Chasing the Ocean of Opportunities: DigitalOcean

Jeff Giannetti is Chief Customer Officer of DigitalOcean and is responsible for customer growth and engagement while overseeing customer success, support and international go-to-market. In an exclusive interaction with Faiz Askari of SMEStreet, Jeff spoke about some interesting insights that are showing the latest trends and transformations related to Digital in India and around the world.

Edited excerpts:

According to you, what are the key trends which can help us in understanding the direction of digital transformation?

Jeff Giannetti, DigitalOcean

Mobility is becoming a well-accepted practice at all levels. I foresee this as a very strong trend. Remote work is the new normal for developers. It's not only something they prefer but something they increasingly demand from employers. In a survey conducted by DigitalOcean globally, we found that eighty-six per cent of respondents currently work remotely in some capacity, with nearly 1/3 working from home full time. Forty-three per cent say the ability to work remotely is a must-have when considering an offer with a company. Remote workers are connected. The traditional narrative of remote workers as isolated and disengaged from their companies is proving false for many. Seventy-one per cent of developers who work remotely said they feel connected to their company’s community.

How does DigitalOcean stand out from its competition?

The core mission of DigitalOcean is to simplify the cloud which ultimately creates an ecosystem for building apps and less on managing the underlying infrastructure. Making the life of developers easy.

DigitalOcean, is committed to ensuring the best possible the utilization of cloud for developing modern apps.

We introduced Managed Databases for PostgreSQLearlier this year, which removes many of the hassles in maintaining PostgreSQL databases.

If you are building a modern app or website, it’s very likely you will need a database. Databases are one of the most critical components of an application. They should provide terabytes of storage, be able to process thousands of I/O operations per second, and allow data access with minimum latency. If your app usage grows, the database needs to scale easily and quickly to support millions of users.

DigitalOcean and its Developer Cloud simplify modern app creation for new generations of developers — from individual developers to startups and SMEs. Its infrastructure and platform-as-a-service (IaaS and PaaS) solutions provide a “no DevOps required” experience, allowing developers to focus their energy on creating innovative software. By combining the power of simplicity, love for the developer community, an obsession for customer service, and the advantages of open source, DigitalOcean brings software development within technical and economic reach of anyone around the world 

How Indian markets’ contribution to the DigitalOcean’s growth is a story and please mention the significance of the Indian market for DigitalOcean?

India is undoubtedly potential rich and one of the most important markets for DigitalOcean. The developer community holds great respect worldwide and they are making great contributions into the worldwide digital transformation.

According to your observations, how is the developer ecosystem evolving towards digital?

We are regularly observing and analyzing trends that are evolving among the developer community. These days, developers expect remote work in order to improve their work-life balance. In a survey which DigitalOcean conducted, seventy-six percent of respondents said they think working remotely improves work-life balance, yet many remote workers reported working longer hours and ultimately rated their work-life balance as only slightly higher than in-office workers.

The twenty-nine percent who don’t feel connected say they feel excluded from offline team conversations or don’t feel integrated into their company’s culture when working remotely.

Forty-three percent of the developers we surveyed say the ability to work remotely is a must-have when considering an offer with a company, while over half (53%) say they think less highly of a company that does not offer remote work options. Developers say it gives the impression that the company is behind the times.

When it comes down to day-to-day levels of work stress/frustration/anxiety, a quarter say remote work has no impact, while 11% say it actually worsens these issues. Working longer hours from home and the pressure to contribute more to projects were the top reasons for the drop in work-life balance for remote workers. In fact, a full 34% of developers say they work more than 8 hours a day when they work from home.

We understand this trend and are equipped to facilitate seamless work environment for developers.