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It’s been 4 years to the day since Microsoft closed its acquisition of GitHub, which on the time was largely a code repository. Today’s GitHub appears to be like fairly a bit completely different, now that it added CI/CD instruments with GitHub Actions and Codespaces as a web based editor and compute platform, in addition to varied safety instruments and extra. But based on GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke, who took over from Nat Friedman a 12 months in the past, Microsoft has very a lot allowed GitHub to do what it does greatest.
“We kept GitHub GitHub and it remains this independent entity within Microsoft similar to LinkedIn,” he informed me. “I think we did a fantastic job with doing this and kept GitHub in its original form. You don’t see more Microsoft in GitHub.com than you saw four years ago and that has helped us to continue to grow and we’re very excited where this is going.”
He famous that GitHub has continued to obtain the identical help from Microsoft’s management group, together with CEO Satya Nadella, through the years. “Microsoft has not forgotten why we did the deal in the first place and what the important pillars of the deal are. The first and foremost principle is to put developers first. And that is what we do every day,” Dohmke mentioned.
But, he additionally acknowledged that Microsoft is a giant firm and that folks typically have their very own concepts of what the Microsoft/GitHub relationship must be like. So far, although, it looks as if the management on either side has been in a position to maintain these concepts at bay.
Dohmke famous that GitHub has clearly benefited from Microsoft’s gross sales prowess, which helped it land quite a few huge accounts. That absolutely additionally helped the corporate get to the $1 billion annual recurrent income it introduced yesterday. Dohmke mentioned that he believes GitHub would’ve seemingly reached this milestone as an unbiased firm, too.
“I’m generally an optimistic person,” he mentioned. “So any company can get there if they just stay focused on their mission. The biggest challenge that companies have once they get to a certain size is focus.”
Today’s GitHub is clearly in a special place than the GitHub of 4 years in the past. Its product portfolio, for one, has expanded fairly a bit with tasks like CodeSpaces and, most not too long ago, Copilot. “I think I will have achieved my mission as CEO if we generate happy developers — happy developers who enjoy doing their job and that don’t see security, compliance and accessibility as a burden but as part of what makes them happy and what gets them to perform in their life,” Dohmke mentioned. And tasks like this are clearly part of that.
“I think, what we’re doing here is we’re disrupting ourselves with AI, with Copilot and with Codespaces, he added. “Those are all new investments that are away from the traditional GitHub — the old-school GitHub that had repos and issues and wikis — and keep pushing the boundary of what we believe is possible.”
But, he additionally careworn, this isn’t nearly huge bulletins and flashy occasions, but additionally specializing in the little fixes and options which may be simply as essential to maintain builders completely satisfied as new merchandise. “I think that’s our superpower: that we can balance the tiny bits with big wins and the big disruptions to our own business.”