A right of passage for young people from Australia and New Zealand is “the big OE.”
Short for overseas experience, OE describes a common journey that young Antipodeans take discovering themselves and their world. Given the huge distances between these two countries and pretty much anywhere else on Earth, the idea of spending a year or two traveling all in one hit makes sense. And like the classic Men at Work song, the idea of a bunch of Aussies and Kiwis traveling the world in a “fried-out Kombie” is very much a reality.
Another Australian who has been on an extended OE is Atlassian. Founded by a couple of good, keen Aussie blokes, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, Atlassian was simply a humble project by a couple of Sydney university students before it grew into something much bigger. Around eight years ago, Atlassian set up a U.S. operation, hired a hot-shot U.S. president and proceeded to grow like topsy in that market -- the unusual way the company approaches business (famously, with no salespeople) and the fact that the developer tools it creates are increasingly important to organizations both big or small was a good example of “right place, right time, right products.”
Fast forward to today and Atlassian is a technology powerhouse that is well regarded globally. And that regard, and the global opportunity it introduces, is leading to the company today embarked upon the next leg of its OE: meeting its European customers on their home ground. As an organization that is committed to the cloud (Atlassian reports that more than 75% of its new customers start with one of the company’s cloud products), it stands to reason that European cloud regions would be in the cards.
And so it is with the announcement that Ireland -- long the destination of choice for many Aussie travelers -- will play host to the company’s first European cloud region. Atlassian promises that its European cloud customers will experience improved performance and reduced latency after the migration, alongside ticking some of their boxes when it comes to privacy, security and compliance. (The company makes no mention about what their Irish launch will do to Guinness consumption in that country.)
This move comes on the heels of Atlassian rethinking its cloud infrastructure. Last year the company made core changes to its platform and started to leverage Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its hosting. Atlassian explained that this move enabled them to offer increased variety of cloud deployment regions with strong performance and local failover options. The company tantalizingly also said that it aims to continue to add cloud hosting regions, not only in Europe but around the world.
This move highlights the breadth of Atlassian's deployment options -- the company offers on-premises, private cloud and public cloud options to its customers and explains that all deployment options are growing and continue to attract internal resources.
Europe more than just a potential customer-base
Alongside the cloud announcement, Atlassian today reported ecosystem traction. Over 40% of Atlassian’s marketplace partners hail from Europe, and since introducing the marketplace in 2012, Atlassian has generated $250 million in total revenue and created and offered 3,000 individual add-ons through its platform.
MyPOV
While some Europeans may be concerned by another group of rowdy Australians descending upon their shores and creating havoc, I’m confident that Atlassian will be a better visitor than some of the more colorful previous travelers.
Atlassian provides real value to its customers, and for those European users committed to leveraging cloud-based solutions, this news will be well-received.