Nearform partners with global enterprises and startups across all sectors to unite people, process and technology to deliver intelligent, resilient solutions and digital platforms. Beyond the digital, our experts build enhanced team capabilities that equip organisations to face the future with confidence.

We see the opportunities for our clients to deliver more for their customers, increase their operational efficiency and control their costs. We’re trusted by Aer Lingus, Walmart, VirginMedia 02 and many other global brands to align technical decisions with business strategy to make high-impact decisions that transform the path ahead.

From cutting go-to-market time for new apps by 30-40% for TELUS Digital, to enabling PUMA to reduce content and configuration changes from 24 hours to 5 minutes, Nearform cares about delivering real impact for our clients. And we love what we do.

Our client offering reflects this promise; to deliver enduring digital solutions to enterprises who want to leverage the possibilities of technology. Our branding allows us to tell our story.

“Starting as a pioneer in Irish open-source software, Nearform has ambitiously transformed our expertise into product engineering, platform modernisation, data/AI, and digital capability for some of the best-known brands globally. Like Ireland, we punch above our weight and Nearform has grown to be one of the world’s premium builders of enduring digital services. To reflect this evolution, and to continue our commitment to delivering excellence for clients and partners, we’ve updated our brand identity and I’m really excited to share it with you all,” says Nearform CEO Ciarán Cosgrave. 

Our heritage is grounded in harnessing the possibilities of open source technologies to build resilient, accessible software solutions for high-growth organisations. Even Nearform’s name is a nod to never being done; continually striving to achieve engineering excellence. Our ethos has always been open: open source, open-minded, open to possibilities. 

Over the past decade, we’ve grown, and gained more experience, insight and expertise.

In 2020, Nearform secured investment from Columbia Capital. This strategic backing spurred rapid growth, helping us gain the momentum to get us to where we find ourselves today.

In October 2023, we acquired Formidable, a global software engineering and design consulting firm. We expanded our global presence while bolstering our collective technical expertise and capabilities in commerce and composable solutions. 

This brand refresh embodies Nearform’s evolution from an open-source software organisation to being a partner in delivering enduring, intelligent digital services. 

While we remain the Nearform team you know and trust, we have elevated our client offering across four key impact areas: 

• Product solutions that accelerate growth

• Modern platforms that transform business

• Data solutions that empower business

• Enhanced capability to be better, faster and go further
  

We’re committed to empowering ambitious enterprises to build enduring business value.

Explore our refreshed website to access our Insights, learn about our Work, and get to know how Nearform can be your partner in achieving digital progress.

Dublin, Ireland – 16th February, 2021: Global software development and consultancy firm Nearform has announced a strategic investment from Columbia Capital to support market penetration and scale operations across North America and Europe.

Nearform develops enterprise software to help large corporate and public sector companies scale their platforms for the digital economy. Using open-source software, their digital products deliver secure mobile and web platforms that can scale to meet industry and consumer demands.

Digital transformation remains the number one priority for CIOs in 2021, as companies look to innovate and grow post-pandemic. Yet more than 80% of digital transformations fail. When speed and agility are crucial, traditional consulting firm methods are expensive and slow. Nearform’s open source approach has accelerated cost-effective digital transformations for clients including Walmart, IBM and Condé Nast, and recently they developed the most widely adopted COVID contract tracing app code, COVID Green, now used from New York to New Zealand.

“The unprecedented events of 2020 have shown that both public and private sector companies must react quickly to meet the challenges of today’s world. Nearform was founded on the belief that open source technology has become best practice for delivering cost-effective, scalable and secure digital platforms at speed for the most challenging projects. Our open source software solutions are already used by many of the world’s biggest companies, like Facebook, Netflix and Uber and can help others meet consumers’ digital expectations faster than traditional methods,” said Cian Ó Maidín, founder and CEO of Nearform.

On the announcement, Jason Booma, partner at Columbia Capital, said “As digital becomes the default form of interface for both commercial and civic organisations, creating software stacks that emphasise agility can unlock attractive options for even those with the most complex enterprise architectures. Nearform has an expert engineering-led culture that reliably translates to achieving positive and cost-effective customer outcomes. We look forward to working with the company as it scales and expands globally.”

