This week it was announced publicly that RainStor has been acquired by Teradata. For anyone not familiar with the name, Teradata is a US based company and its one of the largest data warehouse companies in the world with over 10 thousand employees - a marked difference to the roughly 50 employees of RainStor.
Having worked for RainStor for 8 years (I celebrated my 8 year anniversary at the start of December) this is a change that will have a huge impact on me and my colleagues. At the same time I am confident that, for the most part, the changes will be positive.
8 Years a startup
RainStor has been a fantastic small company to be a part of. Through the whole time that I've been lucky enough to be on board we've managed to maintain the vibrant intensity of a startup company. During this sustained period of intense activity, the team ethic has been amazing. It almost became predictable that the 'teamwork' subject in retrospective meetings would be full of happy yellow post-it notes praising the great attitude shared amongst the team.
Being a perennial startup has its disadvantages though. A small company inevitably has to 'chase the ball' in terms of market, with the result that focus of testing can be distributed too thinly across the capabilities and topologies supported to meet each customer's need. I'm optimistic that a company with a wider portfolio of products will allow us to focus on fewer topologies and really target our core strengths.
There have been ups and downs in fortune over the years. The credit crunch was a troubled time for organisations relying on funding and the fact that we got through it was testament to the strong belief in the product and the team. It seemed scant consolation though for the colleagues who lost their jobs. Counter that with the jubilant times when we won our first deals with household name companies the likes of which we'd previously only dreamed of, and you are reminded that those working in a small software company can typically expect to face a turbulent spectrum of emotions (tweet this).
So what now?
I've every reason to be positive about the future of RainStor. From my conversations with the new owners they seem to have an excellent approach to the needs of research and development teams. The efforts that have been undertaken to provide an open and flexible development environment give a lot of confidence. Combine this with an ethic of trying to minimise the impact that the acquisition has on our development processes and I'm optimistic that the approaches that we've evolved over time to manage testing of our big data product in an agile way will be protected and encouraged.
The resources available to me in running a testing operation are way beyond what we could previously access. As well as access to a greater scale of testing hardware, I'm also going to relish the idea of interacting with others who have a wealth of experience in testing and supporting big data products. I know that my new company have been in the business for a long time and will have a well developed set of tools and techniques in testing data products that I'm looking forward to pinching learning from.
What about me?
Whilst I've known about the change for some time, it is only since this week's public announcement that I've realised how long it has been since I worked for a large company. I've been well over 14 years in small companies, or as a contractor, so the change is going to take some getting used to. I love the uncertainty and autonomy of working for small companies, where every problem is shared and you never know what you'll have to take on next. As a smaller part of a large product portfolio I imagine we'll sacrifice some of that 'edge of the seat' excitement for more stability and cleaner boundaries.
A change such as this, particularly at this time of year, inclines one towards retrospection over the events leading up to this, and the possibilities for the future. I'm both proud of what I've achieved at RainStor the small company, and regretful of the areas that I know I could have achieved more. Nothing will bring back those missed opportunities, however the fact that, with just a handful of individuals we've written tested, documented and supported a big data database to the point of being used in many of the largest telecommunications and banking companies in the world leaves me with very few regrets. I hope that as we grow into our new home I can take the chance to work with my colleagues in delivering more of the amazing work that they are capable of.
So that's it, my days of testing in a startup well and truly are over for the foreseeable future. I obviously don't know for certain what's to come. One thing I am confident in is that we couldn't have found a better home. As well as having a great attitude to development my new company also have an excellent ethical reputation, which at least mitigates some of the uncertainty over not personally knowing who is running the company. I am already enjoying building relationships with some excellent people from our new owners.
I imagine that few folks reading this will be ending the year with quite as much upheaval, but I'm sure some are looking forward to new jobs or new opportunities or experiencing sadness at leaving cherished teams. Whatever your position, thanks for reading this post and thanks to those who've followed this blog through the last few years, I'm sure I'll have some interesting new experiences to write about over the coming months. I hope that, if you take some moments in the coming days to look at the past years and what is to come, you have as many reasons to be proud and excited as I do.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stignygaard/2151056741 .
Adam,
This is great news for you and Rainstor. Brilliant stuff. It will certainly be very interesting to read about how your role and responsibilities change over the coming few months.
Rob
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