ServiceNow Strikes Deal To Buy Observability Tech Developer Lightstep

Lightstep’s software is used by DevOps teams to analyze system-wide metrics, tracing data and logs in real time to understand the cause and effects of changes to application performance and reliability, accelerating cloud application development.

Digital workflow software vendor ServiceNow is acquiring Lightstep, a developer of system observability technology, in what ServiceNow says is one of its biggest acquisitions.

Monday ServiceNow announced an agreement to buy Lightstep but did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. ServiceNow expects to complete the acquisition by the end of the current quarter.

Lightstep, based in San Francisco, develops next-generation application monitoring and observability tools used by DevOps engineers to build, deploy, run and monitor cloud-native applications. The company’s software is used by GitHub, Spotify and Twilio, according to ServiceNow

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Lightstep was founded in 2015 by CEO Ben Sigelman, Chief Operating Officer Ben Cronin and Chief Architect Daniel Spoonhower. Team members at the company advanced modern observability through work at Google on tracing and metrics monitoring and created both the OpenTracing and OpenTelemetry open-source projects.

The underlying technology of the Lightspeed software analyzes system-wide metrics, tracing data and logs in real time to understand the cause and effects of changes to application performance and reliability and accelerate “development velocity” without compromising quality, according to ServiceNow.

“Today, observability primarily benefits the DevOps teams that build and operate mission-critical apps,“ said Ben Sigelman, CEO and co-founder at Lightstep, in a statement. ”We‘ve always believed that the value of observability should extend across the entire enterprise, providing greater clarity and confidence to every team involved in these modern, digital businesses.”

“By joining ServiceNow, together we will realize that vision for our customers and help transform the world of work in the process – and we couldn‘t be more excited about it,” Sigelman said.

By adding Lightstep’s capabilities to its technology portfolio, ServiceNow can extend its reach beyond IT service management and IT operations management to a customer’s DevOps teams.

ServiceNow also will apply Lightstep’s observability capabilities “across the enterprise through digital workflows that convert real-time insights into action across all the technologies, people and processes that enable digital businesses,” the company said in a statement.

ServiceNow’s Now Platform coordinates technical and team responses and actions around workflow changes that drive digital transformation.

“Customers will be able to more easily monitor and respond to critical signals and indicators of software health using Lightstep’s capabilities with ServiceNow’s IT workflows solutions’ ability to weave disparate elements into a seamless digital fabric,” ServiceNow said in a statement. “This gives business the confidence and clarity to drive faster innovation and better outcomes across the entire digital experience.”

“Companies are betting on going digital in order to thrive in the 21st century, but the transition is often challenging to navigate,“ said Pablo Stern, senior vice president, IT workflow products at ServiceNow, in a statement. ”With Lightstep, ServiceNow will transform how software solutions are delivered to customers. This will ultimately make it easier for customers to innovate quickly. Now they‘ll be able to build and operate their software faster than ever before and take the new era of work head on with confidence.”

Altogether ServiceNow has made nearly 20 acquisitions going back to 2013, including four AI technology-related acquisition is 2020. In March ServiceNow struck a deal to buy Intellibot, an India-based developer of robotic process automation technology.