Perforce

Last updated
Perforce Software, Inc.
Company type Private
Industry Version control software, application lifecycle management, Git repository management, developer collaboration tools and Agile planning software
Founded1995;29 years ago (1995) in Alameda, California, U.S.
FounderChristopher Seiwald
Headquarters Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Christopher Seiwald (Founder)
  • Jim Cassens (CEO)
  • Janet Dryer (Chair)
Products
Owner
Number of employees
1,200 (2022) [1]
Website perforce.com

Perforce Software, Inc. is an American developer of software used for developing and running applications, including version control software, web-based repository management, developer collaboration, application lifecycle management, web application servers, debugging tools and agile planning software.

Contents

The company is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is equally owned by private equity firms Clearlake Capital and Francisco Partners. [2] [3]

History

Perforce Software was founded in 1995 in Alameda, California by Christopher Seiwald, a software developer and computer science graduate from UC Berkeley. [4] Its first product was also called Perforce, and was a version control system allowing companies to collaborate on large software projects by keeping track of changes to both the source code and binary files. [4] [5]

In June 2013, the company released Helix Swarm, a tool for developers working in different geographic areas to collaborate on code review. [6]

In June 2014, the company released a version of its Perforce versioning engine, by then known as P4D, which supported concurrency. [7]

In March 2015, the company renamed its product to Perforce Helix, which now supported distributed development and included security features allowing suspicious usage tracking. [8] Helix's security capabilities included IP threat detection, co-developed with analytics vendor Interset. [9] In October, the company collaborated with GitLab to release GitSwarm, a software tool that combined git distributed workflow for developers with Perforce's single code repository. [10]

In February 2016, Seiwald sold the company to investment group Summit Partners, and Janet Dryer was named as new CEO. [11] The company headquarters was relocated to Minneapolis. [12] In November, Perforce announced the acquisition of Seapine Software, a provider of application lifecycle management (ALM) tools. [13] Seapine's TestTrack ALM software was rebranded as Helix ALM. [14]

In September 2017, the company acquired Uppsala, Sweden-based Hansoft, a developer of Agile planning software. [15] Also in September, Perforce announced it had acquired Finnish repository management services company Deveo. [16] Deveo's products were merged into Perforce's Helix TeamHub, its first solo venture for Git-based development teams.

In January 2018, Summit Partners sold Perforce to private equity firm Clearlake Capital. [2] In May, Perforce acquired UK-based Programming Research (PRQA), a static code analysis firm. [17] In June, the company announced that CEO Janet Dryer was moving to the role of Chair of the Board, and COO/CFO Mark Ties was taking the role of CEO. [18] In October, the company acquired mobile and web automation testing company Perfecto. [19]

In January 2019, Perforce announced the acquisition of Rogue Wave Software, a software company with a focus on development tools for high-performance computing. [20] In April, private equity firm Francisco Partners acquired 50% of Perforce, becoming an equal partner with Clearlake Capital. [3] In September, Perforce Software was awarded the 2019 Computer Entertainment Developers Conference (CEDEC) Award for Engineering for Helix Core. [21] [22]

In June 2020, Perforce acquired software developer TestCraft Technologies, a provider of automated Selenium-based web application testing. [23] In July, Perforce acquired software developer Methodics, a DevOps software provider of intellectual property life cycle management for semiconductor companies. [24]

In October 2021, Perforce agreed to buy BlazeMeter testing platform from Broadcom Inc for an undisclosed sum. [25]

In April 2022, Perforce acquired the Portland, Oregon-based infrastructure automation software platform, Puppet. [26] [1]

Products

Perforce develops software used by software developers to manage code during the development process. The product line includes the following:

Helix Core

Helix Core
Initial release1995;29 years ago (1995)
Stable release
2022.1/2305383 [27] / June 30, 2022;19 months ago (2022-06-30)
Operating system AIX, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Linux, macOS, NetBSD, Solaris, Windows
Type Revision control
License Proprietary
Website www.perforce.com/products/helix-core

Helix Core, formerly Perforce Helix, is the company's version control software for large scale development environments. [28] The Helix Version Control System manages a central database and a master repository of file versions.

