The News: Observability and security vendor Dynatrace signed a definitive agreement to acquire startup Rookout, which sells debugging products for developers. See the full Press Release on the Dynatrace website.
Dynatrace Will Acquire Rookout to Add Code Debugging to its Observability
Analyst Take: As the scope of Observability looks to extend beyond its roots of logs and become a key part of the operations and security focus for enterprises, vendors such as Dynatrace are bringing new functionality to their offerings. Another dynamic in the highly-competitive Observability market segment is that vendors need to continually innovate and show the breadth of their innovation to compete, especially as cloud-native deployments proliferate.
Against this backdrop, the acquisition of Rookout by Dynatrace looks to align with the wider market trends we are observing, especially when you factor in the mainstream deployment of Kubernetes environments. As part of the announcement, Dynatrace said it plans to embed Rookout technology into its unified observability and security platform.
Rookout helps developers troubleshoot and debug actively running code in Kubernetes-hosted cloud-native applications. The addition of Rookout into the Dynatrace platform will give developers more code-level observability and control while troubleshooting and debugging in production. Developers will be able to debug applications in production without shutting down services, which can cause application crashes or slow performance. Many traditional tools only allow debugging during pre-production.
The combination of Dynatrace and Rookout will also give development, IT, and security teams a single platform for observability, security analytics, and automation. Dynatrace’s AI and automation capabilities can speed debugging and eliminate manual tasks.
When you couple the Rookout functionality with the capabilities of Dynatrace Davis AI, which analyzes historical patterns and trends in this data, and makes recommendations for future actions, the offering is very likely to make a compelling proposition for customers.
The Rookout acquisition comes 6 months after Dynatrace added three software intelligence apps to its platform:
- Dynatrace Carbon Impact provides real-time insights into the carbon footprint of an organization’s Dynatrace-monitored hybrid and multicloud ecosystem, showing customers the progress of their carbon reduction initiatives.
- Dynatrace AutomationEngine, built with the Davis AI default causation engine, adds automation to help customers operate their cloud infrastructures more efficiently.
- Dynatrace AppEngine, like AutomationEngine, is a low-code tool that allows enterprises to design and build custom, compliant, and intelligent data-driven apps for their IT, development, security, and business teams.
The deal is expected to close by September 30, according to the company. Dynatrace said the acquisition will not have a material impact on its fiscal year 2024 financials and will be funded from cash on hand. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Looking Ahead
Dynatrace is well-positioned with its current portfolio to address the needs of enterprises wrestling with the dual challenges of managing a hybrid multi-cloud infrastructure landscape and ensuring that security is maintained. With the addition of the Rookout capabilities, we are bullish about Dynatrace’s ability to compete in a highly competitive market for both observability and security.
Disclosure: Futurum Research is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of Futurum Research as a whole.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
Dynatrace’s Hypermodal AI: Revolutionizing Observability and Security
Software Intelligence Vendor Dynatrace Boosts Data with Grail
Splunk Security and Observability Platforms Get Enhancements
Author Information
Regarded as a luminary at the intersection of technology and business transformation, Steven Dickens is the Vice President and Practice Leader for Hybrid Cloud, Infrastructure, and Operations at The Futurum Group. With a distinguished track record as a Forbes contributor and a ranking among the Top 10 Analysts by ARInsights, Steven's unique vantage point enables him to chart the nexus between emergent technologies and disruptive innovation, offering unparalleled insights for global enterprises.
Steven's expertise spans a broad spectrum of technologies that drive modern enterprises. Notable among these are open source, hybrid cloud, mission-critical infrastructure, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and FinTech innovation. His work is foundational in aligning the strategic imperatives of C-suite executives with the practical needs of end users and technology practitioners, serving as a catalyst for optimizing the return on technology investments.
Over the years, Steven has been an integral part of industry behemoths including Broadcom, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and IBM. His exceptional ability to pioneer multi-hundred-million-dollar products and to lead global sales teams with revenues in the same echelon has consistently demonstrated his capability for high-impact leadership.
Steven serves as a thought leader in various technology consortiums. He was a founding board member and former Chairperson of the Open Mainframe Project, under the aegis of the Linux Foundation. His role as a Board Advisor continues to shape the advocacy for open source implementations of mainframe technologies.
Dave’s focus within The Futurum Group is concentrated in the rapidly evolving integrated infrastructure and cloud storage markets. Before joining the Evaluator Group, Dave spent 25 years as a technology journalist and covered enterprise storage for more than 15 years. He most recently worked for 13 years at TechTarget as Editorial Director and Executive News Editor for storage, data protection and converged infrastructure. In 2020, Dave won an American Society of Business Professional Editors (ASBPE) national award for column writing.
His previous jobs covering technology include news editor at Byte and Switch, managing editor of EdTech Magazine, and features and new products editor at Windows Magazine. Before turning to technology, he was an editor and sports reporter for United Press International in New York for 12 years. A New Jersey native, Dave currently lives in northern Virginia.
Dave holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Journalism from William Patterson University.
