DigitalOcean Acquires Nimbella: Expanding Serverless Offerings
The Rise of Serverless Computing and DigitalOcean's Acquisition of Nimbella
Developers are increasingly adopting serverless solutions to streamline software creation. These solutions allow code execution without the complexities of managing underlying infrastructure.
This trend has led DigitalOcean to acquire Nimbella, a serverless startup, to bolster its existing capabilities in this rapidly growing field. The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed by either company.
Nimbella's Technology Stack
Nimbella’s platform is built upon robust open-source technologies. It leverages Kubernetes, an open-source container orchestration platform, and Apache OpenWhisk, a serverless development platform.
This foundation provides a powerful and flexible environment for building and deploying serverless applications.
DigitalOcean's Strategy
Yancey Spruill, CEO of DigitalOcean, describes Nimbella’s offerings as “Function as a Service.” The primary objective is to simplify serverless development within an open-source framework for their customer base.
Spruill emphasizes that serverless technologies alleviate infrastructure burdens from developers and businesses, allowing them to focus on innovation and accelerate development cycles.
Enhanced Capabilities for Developers
According to Anshu Agarwal, CEO of Nimbella, the integration will provide developers with specialized tools. These tools will facilitate the creation of complex serverless applications and seamless connectivity with existing DigitalOcean services.
The platform will support the development of complete applications, extending beyond simple event handling to encompass fully stateless operations, integrating with managed databases and storage solutions.
Building on Existing Serverless Offerings
DigitalOcean initiated its serverless journey last year with the introduction of initial serverless tooling. However, the company sought to expand its capabilities, identifying Nimbella as the ideal complement to its existing offerings.
DigitalOcean's Market Position
DigitalOcean positions itself as a cloud infrastructure and platform provider. It specifically targets individual developers, startups, and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Despite generating $318 million in revenue in 2020 – a small fraction of the overall $129 billion cloud market – DigitalOcean demonstrates the potential for success even with a focused market approach.
Integration and Future Plans
The companies have outlined plans for a complete integration of Nimbella into the DigitalOcean portfolio. The intention is to eventually rebrand the technology as a DigitalOcean-branded product during the first half of the coming year.
Details regarding the deal’s financial terms and employee numbers were initially undisclosed.
Employee Transition
Update: Twelve employees will be transitioning from Nimbella to DigitalOcean as part of the acquisition.