Helix Core clients fall into roughly five categories: Git, command, GUI, web, and plugin. The Perforce system can make part or all of its content available as Git repositories. Users of Git and of other clients can work with the same file content and history. Git commits are visible to users of other clients as Perforce changelists, and vice versa. Users submit changed files together in changelists, which are applied as atomic commits.

The server and client software are released as pre-built executables for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, and other operating systems.

Helix ALM

Helix ALM
Initial releaseMarch 1996;27 years ago (1996-03)
Stable release
2022.1.0 / May 9, 2022;21 months ago (2022-05-09)
Operating system Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
Type Bug tracking system, project management software
License Proprietary
Website www.perforce.com/products/helix-alm

Helix ALM, formerly TestTrack, is a suite of tools used for application lifecycle management (ALM), allowing developers to manage all their product and system development phases with one product. [13] [14] The software was originally developed by Seapine Software, which was acquired by Perforce and rebranded. [29] Helix ALM provides a centralized suite of capabilities for managing requirements, defects, issues and testing throughout the software development cycle. [30]

There are three components of the suite: [31]

Helix QAC

The company develops the Helix QAC static code analysis software tool for the C and C++ programming languages. [32]

Other products and services

With the January 2019 Rogue Wave acquisition, Perforce acquired the following products:

In addition, Perforce also acquired OpenLogic, a consulting organization with expertise in open source software from Rogue Wave. [41]

Customers

Perforce's customers are software developers at a wide variety of companies, including Salesforce, Netflix, SAP, Disney, Intuit and the NYSE. [42] The company is considered a leader in the gaming space, with 18 of the top 20 games developers including Ubisoft and Electronic Arts using Perforce version control. [43]

Offices

The company is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with additional offices worldwide. [44]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zend (company)</span>

Zend, formerly Zend Technologies, is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based software company. The company's products, which include Zend Studio, assist software developers with developing, deploying, and managing PHP-based web applications.

Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (VSS) is a discontinued source control program oriented towards small software development projects. Like most source control systems, SourceSafe creates a virtual library of computer files. While most commonly used for source code, SourceSafe can handle any type of file in its database, but older versions were shown to be unstable when used to store large amounts of non-textual data, such as images and compiled executables.

Akana is a provider of computer software products for application programming interface (API) management. The company was founded as Digital Evolution and was later known as SOA Software. In November 2016, Akana was acquired by Rogue Wave Software. In January 2019, Rogue Wave was acquired by Minneapolis-based application software developer Perforce.

CollabNet VersionOne is a software firm headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, United States. It was Founded by Tim O’Reilly, Brian Behlendorf, and Bill Portelli. CollabNet VersionOne products and services belong to the industry categories of value stream management, DevOps, agile management, application lifecycle management (ALM), and enterprise version control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rogue Wave Software</span> American software company

Rogue Wave Software was an American software development company based in Louisville, Colorado. It provided cross-platform software development tools and embedded components for parallel, data-intensive, and other high-performance computing (HPC) applications.

MISRA C is a set of software development guidelines for the C programming language developed by The MISRA Consortium. Its aims are to facilitate code safety, security, portability and reliability in the context of embedded systems, specifically those systems programmed in ISO C / C90 / C99.

Klocwork is a static code analysis tool owned by Minneapolis, Minnesota-based software developer Perforce. Klocwork software analyzes source code in real time, simplifies peer code reviews, and extends the life of complex software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seapine Software</span>

Seapine Software was a privately held Mason, Ohio-based software and services company. The company developed a suite of software products that managed the full software development lifecycle. Seapine's tools included testing tools, configuration management, test-case management, and requirements management. The company was best known for its TestTrack line of application lifecycle management (ALM) software.

PV-WAVE is an array oriented fourth-generation programming language used by engineers, scientists, researchers, business analysts and software developers to build and deploy visual data analysis applications. In January 2019, PV-Wave parent Rogue Wave Software was acquired by Minneapolis, Minnesota-based application software developer Perforce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assembla</span>

Assembla is a web-based version control and source code management software as a service provider for enterprises. It was founded in 2005 and acquired by San Antonio Venture Equity firm Scaleworks in 2016. It offers Git, Perforce Helix Core and Apache Subversion repository management, integrations with other enterprise software such as Trello, Slack and JIRA as well as the Cornerstone Subversion client for macOS. Assembla also offers integrations with customer's managed private clouds.

