Businessweek

Splunk Inc. provides software platform that enables organizations to gain real-time operational intelligence by harnessing the value of their machine data. The core of its software is a proprietary machine data engine, comprised of collection, indexing, search and data management capabilities. The company’s machine data engine uses its proprietary data architecture that enables dynamic schema creation on the fly, enabling users to run queries on data without having to understand the structure of the data prior to collection and indexing. The company’s machine data fabric for data collection and indexing delivers speed and scalability when processing massive amounts of machine data. The company complements its product with additional content (apps and add-ons) that can be deployed on top of its core data engine. These apps and add-ons, which are available for download via its Splunkbase Website, provide incremental functionality in the form of pre-built data inputs, searches, reports, alerts and dashboards. Most of these apps and add-ons have been available for free download. Apps and add-ons that the company developed and offers include Splunk App for Enterprise Security, Splunk App for PCI Compliance, Splunk App for VMware, Splunk App for Microsoft Exchange, Splunk App for Microsoft Active Directory, Splunk DB Connect, Splunk Hadoop Connect, and the Splunk App for Hadoop Operations. Services Maintenance and Customer Support: The company’s customers purchase one year of software maintenance and support as part of their initial purchase of its products, with an option to renew their maintenance agreements. These maintenance agreements provide customers the right to receive unspecified software updates, maintenance releases and patches and access to its technical support services during the term of the agreement. The company maintains a customer support organization that offers multiple service levels for its customers based on their needs. These customers receive guaranteed response times, direct telephonic support and access to online support portals. Training Services The company offers training services to its customers and channel partners through its education and training organization. Professional Services The company provides consulting and implementation services to customers through its professional services team. They are utilized by large enterprises looking to deploy its software across their large, disparate and complex IT infrastructure. The company provides these services at the time of initial installation to help the customer with configuration and implementation. Research and Development The company invests in research and development to enhance its software, develop new end market specific solutions and apps, conduct software and quality assurance testing and improve its core technology. Its research and development expenses totaled $41.9 million for 2013. Customers The company serves approximately 5,200 Splunk Enterprise customers in approximately 90 countries. It provides products and services to customers of varying sizes, including enterprises, educational institutions and government agencies. The company’s customer base spans various industry verticals, including cloud and online services; education; financial services; government; healthcare/pharmaceuticals; industrials/manufacturing; media/entertainment; retail/ecommerce; technology; and telecommunications. Competition The company’s principal competitors include security, systems management and other IT vendors, including BMC Software, CA, Compuware, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Quest Software, TIBCO and VMware; Web analytics vendors, including Adobe Systems, Google, IBM and Webtrends; and business intelligence vendors, including EMC, IBM, Oracle and SAP. Significant Events In February 2013, Splunk, Inc. and Palo Alto Networks announced a joint solution that takes security intelligence across the enterprise to a new level. Working together, Splunk and Palo Alto Networks have created the Splunk App for Palo Alto Networks 3.0, which enables users to leverage their machine-generated big data to analyze risk, improve security posture and compliance and address a number of additional operational and regulatory concerns. In April 2013, DataSift announced a strategic alliance with Splunk. Integrating the DataSift platform into Splunk's big data platforms, customers can stream social data from DataSift into Splunk Storm and Splunk Enterprise, Splunk's innovative multi-tenant cloud service and on-premise platform for machine-generated big data. History Splunk Inc. was incorporated in 2003.