Forrester

After over 12 years of leading Forrester’s research on agile and, from 2011, publishing a biennial Forrester report on the global state of agile adoption, we have just published The State Of Agile Development, 2025: It’s Still Relevant, With Benefits And Challenges. In this blog, I am just quickly highlighting some of the key takeaways to hopefully motivate you to go and read the full report if you are a Forrester client. So let’s go … Agile — The Disputed Champion Of Modern Business, Still Going Strong In times when everything changes so quickly and artificial intelligence, especially generative AI (genAI), captures the imagination of tech enthusiasts and professionals alike, one technology that remains a foundational pillar of the tech industry is agile. Consider the narrative of a tech startup navigating the tumultuous waters of market demands and rapid innovation. At their core, agile methodologies enable this team to remain adaptable, collaborative, and efficient. Drop that team in an enterprise and multiply the team by 10, and what happens? Can those 10 teams still strive together in the same way as the tech startup team? Well, yes and no. But the new report reveals a striking insight: Despite the buzz around agile’s supposed decline, a commanding 95% of professionals affirm its critical relevance to their operations. This statistic, coupled with the 58% of business and technology professionals prioritizing agile adoption, paints a clear picture: Agile is not just surviving; it’s still thriving and not going away, yet it does need improvement. Agile’s Journey And Collaboration Is A Testament To Resilience Agile’s resilience is underscored by its widespread and enduring adoption across many organizations. In fact, a significant majority, 61%, report deploying agile practices for over five years, demonstrating a strong enduring commitment to its principles over older methodologies such as waterfall, which continues to see a decline. This dedication to agile reflects a broader industry trend toward valuing collaboration and flexibility over rigid hierarchies and siloed organizations. Agile teams, characterized by diverse roles including developers, testers, and scrum masters, embody this shift toward a more inclusive and dynamic approach to product development. Our survey data also proves that organizations could achieve even greater success by fully embracing agile’s collaborative ethos, values, and principles and investing in the leadership necessary to guide this cultural shift. Leaders have to do more than just commit to agile; they must lead the change! Agile Leadership Requires Foresight And Emerging Tech Adoption Despite agile’s proven benefits, the data shows that organizations face challenges in scaling agile practices and fostering a culture conducive to its adoption. Proficiency levels among teams vary, with only 7% achieving full proficiency for great agile practices but quite a higher number just being average or good, indicating room for more improvement. Overcoming these hurdles requires a strategic blend of agile frameworks tailored to each organization’s unique needs, coupled also with a commitment to modernizing all angles of the organization with continuous learning and adaptation. Businesses are not immune to that change, and there is quite more to do there. Moreover, the integration of agile with emerging technologies like generative AI and TuringBots offers a promising avenue for enhancing agile’s impact even further. TuringBots, AI, and genAI-infused tools not only streamline routine tasks but also provide valuable insights that can refine sprint planning and project prioritization. With nearly half of the respondents already leveraging genAI in their agile practices, the future of agile seems destined to be intertwined with technological advancements, driving innovation and efficiency in software development. Agile Remains An Unshakable Foundation As the tech world continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, agile values, principles, and practices stand as testament to the enduring need for adaptability, collaboration, transparency, and speed. Agile’s widespread adoption and the challenges it faces reflect an approach that is not static but dynamic, one that clients need to continuously evolve and adapt to meet the demands of an ever-changing industry landscape. Will the integration of agile and AI technologies herald a new era of software development, one where efficiency, innovation, and quality are paramount? I hope it will. As organizations navigate the complexities of digital transformation, agile remains an unshakable foundation, guiding teams toward success in the age of AI and beyond. Over the years, our research has also shown that client organizations cannot make this transition alone — you need valuable partners to work with you. This is why I see the strong connection of this research with my recently published Forrester Wave™ evaluation of modern application development services, of which agile services are mandatory table stakes. Read the full report to access more data and understand our thinking behind it. Also, reach out to me ([email protected]) or schedule an inquiry or a guidance session to get help — I’m here to assist you. I also want to thank my great senior research associate, Merve Kandemir, for her dedication to this research and amazing work to get it published. source