Parasoft DTP is a development testing and software testing analytics solution from Parasoft that acts as a centralized hub for managing software quality and application security. DTP provides traditional software reports from normal software development activities and is also able to aggregate data from various software testing practices to present an overview of the state of the codebase.

Plastic SCM is a cross-platform commercial distributed version control tool developed by Códice Software for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and other operating systems. It includes a command-line tool, native GUIs, diff and merge tool and integration with a number of IDEs. It is a full version control stack not based on Git.

Surround SCM is a software configuration management application developed by Seapine Software, now owned by Perforce since 2017. Perforce integrated the software with its Helix ALM product.

Helix ALM, formerly called TestTrack, is application lifecycle management (ALM) software developed by Perforce. The software allows developers to manage requirements, defects, issues and testing during software development.

High Integrity C++ is a software coding standard for the C++ programming language developed by Programming Research Limited, now part of Perforce Software. HIC++ was first published in October 2003. The latest revision, version 4.0, was released in October 2013 and documents 155 rules that restrict the use of ISO C++ language to improve software maintenance and reliability in high reliability or safety critical applications.

Programming Research Limited (PRQA) was a United Kingdom-based developer of code quality management software for embedded software, which included the static program analysis tools QA·C and QA·C++, now known as Helix QAC. It created the High Integrity C++ software coding standard. In May 2018, the company was acquired by Minneapolis, MN–based Perforce, and its products were renamed.

ZeroTurnaround was a Java development tools software company founded by Jevgeni Kabanov and Toomas Römer in 2007. It was acquired by Rogue Wave Software in 2017. In January 2019, Rogue Wave Software and the legacy ZeroTurnaround software products were acquired by Minneapolis, Minnesota-based application software developer Perforce.

Runscope is a SaaS-based company that sells software for API performance testing, monitoring and debugging. Runscope is based in San Francisco, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collaborator (software)</span>

Collaborator is a peer code review and document review software application by SmartBear Software, headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts. This tool is used by teams to standardize their review process, reduce defects early, and speed up their development timelines. Companies in highly regulated industries like Automotive, Healthcare, Aerospace, Finance, and Embedded Systems also use the detailed review reports in Collaborator to meet compliance burdens.

