The CI/CD platform provider Harness has announced its plans to acquire the feature management company Split Software.
By incorporating Split Software’s capabilities into its platform, Harness will be able to offer a software release platform where developers can not only release software, but run A/B tests and measure adoption of specific features.
With the acquisition, Harness said it will deliver a feature management solution that combines core feature flagging capabilities, experimentation, feature flag workflows, governance, and the ability to
manage/archive stale feature flags. All of these capabilities will be integrated into the Harness
Software Delivery platform to help customers build, deploy, and release software while running
A/B tests to experiment and measure feature adoption, the company told SD Times.
Yet for all the advantages of feature experimentation, it has remained under-discussed and under-utilized widely in the software industry. “It’s an overlooked competitive advantage among companies looking to experiment often and iterate quickly,” said Jyoti Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Harness. “Based on how fast digital-native players are innovating, I believe feature experimentation will soon be table stakes in the standard developer lifecycle as customers become more vocal about having their feedback and needs quickly incorporated.”
Bansal noted one thing that has held this technology back from being so widespread is that it has historically only been available in point solutions that are not integrated deeply into the developer tool
stack. “This is what makes our acquisition and integration with Split so unique—we’re unlocking a seamless, end-to-end experience for developers to work solely from a single platform,” Bansal said.
Bansal called Split “the obvious choice for us as an established feature management platform… The market demand for a solution that’s integrated directly into the Software Development Lifecycle is massive. The timing couldn’t be better for our two companies to come together to deliver tremendous value for our customers.”
Brian Bell, CEO of Split, added: “The moment of feature release is a critical touchpoint between the developer and user. Our mission at Split has been to give development teams the confidence to accelerate with control and the freedom to innovate with ease. To further this mission, I couldn’t think of a better partner than Harness. Harness is automating and integrating every stage of software development. Together, we will have the most comprehensive software delivery platform on the market.”
Harness indicated that Split will be rolled into the Harness brand once it is fully integrated into the company’s platform. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
— With David Rubinstein