WHSmith just launched a retail media network (RMN) to bring retail media to its airport stores. Like every other RMN launched since Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy pioneered retail media over a decade ago, WHSmith promises “more exciting and engaging retail experiences for consumers” and is “tailored to the needs of … supplier brands.” Our take: WHSmith’s network is yet another addition to the long tail of Amazon Ads copycats — and Amazon Ads’ scale leads other RMNs to project unrealistic growth. In the US, Amazon Ads is larger than all other RMNs combined. It’s growing faster than others and now selling advertising technology as a service, signaling sustained dominance. For smaller RMNs, operational realities interfere with execution. Advertisers tell us that they lack media know-how, mask trade promotion as media spend, and struggle to prove performance. Here are the facts: When retail media grows, trade funding declines. More than half of retail media ad spend comes from existing trade and shopper marketing budgets. Rather than earning incremental revenue, RMNs divert dollars that would have funded temporary price reductions, featured endcaps, and in-store demos into advertising. Retailers obscure RMNs’ inability to tap into digital and national media budgets by consolidating trade and retail media when reporting revenue publicly. Cannibalizing co-op funds remains a chief concern of executives at large RMNs, especially for multicategory, multibrand retailers. RMN execution is weaker than it should be. RMNs struggle to demonstrate incrementality, power real-time results, and offer self-service platforms, making it difficult for brands and agencies to plan, buy, and optimize ads. In fact, most RMNs remain mostly manual. Furthermore, despite in-store ads earning more attention than any other format, according to Forrester’s Consumer Benchmark Survey, 2024, in-store ads remain constrained by their difficulty to buy and measure. The few retailers that have invested in smart carts and digital displays have yet to roll them out nationally due to the capital expenditure that they require and their uncertain return on ad spend. Going forward, RMNs should prioritize self-service. Retail media is run by several ex-agency staff hired by RMNs to manage campaigns. Each RMN has tons of advertisers, so when media management is manual, it creates a lot of low-level labor that could be better spent on capabilities such as analytics. Resource-intensive, white-glove service may satisfy retailers’ largest first-party sellers, but there’s a long tail of first- and third-party sellers interested in allocating performance media budgets to self-serve highly relevant, revenue-generating ads. When they’re more self-service, RMNs have bigger budgets for sales, marketing, product, and engineering to focus on maximizing onsite profitability, full-funnel measurement, and making retail media programmatic. To learn what else RMNs should prioritize, check out The State Of Retail Media, 2025, by Sucharita Kodali and myself. We clarify retail media’s potential and challenges and advise how retailers can sell more ads. As always, feel free to schedule time to discuss. source

Buying dynamics are more complex than ever. Buying groups are getting larger, sales cycles are growing longer, and expectations for personalization have increased — all transforming how businesses purchase solutions. To succeed, B2B marketers must adopt strategies that are as dynamic and adaptable as their target audiences. Enter adaptive programs — a cutting-edge approach that equips marketers to utilize real-time data, engage stakeholders effectively, and optimize the entire customer lifecycle. Why Adaptive Programs Are Critical For B2B Success Traditional demand generation strategies often fall short in B2B, where lengthy purchase processes and group decision-making dominate. Adaptive programs address these challenges by allowing B2B frontline marketers to respond to real-time buyer signals, tailor their outreach, and align their efforts across multiple channels and touchpoints. Thes B2B marketers are then empowered to go beyond lead generation and focus on creating long-term value through meaningful engagement with all buying group members. At their core, adaptive programs revolve around five critical pillars: technology, actionable insights, buying group engagement, channel orchestration, and lifecycle support. These elements form a framework for data-driven, scalable, and highly effective B2B marketing programs. The Three Stages Of Transitioning To Adaptive Programs The path to adopting adaptive programs unfolds in three strategic stages: Optimize traditional methods. Refine existing practices to lay the groundwork for more advanced adaptive strategies. This includes integrating your CRM with marketing automation tools, improving data quality, and establishing foundational lead-scoring models. These steps enable B2B marketers to streamline processes and identify high-value accounts. Implement a hybrid approach. Gradually incorporate adaptive components, such as AI-driven tools for predictive analytics and real-time data processing. These technologies help marketers identify intent signals, prioritize accounts, and engage decision-makers with relevant content at the right time. Centralizing data through customer data platforms ensures better targeting and a unified view of buying group behaviors. Commit to full adaptivity. The final stage involves fully automating decision-making processes and leveraging advanced analytics to predict future customer needs. With adaptive programs, B2B marketers can orchestrate personalized interactions across multiple channels, aligning every touchpoint with the buyer’s journey. This complete integration drives efficiency and enables marketers to deliver tailored messaging that resonates with each stakeholder in the buying group. Benefits Beyond Demand