The past few months have brought a trend of consolidation in the enterprise space.
In response to the explosive popularity of agile startups like Slack, many enterprise giants have been consolidating power and influence to keep their holds on the industry. On one end of the spectrum, companies like Red Hat and Microsoft are forming strategic partnerships to knock out impending competition on key platforms. Meanwhile, companies like Oracle have been purchasing startups in attempts to subsume their services before these smaller fish grow to take over the pond.
The true motivation of these large companies is clear. Behind these drastic moves is a concentrated effort to stem the growth of startup competition and stop the disruption of this once securely held industry. However, startups can take steps to ensure they remain not only competitive, but also ahead of the curve.