Nearform will use the additional capital to scale operations and accelerate recruitment in sales, marketing, engineering and design across North America and Europe to meet growing market demand from companies seeking digital solutions to keep pace with competitors and meet the changing digital demands of their consumers.

Nearform is a software development and consultancy firm that builds better software faster. Bringing together both design and engineering, Nearform solves complex technology challenges for global enterprises across multiple industry sectors to enrich customer experience and contribute to the development of the open source community.

Nearform recently developed COVID contact tracing apps for Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Gibraltar, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, with more to come.

Founded in 1989, Columbia Capital is a venture capital investment firm based in Alexandria, Virginia. The firm seeks to invest in communications, media, and technology (CMT) space with a focus on enterprise information technology, internet infrastructure and mobility sectors.

Find out more about Columbia Capital.

Media Contact:

Eoghan Dillon
eoghan@150bond.com
150Bond Europe

Orlaith Farrell
orlaith@150bond.com
150Bond North America

We are pleased to announce that Nearform has been recertified for ISO 27001 & ISO 9001.

Nearform first obtained ISO 27001 & ISO 9001 certification in early 2021, and since then we have continued to uphold comprehensive and compliant information security practices as well as provide the best possible quality of service to our valued clients.

Established by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), ISO 27001 is the international standard for information security management systems best practice. Our re-certification confirms that Nearform has maintained the operation of comprehensive and compliant information security practices, particularly as our team continues to expand across geographical regions and client projects.

Read more about the ISO 27001 certification.

ISO 9001 is awarded to companies that ensure their products or services consistently meet customer requirements and improve their offerings. For us, this means that our agile environment works in harmony with our stringent quality standards, focussing on the continuous delivery of high-quality products and services to ensure client satisfaction.

Read more about the ISO 9001 certification.

Nearform, a global digital transformation leader for several Fortune 500 companies and high-calibre organisations, today announces that it has become an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Advanced Tier Services Partner within the AWS Partner Network (APN). This accomplishment recognises the commitment of Nearform to deliver scalable, cloud migration solutions for its clients using AWS.

To achieve the esteemed AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner status, organisations must undergo a rigorous process of accreditations and certifications to show their long-term investment in their collaboration with AWS, and prove they can leverage skilled teams of certified technical professionals, demonstrate expertise in AWS, and provide exceptional customer experiences.

As an Advanced Services Tier Partner, and with over 41 registered AWS certifications including acceptance onto the Map Guru Program, Partner Transformation Program and Public Sector Program, Nearform accelerates its ambitious mission to help organisations worldwide to strategically navigate and optimise value from multi-cloud environments, enhancing resilience, innovation, adaptability, and cost efficiency.

In May 2023, Nearform, a global digital transformation leader for several Fortune 500 companies and high-calibre organisations, expanded its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the dominant cloud services platform, by earning the esteemed Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) Consulting Partner status.

The AWS Migration Acceleration Program represents a holistic initiative for data and services transition to the cloud, leveraging AWS’s unique experience in assisting thousands of corporate and enterprise customers in their cloud migration journey. Attaining this certification equips Nearform with the resources to enable its clientele and associates to diminish costs, bolster operational robustness, and augment business agility in migrating, modernising, and operating their systems in the cloud.

AWS MAP validation certifies Nearform as a firm proficient in constructing cloud native applications and solutions on AWS, with the requisite knowledge, experience, and skills to guide its customers towards their cloud migration and modernisation objectives. With the MAP credential, Nearform acquires mature architectural methodologies based on AWS and extends its expertise to expedite the cloud migration and modernisation journey of enterprises through a result-oriented approach.

As an AWS MAP Consulting Partner, Nearform is poised to assist organisations in optimising their back-end services, managing escalating workloads and requirements, and decreasing infrastructure investments. This program positions Nearform to offer its associates and customers exceptional advantages for their businesses: adaptability, enhanced security, and limitless scalability potential.