Generation The benefits of adaptive programs extend beyond improving demand generation. By focusing on the entire customer lifecycle, B2B marketers can unlock upselling, cross-selling, and retention opportunities. For example, AI-powered insights can identify when an account is ready for expansion, enabling sales teams to act at the right time with the right offer. Additionally, adaptive programs foster better collaboration between marketing and sales teams. By sharing real-time insights and coordinated strategies, both functions can work harmoniously to deliver seamless buyer experiences and close deals faster and more effectively. Move Forward With Confidence Adopting adaptive programs is no longer an option for B2B marketers — it’s essential. The ability to pivot based on real-time insights and deliver highly personalized experiences is crucial. By investing in the right technology, training, and organizational alignment, businesses can stay ahead of the curve and meet the evolving expectations of B2B buyers. Success begins with small, strategic changes. Start by refining your existing programs, gradually incorporating adaptive elements, and scaling your efforts as you gain confidence in your approach. With adaptive programs, B2B marketers can unlock unprecedented opportunities for growth, strengthen relationships with buying groups, and position their businesses for long-term success. Want more detailed advice on how to make the shift? Join me and my colleague Barbara Winters on Wednesday, February 12, for a live webinar, Revolutionizing B2B Marketing With Adaptive Programs For Buying Groups. we’ll walk you through a simple, step-by-step framework for launching adaptive programs, whether you’re starting small or going all in. source

In 1996, four men made Canadian history when they won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s 4×100-meter relay in a time of 37.69 seconds. This historic win was especially surprising, considering the team had struggled in the events leading up to it. They had the quickness but needed to work through the mechanics of the race and interpersonal issues before finding success. Why? Because a relay race isn’t simply about speed, — it is also about chemistry. And when you’re competing at the highest levels, the difference between winning and losing the race comes down to the team’s performance in the handoff and transition zones. It isn’t much different for B2B organizations. You can have great sales and customer success (CS) teams, but if you don’t have smooth account handoffs and transitions from one team to the next, you will be failing your customers and lose speed in the race to retention and growth. A successful transition supports delivery of a customer experience that feels like a single, seamless interaction — or a baton pass made without losing stride — from first contact to onboarding and beyond. In aligning sales and CS teams to provide a seamless transition, there are some best practices to consider that are integral to passing the baton in a way that sets up the next team, and the customer, to succeed. So where to start? Two tactics to consider: Create a transition checklist. CS teams need specific information from sales, and creating a checklist provides clarity and supports consistency. It should include information that can only come from sellers, such as the customer’s key stakeholders, org chart, promises made during the purchase, specific use cases, goals, and pain points. Ensure that the checklist lives in a shared tool such as a CRM or customer success platform, making it easily accessible to both teams. Establish a knowledge transfer process. To make sure that customers realize the value promised, sellers should share the information gathered during the buying process, breathing life into the transition checklist. This allows the customer success manager (CSM) to gain more context, especially around goals and outcomes. These insights provide CSMs with the knowledge and information needed to start building a joint customer success plan prior to the partnership kickoff call, complete with measurable, identifiable milestones. To successfully progress customers around the proverbial track toward the finish line, a robust process that prioritizes the partnership aspect and includes the insights that matter helps to make it more than a “check the box” task. Clear track lanes also provide ownership clarity for each team, optimizing their performance in the transition zones and alleviating the need for strenuous training. To learn more about successful account transitions, read Drive Retention Through Effective Sales-To-Customer Success Account Transitions, and if you’re a Forrester client looking to improve this process, reach out to your account team to book a guidance session with me today. source

It’s been some time since Forrester has written about this market, and a lot has changed. Automation is the cornerstone of speed and operational efficiency. With the increasing complexity in IT ecosystems, business applications, and data, the demand for smarter automation is greater than ever. Batch automation and workload automation are certainly not new concepts (they date back to the early days of the mainframe), but they are undergoing a renaissance as organizations optimize their processes. In our upcoming research, we will delve into why it’s time to revisit these technologies, explore the macro trends that impact this market, and how they have the potential to reshape organizations’ automation plans. We’ll help our clients understand the current state of the market, the impact of the latest technological advancements, and new emerging use cases. Why