Systems Software
Case studies in systems software.
A10 Networks — Where to Focus Commercial Attention?
A10 Networks entered the second half of 2026 with strong reported growth and a changing revenue mix. First-half revenue was $155.1 million, up 14.5% year over year. Enterprise revenue rose $35.3 million, while service-provider revenue fell $15.7 million. At the same time, one unnamed customer represented 38% of both second-quarter and first-half revenue. Read case
CrowdStrike — How Far Should Falcon Flex Go?
CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform brought together cloud-delivered cybersecurity and IT modules through a single lightweight agent and cloud console. The company said its architecture allowed customers to begin with selected modules and later add modules or endpoints. CrowdStrike sold subscriptions through a direct sales organization working with channel and technology partners. Read case
Fortinet: Where Should the Platform Stop?
Fortinet's public filings and product announcements describe a company extending a common security platform in two directions. The first ties network security and secure access more tightly together. The second brings security operations into a cloud-delivered, AI-enabled console. Read case
Gen Digital: One Platform or a Portfolio of Trusted Products?
Gen Digital had spent years protecting consumers’ devices, identities, and privacy through brands such as Norton, Avast, and LifeLock. In 2025 it added MoneyLion, a personal-finance platform, marketplace, and set of first-party financial products. Management’s direction was to connect cyber safety and financial wellness as one broader consumer need. Read case
JFrog — How Fast Should Cloud Grow?
JFrog’s software-supply-chain platform was growing, and its hosted cloud business was growing faster by the company’s reported cloud metric. The company also continued to offer self-managed software for customers running workloads in public cloud, private cloud, on-premise, or hybrid environments. Read case
Microsoft: Where Should the Next AI Capacity Go?
On April 25, 2024, Microsoft reported another quarter of strong cloud growth while describing a constraint that complicated its next infrastructure decisions. Azure and other cloud services grew 31% year over year. Management attributed seven percentage points of that growth to AI services and described the other 24 points as core Azure. Read case
OneSpan: Where should the next product and go-to-market effort go?
At 4:05 p.m. Eastern on August 4, OneSpan had just released second-quarter results. A conference call was scheduled for 4:30 p.m. The release showed a business growing at different speeds: Cybersecurity revenue fell 7% from the prior-year quarter, while Digital Agreements revenue rose 25%. Total revenue increased 1%. Read case
Oracle: Turning AI cloud commitments into durable returns
On September 11, 2026, Oracle filed its first-quarter report for fiscal 2027. The quarter ended August 31. The filings and earnings release showed a cloud business growing quickly, a record book of remaining performance obligations, and an expanding infrastructure base. Read case
Palo Alto Networks: Sequencing Platform Adoption
On March 1, 2024, Palo Alto Networks (PANW) has recently announced an accelerated platformization and consolidation strategy. The company has described three platforms—Network Security, Cloud Security and Security Operations—and says customers can consolidate products across them. Read case
ServiceNow: Prove the Value or Expand the Platform?
On July 24, 2024, ServiceNow reported that subscription revenue had grown 23% year over year in the second quarter. The same release said net-new annual contract value (NNACV) for Now Assist, the company's generative-AI product family, had doubled sequentially. Eleven Q2 transactions had more than $1 million in Now Assist NNACV. Read case