Securing AWS MAP status represents the inaugural step what we envision will be a long and rewarding trajectory. To deliver supplementary value and validate our engineering supremacy, we are committed to preserving this status in the coming year and undertaking the subsequent strides as a dependable global technology ally to growth-centric entities worldwide. We take immense pride in joining the AWS Partner Network to bring the efficiency, security, and reliability of the cloud to our customers.

Nearform, a global leader in enterprise-level digital solutions, is delighted to announce that it has been awarded the coveted Amazon Web Services (AWS) Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) Guru Certification. This honour underscores Nearform’s dedication to delivering premier AWS migration and modernisation services, positioning the company as a leading authority in shifting applications and systems from data centres to AWS cloud native technologies.

“We are extremely proud to have received the AWS MAP Guru Certification. This is a testament to the hard work, skill, and expertise our team brings to every project,” said Cian Ó Maidín, CEO at Nearform. Ó Maidín added: “This certification underscores our proficiency and commitment to providing seamless and effective cloud migration solutions to our clients.”

AWS MAP Guru Certification is a rigorous and prestigious certification program that recognises and endorses service providers with advanced capabilities in migrating workloads to the AWS cloud. Nearform’s recognition in this elite group reflects the company’s deep knowledge and industry-leading capabilities in facilitating digital transformations.

As an AWS MAP Guru, Nearform will continue to enable businesses to streamline their migration and modernisation process, reduce operational overhead, increase scalability, and improve security and compliance posture. The company will empower its clients to harness the full power of AWS, helping them drive business innovation and growth.

“This certification further distinguishes Nearform as a provider of premier AWS services,” said Chris Williams, Nearform’s Head of Strategic Partnerships. Williams added: “We’re excited to build on this momentum and continue to empower businesses across the globe with world-class cloud native solutions.”

June 22nd, 2023 was a proud day for Nearform. Why? Because it was the date of our first co-hosted event with AWS.

Titled ‘Breaking Down Barriers: Leveraging Technology to Transform Healthcare Delivery’ and held in Dublin, the event featured four excellent talks for healthcare leaders from our expert speakers. Incredible stories were shared and actionable advice was given on how healthcare companies can leverage technology to transform their organisations. This roundup provides a summary of each of the talks from our co-event with AWS and some key quotes.

This talk was delivered by Kurt Milam, Delivery Architect at Nearform. Kurt told the story of how Nearform worked with Cardo Health to help our partner democratise healthcare by enabling people in emerging markets to get access to the healthcare they deserve.

Kurt discussed how Nearform built a telemedicine platform configurable enough to roll out to any market in the world — not just language, but things like questions a doctor may ask during a consultation. He explained how we solved the challenge of delivering this incredibly ambitious project in under 12 months by leveraging open source tools. Kurt also highlighted how Nearform built capability for Cardo Health by helping our partner to hire and train its team.

In Kurt’s words, this was “A true engagement, from ideation through implementation and really leaving Cardo Health self-sufficient to continue after Nearform walked out the door.”

The speaker for this talk was Tony Shannon, the Head of Digital Services at the Office of Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO). Tony asserted that “This is not a decade to mess around. This is a decade for important work to be done. And it’s the job of the state.”

Tony expressed his view that “People and process, the way we work and technology” need to come together “In a triad of change”. One of the ways this is being put into practice is a “Government branded wallet”. As Tony explained, “You log in with MyGovID and you then end up with a situation whereby you can get not just your route certificate or your driving license, but maybe your medical card or your e-hit card or your public services card.”

Another example of this “triad of change” is a project Nearform’s experts are helping Tony and the OGCIO to deliver for the people of Ireland. Tony outlined the project goal as being “Aimed at trying to address the wicked problem of multiple paper forms that are the bane of many people’s lives, for both the citizen and the public servant.” How does this look? A form that previously took 28 minutes to finish now becomes “A two-minute job to complete”, saving people huge amounts of time.

In his second talk of the day, Kurt Milam told the story of how Nearform worked with Renalytix to help the company in its goal of eradicating kidney disease.