Are We Revisiting This Research? Increased client demand. Enterprises are increasingly demanding insights into the direction of this market and vendors’ ability to solve their operational and organizational requirements. Hybrid and multicloud environments. Firms today live and operate in a hybrid setup — a mix of on-premises and public cloud services. Applications, infrastructure, and data are spread across this setup, and workload/batch automation must likewise seamlessly integrate across it. Native capabilities in business applications. Some business applications have native capabilities to perform workload automation. We will explore how these impact standalone tools in the market. AI and AI agent enhancements. While AI is no secret in automation, we want to make clear how AI will help advance solutions. When should agents take over (if at all)? Demand for operational and cyber resiliency. With the growing threat of system failures and cybersecurity issues, all automation solutions must be designed with capabilities to address these challenges. Workload/batch automation can no longer be just a tool for the IT organization: Like all other types of automation, it must be a strategic enabler for modern businesses. By revisiting research in this space, we will explore new possibilities for scalability, efficiency, and resilience. Get Involved Over the next two months, we will be conducting interviews and taking briefings with vendors. If you would like to participate in our research, please contact Meg Bellavance ([email protected]). source

WHSmith just launched a retail media network (RMN) to bring retail media to its airport stores. Like every other RMN launched since Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy pioneered retail media over a decade ago, WHSmith promises “more exciting and engaging retail experiences for consumers” and is “tailored to the needs of … supplier brands.” Our take: WHSmith’s network is yet another addition to the long tail of Amazon Ads copycats — and Amazon Ads’ scale leads other RMNs to project unrealistic growth. In the US, Amazon Ads is larger than all other RMNs combined. It’s growing faster than others and now selling advertising technology as a service, signaling sustained dominance. For smaller RMNs, operational realities interfere with execution. Advertisers tell us that they lack media know-how, mask trade promotion as media spend, and struggle to prove performance. Here are the facts: When retail media grows, trade funding declines. More than half of retail media ad spend comes from existing trade and shopper marketing budgets. Rather than earning incremental revenue, RMNs divert dollars that would have funded temporary price reductions, featured endcaps, and in-store demos into advertising. Retailers obscure RMNs’ inability to tap into digital and national media budgets by consolidating trade and retail media when reporting revenue publicly. Cannibalizing co-op funds remains a chief concern of executives at large RMNs, especially for multicategory, multibrand retailers. RMN execution is weaker than it should be. RMNs struggle to demonstrate incrementality, power real-time results, and offer self-service platforms, making it difficult for brands and agencies to plan, buy, and optimize ads. In fact, most RMNs remain mostly manual. Furthermore, despite in-store ads earning more attention than any other format, according to Forrester’s Consumer Benchmark Survey, 2024, in-store ads remain constrained by their difficulty to buy and measure. The few retailers that have invested in smart carts and digital displays have yet to roll them out nationally due to the capital expenditure that they require and their uncertain return on ad spend. Going forward, RMNs should prioritize self-service. Retail media is run by several ex-agency staff hired by RMNs to manage campaigns. Each RMN has tons of advertisers, so when media management is manual, it creates a lot of low-level labor that could be better spent on capabilities such as analytics. Resource-intensive, white-glove service may satisfy retailers’ largest first-party sellers, but there’s a long tail of first- and third-party sellers interested in allocating performance media budgets to self-serve highly relevant, revenue-generating ads. When they’re more self-service, RMNs have bigger budgets for sales, marketing, product, and engineering to focus on maximizing onsite profitability, full-funnel measurement, and making retail media programmatic. To learn what else RMNs should prioritize, check out The State Of Retail Media, 2025, by Sucharita Kodali and myself. We clarify retail media’s potential and challenges and advise how retailers can sell more ads. As always, feel free to schedule time to discuss. source

In 2025, the United States holds a pivotal role in the global economy, commanding 40% of tech spend, 37% of the digital economy, and 26% of global GDP. Despite the economic policy uncertainty of the new administration, several factors stand out as likely influencers of future US economic growth: Increased spending through tariffs and tax cuts. If the new administration helps to increase consumer spending through tax cuts and the imposition of tariffs on imported goods, the Federal Reserve will need to increase interest rates to manage inflation. Higher interest rates lower inflation, strengthen the US dollar, and attract foreign capital. In this scenario, countries with more US dollar debt such as Egypt, Turkey, and Argentina would suffer. A leaner government. Plans to cut jobs to streamline government operations could slow economic growth and reduce spending on imports, which would impact the economic