlassian tools. I'll be the first to admit that in looking back, it was a gamble.
In a recent conversation with Alex Estevez (Atlassian's newly appointed CFO), I explained how over the years Appfire has helped drive Atlassian into the Enterprise. During our conversation, I used the phrase: "our leap of faith".
So, why did we do it? What motivated us to take on the Enterprise in Atlassian's largest market segment (North America)?
Experience - There Simply is no Substitution
We are fortunate to have assembled an amazing team here at Appfire - comprised of engineers and advisers who come from some of the world's largest enterprise organizations. It's that experience, which allows us to fully appreciate the challenges and complexities associated with building product within global, desperate organizations - who struggle to balance the sea of changing priorities, resource restrictions, communication breakdowns and re-orgs. We were there not too long ago.
As I mentioned to Alex... "we came from the Enterprise". Our team was there when all the rules changed and we realized something very real, and very special. We learned that collaboration tools, combined with the adoption of new methodologies would be required in order for the Enterprise to remain competitive, ... or as I like to say "sit above the fold".
To maintain a strong global position, shrinking enterprise organizations were required to:
- Make immediate adjustments in the way they operate day-to-day
- Learn how to work transparently
- Set proper expectations within their organization and make schedules more predictable
- Hold themselves and their teams accountable for the commitments they made
- Introduce a level of traceability throughout their process
There was little doubt in anyone's mind at the time that the rules had indeed changed. The only doubt was whether these organizations could adjust and rely on new tooling and new methodologies to support the required acceleration in product development.
Perspective - It Makes Tough Questions Really Simple to Answer
I'm frequently asked whether or not "Atlassian tools belong in the Enterprise", or "if they're ready"?
When I'm asked this, I like to refer back to a conversation I had with an architect at a large financial institution. At the time, we were working with them on a wide-scale deployment of Confluence. I was sitting in our customer's conference room, filled with project stakeholders, and the architect looked across at me and said:
"... Randall, can you please explain why we're having performance problems with Confluence. I would expect a product, especially an enterprise product to scale out of the box!"
He went on to say:
"... I don't know of a single enterprise product that doesn't scale once installed!".
This is where perspective comes in handy.
My response was this:
"... Really? I know of plenty. Take Oracle for instance. Oracle, (in their own words) make the world's most scalable, dependable, unbreakable database on the planet. Their products have been around for three decades. I personally don't know of a single global fortune company that doesn't rely on one or more Oracle products? I've also worked with several of these fortune organizations and they were just as surprised to find that their out-of-the-box Oracle product wouldn't scale without some sort of intervention."
In fact in a past life, I made a healthy living traveling the US, parachuting into some of Oracle's largest accounts to help with scalability concerns. Did this mean that Oracle at the time didn't belong, or wasn't ready for the Enterprise? Of course not!
Fast forward to today and I see similar things with respect to performance and scalability with Atlassian, as I did while working with Oracle. Customers who have incorrect expectations about Atlassian's products. Missing or missed configuration settings. Untrained users. Customers trying to use the products improperly, falling victim to one or more anti-patterns.
Perspective has taught me to understand that the answer to the question of whether or not a product "belongs" or is "ready" for the Enterprise depends on both the direct and indirect value it provides to the organization.
Atlassian's products help accelerate product development within any sized organization, and because of this, our enterprise customers have found a great deal of value their use. The fact is, each day, Atlassian and Appfire see more and more large organizations adopting Atlassian's tools.
Here are two awesome examples of Atlassian being used within the Enterprise.
Partnership - It's More Than a Word
Appfire wouldn't be Atlassian's largest and leading provider of enterprise solutions in North America if it wasn't for the 400+ amazing Atlassian's who support us each day! Their commitment to their products, their partners, their customers (and ours) - is what gives us the confidence to deliver awesome solutions to the Enterprise day in and day out.
Read more or contact Appfire to learn about how the Enterprise relies on Atlassian and Appfire!