Renalytix had developed a test that can predict the direction a person’s kidney disease would take if they didn’t make changes to their lifestyle or get medical help. Renalytix had an existing solution that was designed to make this test accessible to users. However, Kurt explained that the solution needed a deployment plan to take it online. Additionally, Renalytix wanted to develop a portal that would onboard doctors as quickly as possible, so more people could take the test.

Kurt shared how Nearform helped solve these challenges for Renalytix. We deployed the solution rapidly and that led to quality-of-life improvements for patients within a couple of months. We built the doctors’ portal and received feedback that it’s very user-friendly. We also helped Renalytix to become self-sufficient by supporting our partner in building its development team and creating the processes needed to continue developing its solution.

Regina Hackenberg, Senior Solutions Architect at AWS, gave the final talk of the day. Regina spoke about “How cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics merge at the moment to help us transform healthcare.”

Regina talked about two of the purpose-built solutions AWS has developed to help overcome one of the key challenges faced in the healthcare industry — leveraging data.

The first solution she discussed was Amazon HealthLake. It allows organisations to store data at scale, easily extract meaning from it and then apply analytics and machine learning to it. The second solution she shared was Amazon Comprehend Medical. It’s an API that enables organisations to get value from unstructured clinical notes, returning information that can reveal things like what the likely causes are for a patient’s disease(s).

We were delighted to run this amazing event together with AWS. A big thank you to all of the incredible speakers for their insightful and actionable talks, along with everyone who attended this event and helped make it such a great success.

We hope to run more of these events in the future and will let you know about them when the time is right. For now, if you want to know more about how Nearform and AWS help healthcare organisations, watch the full video of the event. And if you want to work with Nearform and AWS, visit our AWS and Nearform page to learn how we can help your organisation.

It’s rare you can purchase a work of art that unfolds before your eyes and allows you to see something unique take shape in real-time. Nearform got to experience this in a project we worked on with world-renowned artist Maya Lin and E.A.T__WORKS, an “experimental cultural production studio”.

This is the story of a very special project for us, one where collaboration turned into friendship and using code and NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) helped make Maya’s art breathe.

Maya Lin is an American designer and sculptor who is world-famous for creating historical memorials and environmentally-themed artwork. Deeply inspired by nature, such as water patterns, rock formations and solar eclipses, through her unique works, she seeks to “Give people a different way of looking at their surroundings”, explaining: “That’s art to me.”

Maya came to prominence aged just 21, and while still completing her undergraduate studies at Yale University, when she won a competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. That was just the beginning of a hugely successful career that has spanned over 40 years, with Maya having 37 subsequent works and numerous awards listed on her Wikipedia page.

At the time of writing, the final selected work on Maya’s Wikipedia page is ‘Ghost Forest’ — an installation made up of 49 dead Atlantic white cedars. This piece would serve as inspiration for Maya’s next project, ‘Ghost Forest Seedlings’.

Tree roots are largely hidden underground and this means they possess an almost secret beauty. Their twisting patterns represent how nature strives towards perfection, but somehow always imposes imperfection on itself to deliver unique works of natural art.

Maya wanted ‘Ghost Forest Seedlings’ to be a project that used digital technology to enable people to see the beautiful journey of creation that roots take, radiating as a seed from a central point. This gave us a starting point of creating generative art.

However, the goal of this project wasn’t just to create generative art, but to generate images that resemble Maya’s artistic style. In short, it had to replicate the imperfect perfection of nature and get inside Maya’s head.

If this sounds hard it’s because it is, as Maya’s own words make plain: “Art is very tricky because it’s what you do for yourself.” How then did this project come to life? By using code and leveraging NFTs.

Working in conjunction with E.A.T__WORKS and Maya, we set out to create purchasable NFTs representing unique root structures. Each NFT would grow into a completely unique root pattern or seedling over a period of time ranging from minutes to months. They would be hosted on a blockchain platform and start growing after the NFT was minted.

To replicate Maya’s style, we analysed her portfolio and assessed drawings of various tree roots. We paid close attention to distinct characteristics, recurring motifs, brush strokes, composition, and her balance between realism, abstraction and minimalism.