growth of net exporter countries to the US such as China, Mexico, Vietnam, and Germany. The importance of consumer resilience. The new administration will place a high priority on protecting incomes. In the last three years, inflation cannibalized income growth gains. Large variations of per capita personal consumption expenditure growth across states over the last three years highlight state inequality and an uneven post-pandemic economic recovery. Sector-specific changes. The new administration will likely decrease spending on the green economy, reduce the reliance on chip imports, and increase defense spending. European industries, particularly life sciences, automotive, and chemicals, should brace for the impact of the new US administration’s policies. Eleven percent of EU exports to the US is from road vehicles, and 18% is from medicinal and pharmaceutical products. Protectionist measures from higher import tariffs could compel European car manufacturers to augment their production within the US. Additionally, the pharmaceutical sector might face pressures to lower prices, and the banking sector could see increased competition amidst deregulatory measures in the US. Businesses and countries will need to prepare for these various scenarios, and resilience and adaptability will be critical factors to success. European sectors must prepare for a protectionist US car industry, more pressure to lower pharmaceutical prices, and, as the US is a net exporter of financial services, more banking competition. Driven by the US, Forrester forecasts that North America will see the highest regional tech spend growth in 2025. We just published a report on the potential impact of a new US administration and policy on tech spend. Keep an eye out for Forrester’s upcoming global, US, and European tech forecasts, 2024 to 2029, that are soon to be published. Please contact your Forrester account manager or client success manager to set up a guidance session with me to learn more. source

Creator marketing programs have become a cornerstone of the social media marketing strategy across industries. As such, Forrester recommends an evolved set of metrics for measurement to optimize and show overall impact on the organization. Considering that two-thirds of B2C marketing decision-makers planned to increase investment in creator/influencer programs in 2024, teams from experimental to expert status must ensure that they are activating the right levers to maximize these partnerships. Add New Layers As The Investment Grows In our recent report, Forrester introduces frameworks for marketers to assess their progress in the journey toward running an effective multidimensional program, guiding them through the building blocks necessary at each investment level to achieve it. To effectively scale your creator marketing program, we recommend that you: Increase the number and types of creators. A wide array of creators with varying areas of specialty increases reach, shows different facets of the brand, and fosters connection with many communities. Add new business objectives. More substantial creator partnership investments allow marketers to widen the breadth of their creator activations and deliver on more business objectives. Diversify content types and delivery. Creator content is no longer limited to the confines of a consumer’s feed or “for you” page. Content repurposed for new channels such as out-of-home and CTV maximizes reach beyond the organic post. Invest in the right tech, services, and headcount. To run a full-scale creator program, adopt an influencer marketing platform and expand team support, insourced and/or outsourced. Prioritize mature measurement practices. Forrester’s Creator Composite Measurement Model aids in establishing a well-rounded measurement strategy to optimize creator marketing efforts and assess impact. This will ensure vested buy-in from leaders, unlocking greater opportunity for growth and exploration. Read the full report to leverage Forrester’s frameworks and strategically grow and scale creator marketing programs at any phase of commitment, from nascence to multimillion-dollar investment. Forrester clients, schedule a guidance session with me to discuss your creator marketing strategy. source

Building on the 2021 Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, former US President Joe Biden’s 2025 Executive Order (EO) 14144 puts forth additional actions for strengthening security, improving accountability for software and cloud service providers, and promoting innovation, including use of emerging technologies. In this blog, we’ll break down the key topics and technology areas of this latest cybersecurity executive order, highlighting the good that will come from it as well as other implications. Raising The Bar Once More For Third-Party Software Supply Chains What’s good: This EO pushes for the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to update contract language as a risk management tool. It requires software providers to provide machine-readable secure software development attestations, high-level artifacts to validate those attestations, and a list of the providers’ Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agency software customers. It sets a higher bar, with updating of attestations to address both the delivery and the security of software and make them machine-readable, along with the removal of agency discretion to collect evidence and the centralization of attestation verification and artifact validation by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Notably, it recommends “[referring] attestations that fail validation to the Attorney General for action