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October 1, 2024 · 4 min read timeSix software and business architects founded the digital engineering company 17 years ago. At the time, the group didn't have a clear picture of what the future would bring – no one could have imagined that Nitor would grow to over 300 experts and expand its business into multiple countries. What does Nitor look like today, and what does Azure have to do with it?
Nitor's CTO Tommi Laitila and Chief Technologist Mika Majakorpi joined the Ikkunastudio podcast. The discussion centered on timeless topics, such as how to build a software company, why companies must adapt quickly, and the future of cloud environments.
In the beginning, there was architect
As a business architect and agile methods coach, Laitila is one of the founders of Nitor. He saw the early growth steps firsthand and witnessed the organisation embracing agility when few understood it.
Our original plan was to be hotshot consultants and architects. But we quickly realised that we wanted to be the ones creating innovations ourselves. For that, we needed additional expertise.
So, they brought in developers. Then, they saw the need for quality assurance, leading to a growing demand for design. Along the way, the digital engineers recognised a widespread need for large-scale agile transformation among clients. The need led to Nitor creating its agile services, including organisational change support and agile coaching. The company has continued on a path of steady, organic growth driven by customer needs.
"Most of Nitor's early team had already left their consulting roles due to myriad challenges. Returning to familiar positions was met with scepticism by many. The desire to mitigate issues and create something better nevertheless outweighed the doubts. This value still holds for all Nitor employees today," Laitila says.
As time went on, cloud services adoption grew rapidly. Clients began to discard their own data centres, which were often managed by external partners. The shift created a need for continuous cloud and system management, and Nitor responded by launching 24/7 support services.
In the early days, Nitor didn't have the same growth ambition as it does today. We just wanted to do cool stuff and fix flaws in the consulting business.
- Tommi Laitila
Nitor's workforce has since grown organically into a community of over 300 professionals whose core strength is focus on professional development and collaboration. Colleagues know Chief Technologist Mika Majakorpi as a reliable team player constantly striving to enhance teamwork's social aspect and strategy.
One of the ways Nitor safeguards its position at the forefront of technological development is through internal Crystal Ball Sessions, where employees come together to identify future trends and direction.
"The other thing about the Crystal Ball Sessions is Nitor Core Time. Each individual can spend 10% of their working hours on personal development projects. The topics often align with the Crystal Ball session," Majakorpi says.
Genuine understanding of customer needs
The philosophy of quality and efficiently solving customer problems lives strong today. Nitor's digital engineers often work with critical business continuity systems, where platform selection builds on individual needs. Known as a provider of custom solutions, the company has also begun to adopt ready-made products in digital solution development.
"Rather than basic tasks, we focus our R&D where we can innovate and differentiate. Our expertise lies in showing the customer various ways to address their needs. Nitor has a full suite of services from service designers to architects and developers, which helps create comprehensive solutions," Laitila explains.
Differentiation builds on a strong total cost mindset and a genuine understanding of the customer's environment. The process entails identifying existing expertise within the company, as Nitor seeks to create long-lasting solutions that sit in the customer's ecosystem. For the same reason, Nitor wants to profile itself as an agnostic multi-cloud operator.
Many software firms focus strongly on one cloud environment. Nitor, however, has, from the outset, wanted to master all platforms to remain independent and to cater to the customer's best interest in all situations.
"We initially leaned heavily toward open source, utilising a lot of AWS and Google clouds and technologies. But Microsoft has made some eye-catching moves. Azure might now attract customers due to its AI capabilities, even if some critical business applications run on a different cloud. Our multi-cloud expertise allows us to extract the strongest benefits from different clouds where available, choosing only the best bits of each one," Majakorpi says.
No wonder Azure development at Nitor has seen solid growth. Both developers and customers are drawn to it. Nitor's experts have undergone training to acquire essential Azure certifications. The upcoming Microsoft data centres in Finland will allow data storage within national borders, and data centre proximity will minimise latency.
"Our crystal ball tells us that Azure is attracting much attention right now, and at Nitor, we've upped our game accordingly. Developers here decide in which direction they want to take their skills. As for multi-cloud, it's been crucial to allocate more time and resources to it," Laitila says.
Get the full story on how a group of six architects became today's Nitor on the Ikkunastudio podcast (interview in Finnish)!