Speaking about the early stage work of the project, Giulia Teggi, one of Nearform’s Senior Developers says:

“One of the first things we did was to create our roots generator application that would allow Maya Lin to experiment with different colours, shapes, sizes and numbers of seeds based on her feedback.”

“We then iterated on the design and on the underlying algorithm, which is a completely custom algorithm, using recursion to generate the root. The idea was that the roots would have been randomly generated and completely unique, so that there would be a surprise element for those who purchased them.”

To ensure the roots looked as authentic as possible, we adjusted the underlying algorithm and randomness thresholds to mimic the perfect imperfections in Maya’s work.

Each root is composed of multiple line segments drawn using HTML Canvas. Every segment has a random length, random angle and random bezier curves. Once a segment ends, a new one will begin by using the previous segment’s length and angle to calculate the starting X and Y coordinates.

With each new segment, the line width gradually decreases and fades in opacity. As the segment count increases, random sub-segments with the same characteristics are created to branch off of the previous segments at slightly different angles. The angles of these lines are random, but also weighted to optimally fill in the available space of the canvas.

So people can purchase Maya’s generative seed art, each NFT is minted on the Ethereum blockchain. Every NFT follows the history of how the seedling grows over time, so the owner can both see it evolve and end up with an art piece.

This was such a fun project for us to be a part of, one that allowed us to use our technical expertise and commitment to innovation to deliver something unique for Maya. But what was truly rewarding was to see in Maya’s face that we’d delivered what she wanted. As Dee O’Callaghan, Nearform’s Global Head of Design and Engineering, explains:

“She’s really engaged and really passionate about what she does. That really came through in all of our meetings and what I noticed was, in the final meeting we had with Maya, her eyes lit up when she saw the algorithm in action. And she was just blown away that we were able to take the vision she had in her mind and bring it to life. That was something fun to watch and see in person.”

Another thing we enjoyed about working on this project was that our collaboration with Maya and E.A.T__WORKS built friendships, as Dee O’Callaghan reveals:

“My fondest memory of the project was when we started to do weekly syncs with the team at E.A.T__WORKS and to see how we started to collaborate. It became a really enjoyable project where we’re producing something very different to what Nearform typically does and doing so in such a friendly way. You walk away feeling like you’ve not only delivered something very cool, but you’ve built friendships along the way.”

Together with E.A.T__WORKS, we were tasked with writing an algorithmic generative script that creates intricate tree root patterns based on world-renowned artist Maya Lin’s unique style.

By dissecting the nuances of her portfolio and translating them into code, we created generative art that evokes the emotional and visual impact of Maya’s original works. It means people can use the NFT market to buy a seed or a group of seeds and end up with one of her great art pieces.

An exhibition of select Ghost Forest Seedlings is on display at Pace Gallery in New York City from Monday 18th September 2023 through Saturday 23rd September 2023. The entire collection is available to browse and purchase at verso.pacegallery.com. Each artwork includes the NFT which starts out as a seed and grows into an intricate root system, a unique, signed 23”x 23” print, and a time-lapse video that shows the growth pattern of the seedling from start to finish.

Irish-founded Nearform is a team of engineers, designers and strategists who build digital capability and software solutions for enterprises. Formidable, founded in Seattle, boasts over a decade of experience in delivering a wide range of professional software engineering services, including design, digital transformation, product delivery, cloud migration, and developer training.

Alongside Formidable, Nearform will continue to define, design and build platforms and future-ready products that modernise organisations and connect communities. Together, by enhancing its client offering, Nearform and Formidable will further champion engineering excellence and technical expertise, generating new opportunities to attract and nurture exceptional talent.

The announcement of Formidable’s acquisition is a strategic leap forward for Nearform who have gained significant momentum over the past two years, following the December 2020 investment from Columbia Capital, the 2022 appointment of Satty Bhens (ex-McKinsey & Company Digital Partner) to the Nearform Executive Board, and most recently in May, the appointment of Koby Avital (former EVP of Technology Platforms at Walmart) as Strategic Advisor.

