Video: 10 Minute IT Jams – Who is ThousandEyes?

ThousandEyes, the global internet and cloud intelligence firm, is preparing to join tech giant Cisco, setting the stage for what executives say will be a 'game-changing' collaboration for network visibility and digital business resilience.

In a year defined by unprecedented digital upheaval, Mike Hicks, Principal Solutions Analyst at ThousandEyes, spoke to ten-minute IT about the company's mission, the rationale behind its new acquisition, and the mounting importance of monitoring the internet as organisations worldwide come to depend on it for critical operations.

"We provide a 360-degree view of your digital ecosystem - across the cloud, SaaS, and the internet," Hicks said, summarising ThousandEyes' core offering. "We do this by combining the internet and wide-area network visibility, browser synthetic tests, and endpoint monitoring, all synthesised into actionable insights."

ThousandEyes, headquartered in San Francisco but operating globally, has built a reputation for giving businesses clear, actionable intelligence about service and application delivery across the open internet. "ThousandEyes was built originally to empower customers to see the internet and the cloud like it is their own environment," Hicks explained. This, he added, is especially vital as the intensity of cloud migration and digital transformation efforts accelerates.

As companies lean ever more heavily on the internet as a delivery mechanism, Hicks said, "We're going to make that sort of visibility accessible to them so they can see what's happening for their mission-critical applications, cloud services, and websites." ThousandEyes achieves this by capturing data from globally distributed vantage points: "They're in data centres, virtual private clouds, end-user devices. We combine these together to expose the impact on application service delivery—the stuff customers and employees actually rely on day-to-day."

Some of the world's largest brands already depend on ThousandEyes' technology. "Microsoft, Salesforce—these are global brands using ThousandEyes to truly understand their environments and ensure optimal customer and employee experiences," Hicks said. Locally, he added that companies in Australia and New Zealand have adopted the platform to monitor and enhance digital performance.

The company's recent news, though, has turned particular heads: Cisco announced in late May its intention to acquire ThousandEyes, with the deal expected to complete later this year. "Very exciting. We're very excited about it," said Hicks, reflecting the prevailing mood at ThousandEyes. "From a customer perspective, we're bringing Cisco's strength in network and application performance together with ThousandEyes' internet visibility. It's going to provide a complete view with our lens on user experiences and digital service delivery."

Describing the synergy of the two firms, Hicks said its greatest value is perhaps in the ability "to break down silos and keep pace with the demands of digital business." Cisco plans to incorporate ThousandEyes' capabilities across its suite of networking and cloud products, aiming to enhance performance monitoring and issue remediation for enterprise clients.

That mission became more urgent as the COVID-19 pandemic pushed enterprises to rely more than ever on cloud platforms and remote connectivity. "The last few years have seen a rapid acceleration of cloud adoption, widespread use of SaaS applications, and a seismic reliance on the internet," Hicks said. "This increased dependence on the internet and third-party infrastructures has only compounded in the past several months."

Against this backdrop, traditional IT teams have struggled to maintain control and visibility. "The internet is vast and unpredictable—a compound of thousands of independently managed service providers, any of which can impact user experience," Hicks explained. Recent months brought "unprecedented levels of outages in the wake of the pandemic and lockdown orders." In March, global outages increased by more than 90% over February levels, and have remained high since.

He noted that most outages were concentrated among telecommunications providers—accounting for 80% of total incidents—and had regionally varied impacts. For instance, North American outages typically occurred during local off-hours, likely due to maintenance, but with knock-on effects for users as far away as Australia or New Zealand, sometimes even during peak hours. Outages in EMEA regions, Hicks pointed out, tended to spread throughout the day, often disrupting business in real time.

"It's a massive problem to mind—impossible, really, for any one organisation to monitor the entire internet," he said. "Businesses need to take into account these third-party dependencies in their planning, to be able to tap into actual performance data and collaborate with cloud or internet providers in order to manage outages before they impact customers."

ThousandEyes' approach—leveraging a global fleet of monitoring agents—aims to give enterprises that superpower, regardless of where their staff or customers are based. "Whether you detect an incident via your helpdesk or see it directly in our tools, you can identify if a problem is outside your own domain and communicate immediately what you're doing to work around it," Hicks added.

In the Australia and New Zealand market, ThousandEyes has established a strong local presence, supported by growing market demand. "We have offices around the globe, including in Australia," Hicks said. "Recently, we've brought two senior sales executives on board here as we ramp up to meet the needs of the market."

Resource-wise, Hicks also pointed to an array of digital tools for IT managers seeking immediate insight: free internet outage maps, software trials, a weekly podcast series called The Internet Report, and multiple live support channels. "The best way to reach out to me is through email, or feel free to connect via LinkedIn. We also run a try-before-you-buy trial—you can see for yourself how the tools work, what's happening in real time around the world, and get a feel for how it might solve your specific problems."

As businesses face this new wave of digital opportunity and vulnerability, the ability to see what's happening beyond the company firewall has never been more vital. "It's all about empowering organisations with visibility so they can deliver consistent employee and customer service, no matter what's happening in the wider internet," Hicks concluded. "That's the problem we wake up every day to solve."