as appropriate,” which aligns with the National Cybersecurity Strategy to hold providers accountable that fail to adhere to secure development practices. This will help federal agencies with processes, tools, and resources necessary to ensure supplier submission and conformity. For suppliers, the establishment of common procurement standards reduces the ambiguity of expectations, minimizes the duplication of efforts to attest, and provides a more efficient process. Forrester’s take: Federal agencies should assess their progress in adopting cybersecurity risk management practices in compliance with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) SP 800-161 Revision 1 before the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) begins requesting progress reports. Agencies should watch for updates to NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-161 on how to securely and reliably deploy patches and updates as well as guidance on management of open-source software usage. Software providers should look out for updates to the NIST Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF), modifications to the attestation form, and methods to automate the attestation. Providers should also keep an eye out for the enumeration of “high-level artifacts to validate those attestations,” with a software bill of materials (SBOM) being the most likely evidence to be required. A Focus On EDR And Enabling Threat Hunting And Response Capabilities What’s good: The EO prioritizes use of endpoint detection and response (EDR) controls to enable CISA’s hunting and response capabilities in FCEB agencies. It also provides CISA wiggle room on specifying what qualifies as timely access and completeness of data for threat hunting and response and also requires CISA to provide advanced notice of if and when it accesses FCEB systems. The EO also emphasizes use of phishing-resistant authentication and standards like WebAuthn as well as requirements for baselines for configuration of cloud-based systems from cloud service providers in the FedRAMP Marketplace for improving cybersecurity of federal systems overall. Forrester’s take: FCEB participation in the working groups is fundamental to ensure that the EDR technologies that CISA supports include those implemented by each agency. This helps determine what “timely access to required data” and “completeness” of data when delivering data to CISA for hunting and response should be, as well as establishing use cases for administrative accommodation on restricted data access. FCEB agencies should now start preparing a comprehensive and continually updated list of systems, endpoints, and datasets that need more controls, have data access restrictions, or require periods of nondisruption. Cloud service providers can be proactive in recommending baselines, such as checking for insecure configurations and detecting and remediating configuration drifts. A First Acknowledgement Of Defending Against Threats To Space Systems What’s good: While the White House has not officially designated space systems as critical infrastructure, this EO is the first to acknowledge that space systems must be protected as if they were. Space systems’ roles in supporting critical infrastructure and services such as global commerce, health, communication, and national security make them key targets for attack. The EO sets requirements for FCEB agencies that deploy, operat,e and maintain space systems to enhance the security of communications between ground and in-orbit systems. It directs the FAR Council to develop new cybersecurity contract requirements for agency-procured civil space systems that follow NIST SSDF best practices and bring space systems into agencies’ existing continuous risk assessment requirements. The EO also requires the National Cyber Director to create the government’s first inventory of space ground systems to support a national study on recommendations to improve civil space cyber defenses. Forrester’s take: A governmentwide inventory will be difficult to achieve. While FCEB agencies are already required to report all federal information systems to CISA, the federal definition of an “information system” and the unique category of “space system” are not exactly the same, making it potentially difficult for agencies to meet the deadlines. Additionally, the government has historically left civil space system cybersecurity up to global standards bodies, with NIST only recently publishing space-related guidance for ground and satellite systems. This creates an opportunity for the private sector to influence best practices and standards going forward as threats and the technologies that comprise space systems evolve. FCEB agencies should not wait for FAR-mandated requirements and should begin evaluating their existing contracts to ensure that minimum SSDF best practices are already in place. The Prioritization Of Advancing Cryptographic Infrastructure: E2EE, PQC, And Key Protection What’s good: The EO takes a holistic view of securing communications from internet routing, DNS traffic, and email messages to end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for modern communications such as voice- and videoconferencing and instant messages. It stresses continued urgency and action for quantum security and the migration to usage of post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) algorithms and measures to protect cryptographic keys, in particular with a call to take advantage of commercial security technologies like hardware security modules (HSMs), trusted execution environments (TEEs), and other isolation technologies