Commenting on the transformative partnership, Ciarán Cosgrave, Chief Executive Officer at Nearform said, “Bringing Nearform and Formidable together felt like a natural fit from the start; we share a common heritage in the craft of design and engineering and a firm belief in the power of code to be a force for good and deliver enduring positive outcomes for our people, our clients and our communities. Our collaboration combines the artistry of expertly-crafted code with a relentless commitment to innovation that will empower a broader spectrum of enterprises. Together, we’re in a strong position to become one of the leading premium independent creators of software solutions.”

“Nearform joining forces with Formidable brings two pioneers of the open source web platform together to make a professional services powerhouse – we’re so excited for what happens next”, added Nearform founder Cian O’Maidin.

Formidable’s robust client base – including Puma, Lululemon, Starbucks, and Walmart – and significant US-based presence neatly dovetails the existing Nearform business structure and service offering, supporting a smooth integration for both teams. Formidable brings complementary technical capabilities to Nearform’s portfolio of expertise, whilst providing a springboard for growth into key sectors like retail/ecommerce.

“Partnering with Nearform will allow us to elevate our existing strengths in providing top-notch engineering and product/design expertise with an amazing unified team with extensive capabilities. By harnessing our collective technical acumen, industry insights and service partnerships, we’re set to deliver elevated product integrations. Together, our open-source synergy reinforces our unwavering commitment to nurturing and advancing the technical community. This is a thrilling opportunity to elevate our people while providing clients with new innovative solutions,” added Ryan Roemer, Chief Executive Officer at Formidable.

Formidable is a global design and engineering consultancy, and open-source software organisation, specialising in digital products and transformation. Since 2013, Formidable’s growing team has worked with companies ranging in size from startups to Fortune 100s to build quality digital products and level-up engineering and design teams.

Together, ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 form our Integrated Management System (IMS), a true embodiment of operational excellence. This recertification is a powerful testament to our relentless pursuit of excellence, quality and security in all facets of our operations. 

Meeting these two prestigious international standards requires hard work, dedication and passion for excellence, qualities that Nearform possesses in abundance. Below, we delve into four components that were crucial to successfully achieving recertification for ISO 9001 and ISO 27001.  

We dedicated significant time and resources to ensure that our IMS is aligned with the latest requirements of ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 27001:2022. This involved reviewing and updating our processes, policies and procedures to reflect best practices in quality management and information security.

Throughout the recertification process, we embraced a culture of continuous improvement. We identified areas for enhancement within our organisation and implemented proactive measures to address them. By constantly striving to raise the bar, we ensure that we deliver the highest quality products and services to our valued customers while safeguarding their sensitive information.

Achieving recertification was truly a team effort. Our dedicated employees, from top management to frontline staff, played a pivotal role in ensuring that our IMS meets the stringent requirements of ISO 9001 and ISO 27001. Their dedication, expertise and commitment to excellence were instrumental in our success.

We embraced the principles of risk-based thinking, a cornerstone of both ISO 9001 and ISO 27001. By identifying and mitigating risks proactively, we enhance the resilience of our organisation and ensure that we can adapt to changing circumstances with agility and confidence.

Achieving recertification to ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 is a significant milestone for Nearform. It reaffirms our position as a trusted partner and provider of high-quality products and services. We are immensely proud of this accomplishment and look forward to continuing to exceed the expectations of our customers and stakeholders.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our successful recertification journey. Your hard work, dedication and passion for excellence are truly appreciated. As we celebrate this milestone, our journey towards excellence continues. Nearform remains steadfast in its pursuit of innovation, improvement and setting new benchmarks in quality management and information security.

Sam began by discussing ‘Immersive experience through AR & VR’. She explained this will demand organisations start designing from an immersive first approach, so they craft experiences that are as intuitive as they are technologically advanced. The value of this approach is enormous, with 71% of customers saying that they'll shop more often if AR technology is made more available.

Sam then covered ‘Revolutionising communication with voice & NLP’. While this brings greater personalisation to the experiences organisations offer, she stated that accessibility is where this technology will be a real game-changer. This is because it will enable more people to interact with digital technologies in a meaningful way. Expanding the adoption of voice and NLP will require organisations to place even greater emphasis on privacy and data security, as they’ll be collecting and analysing huge amounts of voice data.

