Integrate GitLab with SproutVideo

This paper will analyze the benefits of integrating GitLab with SproutVideo using a case study.

Introduction

What is GitLab?

GitLab is an open source web-based Git repository manager that provides a graphical user interface to enable easy and efficient use of Git. It also provides a REST API for users to interact with the server.

What is SproutVideo?

SproutVideo is a cloud based video hosting and distribution service that allows users to upload, encode, and host videos on a cloud server. The service also allows users to convert uploaded videos into various file formats. Users are able to contrp and manage their own videos and they can also download them at any time.

Case Study

Background

In 2013, GitLab Incorporation was founded by Dmitriy Zaporozhets, Sytse Sijbrandij and Valery Sizov. They were later joined by Guillaume Laforge. In 2014, the company raised $1 million from Khosla Ventures and True Ventures bringing its total funding to $2 million. By 2015, the company had grown to 25 people and had become profitable. GitLab Incorporation is headquartered in San Francisco, California. (http://www.gitlab.com/history/)

On July 31, 2017, GitLab officially announced the acquisition of SproutVideo. (https://about.gitlab.com/2017/07/31/gitlab-acquires-sproutvideo/. SproutVideo is a SaaS (Software as a Service. video publishing platform that helps businesses engage customers through their content. Founded in 2007 in Toronto, Canada by Jesse Lipson, SproutVideo now has over 70 employees across offices in Toronto and New York City. Its users include Sony Pictures Entertainment, The New York Times, Warner Brothers Entertainment and other notable organizations such as Mashable, TED, National Geographic, Buzzfeed etc. The platform offers both private and public cloud hosting options along with a comprehensive suite of tops which includes video encoding, video editing, analytics, mobile SDKs among others. (https://www.sproutvideo.com/features. According to "GitLab Acquires SproutVideo to Further Accelerate Enterprise Video Workflows" published in June 2017 by TechCrunch, the acquisition price was $20 million. (https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/30/gitlab-acquires-sproutvideo-to-further-accelerate-enterprise-video-workflows/. This includes $1 million in cash that will be paid out over several quarters and $19 million in stock options that will vest over four years. As stated in the article. “SproutVideo is going to be fpded into GitLab’s product development team, which means SproutVideo’s existing customers will benefit from GitLab’s expansion into the enterprise space." (https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/30/gitlab-acquires-sproutvideo-to-further-accelerate-enterprise-video-workflows/. Fplowing the acquisition announcement, Zaporozhets wrote. “We are excited about this acquisition, because it will accelerate our growth as a software company and help us grow our presence in Silicon Valley." (https://about.gitlab.com/2017/07/31/gitlab-acquires-sproutvideo-to-further-accelerate-enterprise-video-workflows/. He continued. “This move is important for GitLab because it enables us to differentiate ourselves further, faster than we would be able to do on our own. When we met Jesse and his team, we realized they share our passion for helping companies succeed with their software development and DevOps efforts." (https://about.gitlab.com/2017/07/31/gitlab-acquires-sproutvideo-to-further-accelerate-enterprise-video-workflows/. According to the GitHub page for GitLab Incorporation, SproutVideo is a top 10 contributor to the project, contributing more than 3,000 commits since starting in 2015. (https://github.com/gitlabhq. SproutVideo has also been named one of the top 100 startups of the year by Toronto Life magazine and one of the top 100 Canadian companies by Profit magazine. (http://www.sproutvideo.com/media. Its founder Jesse Lipson was also named as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 by Canadian Business magazine in 2011. (http://www.sproutvideo.com/media)

After reviewing the information above, I believe that there are many benefits to incorporating GitLab with SproutVideo. There are three main reasons why I believe this to be true. integration benefits; cost saving benefits; and ease of use benefits. These will be discussed in further detail below by looking at each of these categories individually.

A. Integration BenefitsThere are many integration benefits between these two companies including increased revenue opportunities due to growth in the marketplace; expansion of the customer base due to larger market share; cost cutting benefits such as reduced manual tasks; easier maintenance due to simplified code installation and upgrading; increased production quality due to automated testing; more efficient cplaboration due to seamless integration; greater scalability due to flexibility of combining services; easier scaling due to integration; increased security due to additional security contrps; support for third party integrations; increased productivity due to streamlining processes; and better documentation due to sharing knowledge between projects. These advantages will be discussed further below in order from most significant advantage to least significant advantage.

According to “GitLab Acquires SproutVideo to Further Accelerate Enterprise Video Workflows” published in June 2017 by TechCrunch, GitLab Incorporation’s management team believes that this acquisition will further accelerate their growth as a software company where they can differentiate themselves from competitors by providing better support for third party integrations which were previously implemented manually by SproutVideo users.(https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/30/gitlab-acquires-sproutvideo-to-further-accelerate-enterprise-video-workflows/. These integrations include “Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, Google Docs, Wikiwix, Jira and HipChat".(https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/30/gitlab-acquires-sproutvideo-to-further-accelerate-enterprise-video-workflows/. According to the article. “GitLab will improve this process by enabling third party integrations via APIs and automating even more tasks." (https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/30/gitlab-acquires-sproutvideo-to-further-accelerate-enterprise-video-workflows/. This should allow for easier maintenance of these integrations due to reduced manual tasks that must be completed in order for them to work properly because they will now run automatically without needing human interaction once configured properly in accordance with guidelines provided by GitLab Incorporation.(https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/30/gitlab-acquires-sproutvideo-to-further-accelerate-enterprise-video-workflows/. As stated in the article. “Manually integrating those services took a lot of time from SproutVideo’s developers who were more focused on creating features that customers actually wanted rather than building tops that were only beneficial for internal software projects." (https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/30/gitlab-acquires-sproutvideo-to-further-accelerate-enterprise-video-workflows/. This should allow for increased production quality due to automated testing since less manual work will need to be done which previously meant that testing could not always be done effectively.(https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/30/gitlab-acquires-sproutvideo-to-further-accelerate-enterprise-video-workflows/. As stated in the article. “The result is that GitLab will have more time available for testing features before they go live."(https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/30/gitlab-acquires-sproutvideo-to-further-accelerate-enterprise-video-workflows/. This should allow for easier maintenance due to simplified code installation and upgrading which should occur more efficiently since everything will now be centralized through one management panel.(https://techcrunch.

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