Pythian Acquires Blackbird.io to Expand Data Management Services

Acquisition positions Pythian for industry shift with additional DevOps, big data, enterprise infrastructure, MySQL, and NoSQL services and expertise

OTTAWA, Canada & SAN FRANCISCO--()--Pythian, the global leader in data management consulting and services, today announced that it acquired Blackbird.io, a DevOps and data services provider. The acquisition is part of Pythian’s strategy to leverage the rapid increase in demand for agile development, operations, and technology delivered “as a service.” With the addition of Blackbird.io’s team, Pythian will now become the largest open-sourced database managed services company in the world.

Blackbird.io, formerly PalominoDB and DriveDev, is dedicated to helping its customers achieve optimal development velocity and operational excellence. The company supports applications and infrastructures while transforming engineering results by driving the adoption of DevOps, big data, and anything as a service (XaaS). It also offers integrated 24/7 operations and systems management with a focus on cloud and database technologies.

Blackbird.io has supported, scaled, and transformed infrastructure engineering and operations for more than 50 companies in fast-paced industries. The company’s expertise in cloud, infrastructure as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), big data, MySQL, NoSQL, and enterprise infrastructure ecosystems, combined with a strong focus on operational essentials, including orchestration, configuration management, operational visibility, continuous delivery, and 24/7 operations management, adds significant value to Pythian’s already robust portfolio of service offerings.

“While businesses still rely heavily on in-house infrastructure for database needs, we see the acceleration towards a SaaS model as cloud and mobile apps grow more powerful and offer viable alternatives,” said Andrew Waitman, CEO at Pythian. “As adoption of SaaS increases, a rapidly growing proportion of the demand for the world’s leading data and infrastructure expertise becomes embedded in a DevOps delivery model. The acquisition of Blackbird.io is key to our long-term strategy to aid the growing service-based markets.”

With experts based in nine cities across the U.S. and 10 countries globally, Blackbird.io joins Pythian’s globally distributed organizational culture. The Blackbird.io San Francisco office will become Pythian’s first West Coast location. Laine Campbell, CEO of Blackbird.io and seasoned database professional in MySQL, Cassandra, and Oracle, will lead Pythian’s open-source database group, comprised of Pythian and Blackbird.io’s MySQL, PostgreSQL, Cassandra, MongoDB, Couchbase, and Hadoop operations and engineering professionals. Aaron Lee, Blackbird.io’s CTO, will lead Pythian’s DevOps business transformation and delivery group.

“Pythian stands as a leader in the data management space, cultivating some of the world’s greatest DBA talent,” said Laine Campbell, CEO of Blackbird.io. “Together we establish one of the most accomplished pools of database managed services expertise in the industry. Blackbird.io’s commitment to client transformation and success will help Pythian build on its 24/7 global service model to extend its customer service offerings and ensure scalable, reliable, and healthy infrastructures, from the persistence tier to the front end and on-premises or in the cloud.”

Since 1997, Pythian has specialized in consulting on and managing mission-critical data infrastructures. More than 1,000 companies have turned to Pythian for support with Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, big data, and enterprise infrastructures. For more information on Pythian, visit www.pythian.com.

About Pythian

Pythian is a global leader in data outsourcing and managed services. Pythian blends the world’s leading data experts with advanced, secure service delivery processes to create the industry’s best standard of care for its clients. Since 1997, Pythian has managed some of the world’s largest, most business-critical data infrastructures for companies such as Beats Music, Rakuten, Linkshare, and Web.com. Learn more about Pythian and its elite data experts at http://www.pythian.com, follow @Pythian, and find Pythian on LinkedIn at http://linkd.in/pythian.

Contacts

Press contact:
Gregory FCA
Alicia Buonanno, 610-228-2096
Alicia@GregoryFCA.com
or
Company contact:
Pythian
Samer Forzley, 613-565-8696, ext 1327
sforzley@pythian.com

Release Summary

Pythian Acquires Blackbird.io to Expand Data Management Services

Contacts

Press contact:
Gregory FCA
Alicia Buonanno, 610-228-2096
Alicia@GregoryFCA.com
or
Company contact:
Pythian
Samer Forzley, 613-565-8696, ext 1327
sforzley@pythian.com