Last week, Flexera announced intent to acquire Spot by NetApp to the tune of $100 million, a considerable drop from the $450 million that NetApp paid to acquire Spot (and that does not account for NetApp’s CloudCheckr acquisition that followed shortly). Both Spot and CloudCheckr are included in the Flexera deal, which is expected to close in March 2025. From a FinOps lens, news of the acquisition is surprising. As recently as mid-2024, NetApp had hinted at a forthcoming Spot/CloudCheckr offering, one that did not rely on weak integrations between the two portals. This was on the heels of a years-long effort for the data infrastructure company to insert itself into the public cloud narrative through a string of cloud operations-focused acquisitions: Spot.io (2020), CloudCheckr (2021), and Data Mechanics (2021). As organizations made the frenzied rush to public cloud during the pandemic, NetApp joined the long list of on-premises infrastructure providers that were attempting to insert themselves into the public cloud narrative. NetApp is heading back to its infrastructure roots. NetApp’s journey into cloud cost management never really fit with the storage and data infrastructure focus of the company, nor did it achieve the synergy needed to maintain its acquisitions. Though Spot has released some tantalizing capabilities with Ocean’s workload migration for Kubernetes or Elastigroup and Ocean’s automated reverting of reserved instances and savings plans to Spot instances. On the CloudCheckr front, the solution’s innovation stalled even before its NetApp acquisition. At the time of acquisition in 2021, it was missing key commoditized capabilities, such as Google Cloud optimization, that all leading cloud cost management and optimization (CCMO) solutions had developed. The promised convergence of CloudCheckr and Spot from 2021 never materialized, and the brief foray into cost management didn’t seem to pan out. While the company has reported on-target revenue growth, as a percentage of revenue, its free cash flows have been declining, which may be related to trimming underperforming assets in the portfolio. As NetApp refocuses on its core strengths, a quick divestment from Spot and CloudCheckr to a more aligned FinOps owner in Flexera makes a lot of sense. In recent years, NetApp has worked to bridge the gap between the intelligent services portfolio and its storage offerings through Instaclustr. These services more closely fit into NetApp’s original mission to simplify the deployment of infrastructure and make it easier for businesses to deliver value on top of deployed infrastructure. Through Instaclustr, NetApp is making a bet that the on-demand deployment of software services fits into a future of data-focused infrastructure enabled with AI. Flexera is doubling down on FinOps. Flexera has been a market leader in the CCMO space and has gained significant traction through the combined offering of its asset management capabilities with its CCMO solution. Still, the company has stayed steadily out of the number one spot, with a smaller market presence and less advanced capabilities than its competitors. The company did make inroads through partnerships with Kubecost as an add-on container cost management function and with IBM as a market reseller. But both access to the IBM audience and Kubecost’s capabilities were lost when IBM acquired Apptio, rendering Flexera’s partnership to an asset management play, and when IBM acquired Kubecost, thus nullifying most of Flexera’s container cost management capabilities. The Spot acquisition is a boon for Flexera both in market presence with CloudCheckr’s dominant channel presence and with the added capabilities of Spot’s Eco (purchase commitments), Elastigroup (spot automation), and Ocean (container management), which all fill major gaps. Plus, the price point is a nice bonus, having acquired the combined Spot and CloudCheckr solutions for less than a quarter of their NetApp purchase prices. What does this mean for Flexera and NetApp customers? Flexera customers can expect to gain in capabilities and a richer portfolio, such as a whole slew of advanced purchase commitment automation and container cost management and optimization capabilities. They should also expect price hikes and slowed innovation for at least a couple years as Flexera works to integrate Spot and its recent Snow acquisition into its Flexera One offering. On the plus side, customer support and implementation will increase by inheriting CloudCheckr’s channel presence, though much of that presence is due to the $0 CloudCheckr price tag. Questions remain whether Flexera will continue to support that price point. NetApp customers taking advantage of both its Data Infrastructure Insights (DII) and Spot solutions have a continued commitment from both companies to continue to support the joint solution. We expect that customer support will continue with little disruption, as both companies stand to gain from growing this customer base. Beyond support, NetApp customers should expect accelerated innovation as NetApp refocuses on its original offerings. What does the future hold? From NetApp, expect greater integration and cohesion between the various elements of the NetApp portfolio. Some examples might be direct integrations between Instaclustr and tools such as BlueXP; leveraging DII for specific on-demand services from Instaclustr and connecting those services to NetApp storage; or leveraging data classification services in ONTAP or the universal metadata layer. For Flexera, expect a more dominant position in the CCMO market. It may have lost a few steps with IBM acquisitions, but Spot seems to have put it in lockstep with its biggest competitors. source