Katie’s opening talk was ‘Thinking about data 'ownership' differently’, namely by considering the SOLID protocol of data decentralisation. Positing that “data will drive the next evolution of the web”, she outlined the u​​ser and business benefits of sharing data — the former can gain things like preferential product rates by doing so, while the latter can enhance the personalisation they deliver to their customers. 

Katie’s second talk expanded on her first, with its topic being ‘Implications this has on data security and compliance’. This is particularly important, as she highlighted that forward-thinking public organisations, like the Flanders Government in Belgium, are using decentralisation to create data-driven products for their citizens.

Continuing with the theme of data, Dan’s first talk was ‘Data quality and metadata management’. He discussed how organisations can change how they own and interact with data by using a data mesh. It’s an architectural framework that democratises processing, increases flexibility, brings cost efficiencies, enhances discovery, and strengthens security and compliance.

Dan then moved into the hottest topic in tech — AI in the form of large language models (LLMs). He predicted that the explosion of interest in AI will mean that ‘Good old ML (including Deep Learning) will have a resurgence’. Firstly, this is because using AI requires organisations to do work that was previously being done to leverage machine learning (ML). Secondly, this is because there are cases where it’s cheaper for organisations to use ML than to leverage LLMs.

Luca started his talk by discussing ‘AI in SRE/DevOps/Platform Engineering’. He addressed how companies have begun using AI to summarise problems, and explored how this principle can be expanded. Luca referenced incident management as being a clear example of this, as AI can be leveraged to provide a summary of an incident. This would make developers’ lives easier by enabling them to ask questions about their system like “What can I do to make it more resilient?” Or “Which part of the system is more likely to fail?”

The final topic of the webinar saw Luca bringing cost optimisation directly into the conversation, as he spoke about how ‘FinOps will move past the cloud’. Explaining that FinOps is an operational framework to maximise the business value of the cloud, he made the case for organisations to expand this approach into everything they do. This will see companies further consolidating their tools and platforms, so they can bring greater consistency, improve efficiency and control their costs.

Nearform's experts put their insights into practice on a daily basis by designing great products and customer experiences, modernising applications and platforms, developing data and AI solutions and more. You can find out how they do this by exploring our Work. There, you’ll discover how we deliver sustained impact for household names and learn how we can help your organisation achieve its goals.

By uniting Nearform’s expertise in delivering resilient, customer-centric digital products with Grafana’s robust capabilities in data querying and visualisation, enterprise clients will benefit from comprehensive system visibility that enables their teams to streamline processes, increase efficiency, and foster a culture of proactive observability.

Whether it’s for a process that’s embedded in an organisation’s culture, or integrated within Dev Ops or Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), observability is best practice for technology teams. It ensures enterprises are able to monitor and minimise system downtime, and improve incident response times, resulting in a better user experience. 

Grafana’s intuitive, custom-built dashboards complement Nearform’s customer-centric digital solutions, and together the collaboration will enable Nearform clients to have a better understanding of their data, driving more informed decision-making that aligns technical action with strategic impact.

Commenting on the announcement, Chris Williams, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Nearform, says: “Nearform wants to make the world better by creating great customer, business and developer experiences, and partnering with Grafana Labs is a transformative next step in that journey. We are very excited about the collaborative work our two organisations will bring to customers as part of their journey towards Observability Maturity. Together, we have already made some impressive strides forward in our shared mission of making technology more intuitive and more reliable for our shared clients.”

 "Grafana Labs is thrilled to join forces with Nearform, leveraging our shared dedication to advancing organisations' observability practices," said Tom Kennedy, Director, EMEA and APAC Partnerships, Grafana Labs. "This strategic partnership combines the power of Grafana Cloud with Nearform's technical and business expertise to make it easier and faster for customers to get up and running with observability. Together, we're looking forward to helping organisations navigate the growing complexities of today's cloud-native world."

Nearform and Grafana are committed to working closely together to empower enterprises to build enduring impact. To learn more about the partnership and how it can benefit your organisation, reach out to our team.

Are you attending GrafanaCon 2024? Come and say hello; our team will be on site across the two days.