By leveraging WSO2’s technology and expertise, companies can overcome these challenges and unlock opportunities for innovation and growth in the digital landscape.
This is an exclusive interview conducted by Santosh Vaswani, Journalist & Editor at CIO News with Sanjiva Weerawarana, Founder and CEO of WSO2.
What does the recent acquisition by EQT mean to WSO2? Following this change, will you be operating independently?
WSO2 has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by EQT Partners, and the deal will be finalized in the next couple of months. EQT is the 3rd largest PE fund globally, has a large tech and software portfolio, and has a big focus on Asia. I’m very excited about the new prospects this collaboration spells for WSO2. EQT has a long-term plan to create value and grow the company in the next five years. To do this, they will bring in a strong industry veteran board to help the company achieve its long-term strategic goals. I will stay on as CEO, and the same goes for the leadership team and all employees.
With EQT’s investment and extensive experience in scaling enterprise software companies, how do you see the acquisition enhance WSO2’s capabilities in innovation and global expansion? What immediate impact can your customers expect from the acquisition?
We have 700+ customers in 93 countries. With this acquisition, our customers will only see a bigger, better, and stronger WSO2. We have always been committed to helping our customers be successful, and we will continue to do that, enabling them to create awesome digital experiences for their customers.
Could you share details of the customers you have in India or service globally and the value you have been able to bring to them?
We have several customers in India, especially in the government services and fintech spaces. For instance, the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) is developing a SaaS platform, powered by WSO2 API Manager and WSO2 Identity Server, for the Reserve Bank of India to assist with the lending process of banks across India.
Aditya Birla Finance Limited, Unique Identification Authority of India, UNICEF India, Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner (ORGI), and Federal Bank India are among some of our other customers in the country that use WSO2’s products in their digital transformation projects.
We are excited to be a part of India’s digital transformation journey and its emergence as a digital powerhouse globally. Our open-source products are used by various government entities and in India’s digital public infrastructure.
What are some of the challenges faced today by tech companies while providing digital services? How are you planning to overcome these challenges?
At WSO2, we understand the challenges tech companies face in providing digital services, including security, scalability, integration complexity, regulatory compliance, and user experience. To address these challenges, we offer comprehensive solutions such as advanced security features, scalable infrastructure, integration agility, compliance-focused solutions, and user-centric design. By leveraging WSO2’s technology and expertise, companies can overcome these challenges and unlock opportunities for innovation and growth in the digital landscape.
One specific challenge we see organizations grappling with is the lack of specialized expertise and the high costs associated with hiring skilled developers. Our internal developer platform, Choreo, addresses this need by streamlining the development process and abstracting time-consuming and resource-intensive complexities, making it easier and more cost-effective to build and deploy applications.
Can you highlight some latest trends in the industry to create better digital services? Especially in the field of API management and IAM solutions?
Today, enterprise software delivery platforms have revolutionized application deployment and management, enabling rapid scalability and seamless updates. While this agility is crucial for business success, it comes with challenges, such as the requirement for skilled platform engineering teams and intricate integration among multiple systems. Moreover, platform engineering prioritizes software delivery over the entire software engineering lifecycle.
This results in organizations rethinking their strategy to move away from building and managing platforms to a more simple, platformless approach. Building a platform is a lot of work, takes time and effort, and can be expensive. This shifts organizations’ focus from managing platforms to developing, building, and deploying applications with seamless integration and monitoring, but without the intricacies of platform management. In other words, platformless platforms move the focus of an organization’s technical team from playing with technology to delivering awesome digital experiences to both customers and employees.
Platformless is an innovative concept combining four technology domains: API-first, cloud-native middleware, platform engineering, and developer experience. This combo allows for a holistic approach to enterprise software engineering, spanning the entire lifecycle, delivering a platformless experience, and enabling developers to build and deploy applications without the constraints of traditional platforms.
At WSO2, we recognize that the complexities of building digital products can often hinder innovation and slow down the development process. This is precisely why we created Choreo, our internal developer platform, to streamline the development journey and abstract away many of the intricacies that developers typically face.
Choreo is designed to offer a seamless, low-code environment that enables developers to focus on what matters most: creating impactful digital experiences. By providing pre-built integrations, automated workflows, and an intuitive interface, Choreo significantly reduces the time and effort required to bring digital products to market.
What was the motivation behind WSO2’s decision to expand into India?
WSO2 sees India as a high-potential market. As the soon-to-be world’s 3rd largest economy, we see huge opportunities for a cutting-edge software company like ours. We are in-region and excited about India’s growth.
It was a strategic move to further enhance our ability to deliver service and support to our customers across all regions. It is aimed at complementing our team based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to support our global customer base. It will serve as a hub for fostering collaboration and synergy across our global teams. By facilitating cross-functional collaboration, knowledge sharing, and best practice exchange, we can leverage the collective expertise of our diverse workforce to deliver greater value to our customers worldwide.
Also read: Unveiling the Ethical Imperatives: Navigating the Intersection of AI and Cybersecurity
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