References

  1. 1 2 Spencer, Malia; Jones, Carter (2022-04-11). "Perforce Software buys pioneering Portland software maker Puppet". American City Business Journals . Archived from the original on 2022-11-06.
  2. 1 2 "Clearlake Capital Buys Perforce Software". socaltech.com. 2018-01-10. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  3. 1 2 "Francisco Partners, Clearlake link on Perforce deal". pitchbook.com. 2019-05-01. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  4. 1 2 "The Light Touch - How a Hands-off CEO Marshals the Forces and Customers". alamedamagazine.com. 2008-04-11. Archived from the original on 2017-12-07. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  5. ↑ "Perforce updates cross-platform interface for software versioning tool". macworld.com. 2008-03-10. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  6. 1 2 "Perforce Swarm, A Developer Platform To Compete With The Likes Of GitHub and Atlassian". techcrunch.com. 2013-06-12. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  7. ↑ "Perforce introduces concurrency technology into versioning platform". sdtimes.com. 2014-06-11. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  8. ↑ "Perforce goes fully distributed in source-code management". sdtimes.com. 2015-03-04. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  9. ↑ "Using Log Data And Machine Learning To Weed Out The Bad Guys". forbes.com. 2015-03-27. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  10. ↑ "New Perforce Tool Gives Developers What They Love And IT What It Needs". techcrunch.com. 2010-10-06. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  11. ↑ "Summit Partners acquires Alameda's Perforce Software". mercurynews.com. 2016-02-03. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  12. ↑ "Face Time: Perforce Software CEO Janet Dryer". bizjournals.com. 2017-01-10. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  13. 1 2 "Perforce acquires ALM provider Seapine Software". sdtimes.com. 2016-11-17. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  14. 1 2 "Perforce puts Seapine Software acquisition to use with rebranded TestTrack ALM". pocketgamer.biz. 2017-05-30. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  15. 1 2 "Perforce acquires Agile planning tool provider Hansoft". sdtimes.com. 2017-09-26. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  16. ↑ "Finnish Deveo snapped up by US company Perforce". goodnewsfinland.com. 2017-09-15. Archived from the original on 2017-11-22. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  17. ↑ "Clearlake-backed Perforce Software acquires Programming Research". pehub.com. 2018-05-02. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  18. ↑ "CEO Janet Dryer leads second company to Top Workplaces ranking". startribune.com. 2018-06-21. Retrieved 2018-07-11.
  19. 1 2 "Perforce to acquire mobile and web testing provider Perfecto". sdtimes.com. 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2018-12-21.
  20. ↑ "Perforce expands DevOps portfolio with Rogue Wave acquisition". sdtimes.com. 2019-01-22. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  21. ↑ "CEDEC AWARDS 2019". CGWorld (in Japanese). 2019-09-09. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  22. ↑ Koc, Guler; Aydos, Murat; Tekerek, Mehmet (September 2019). "Evaluation of Trustworthy Scrum Employment for Agile Software Development based on the Views of Software Developers". 2019 4th International Conference on Computer Science and Engineering (UBMK). IEEE. pp. 63–67. doi:10.1109/ubmk.2019.8907213. ISBN   978-1-7281-3964-7. S2CID   208208412.
  23. 1 2 "Perforce Acquires TestCraft". Devops Digest. 2020-06-18. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  24. ↑ "SD Times news digest: Perforce Software acquires Methodics, Android basics in Kotlin, and TileDB's round of funding". SD Times. 2020-07-20. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  25. ↑ Jones, Carter (2021-10-01). "Perforce buys BlazeMeter testing platform from Broadcom". American City Business Journals . Archived from the original on 2022-11-06.
  26. ↑ "Perforce Software acquires Puppet". TechCrunch. 11 April 2022. Retrieved 2022-04-11.
  27. ↑ "Software Release Index - Perforce". www.perforce.com.
  28. ↑ "Massive Git: Perforce Helix4Git is Git at scale". techtarget.com. 2017-05-29. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  29. ↑ "Perforce puts Seapine Software acquisition to use with rebranded TestTrack ALM". 30 May 2017. Retrieved 2017-06-17.
  30. ↑ Lockwood, Anthony (2014-03-19). "Editor's Pick: Product Development Management Suite Updated". Desktop Engineering. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  31. ↑ "Seapine Puts the Pro in Productivity". SD Times. 2008-09-01. Archived from the original on 2013-10-30. Retrieved 2018-01-12.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  32. ↑ "Perforce Adds Slack Support to Helix ALM". itprotoday.com. 2018-10-27. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  33. ↑ "Perforce Launches Helix TeamHub". devopsdigest.com. 2017-09-12. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  34. ↑ "Software testing is all about automation". SD Times. 2016-02-29. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  35. ↑ "Rogue Wave eats Acumem". The Register. 2010-10-04. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  36. ↑ "Rogue Wave acquires ZeroTurnaround for its Java developer tools". SD Times. 2017-11-29. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  37. ↑ "Rogue Wave Unveils SourcePro Upgrade". ADT Mag. 2005-08-02. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  38. ↑ "Rogue Buys Stingray". Computerworld. 1998-01-26. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  39. ↑ "An Interface to Support the Identification of Dynamic MPI 2 Processes for Scalable Parallel Debugging". Research Gate. 2006-09-01. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  40. ↑ "Going Rogue (Wave) Over ILOG C++". Dr. Dobbs. 2012-05-11. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  41. ↑ "Rogue Wave plans to use OpenLogic's portfolio to roll out solutions intended to help developers search and write better open source codes faster". ZDNet. 2013-08-22. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  42. ↑ "Perforce: The biggest little secret in DevOps". devops.com. 2014-03-18. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  43. ↑ "The software game – Perforce's new Helix Platform". computerweekly.com. 2015-03-06. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  44. ↑ "Contact us". perforce.com. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.