Feature flag products have evolved into comprehensive management tools that allow teams to create variable-based groupings and release features on demand through no- or low-code interfaces. At a minimum, a solution in this space supports the toggling of feature flags with instant platform updates, an ability to set up A/B tests and experiments that target specific user audiences, and a kill switch mechanism for quick corrections. From a flexibility perspective, feature flag products typically support a wide range of common software development kits (SDKs) and platforms, and are scaled to handle billions of events each month.

Employing a feature flag solution enables enterprises to drive faster feedback loops during experimentation and through on-demand releases and highly granular user segment configuration. Feature flags also help minimize overall maintenance costs by reducing the need for multiple staging environments, and they also reduce risk and the need to roll back large deployments because individual features can be isolated as needed.

Leading vendors in this space have evolved beyond table stakes functionality and now offer comprehensive solutions aimed at supporting end-to-end CI/CD and product development. This includes built-in experimentation modules with custom statistical engines, highly customizable workflows that integrate with other deployment tooling, and advanced functionality to manage technical debt as necessary. Challengers in this space are quickly following suit. Prospective customers now have a number of choices: vendors may target developers or non-technical teams, offer standalone solutions or broad portfolios, and/or focus on niche use cases or support a range of user requirements.

This GigaOm Radar report highlights key feature flag vendors and equips IT decision-makers with the information needed to select the best fit for their business and use case requirements. In the corresponding GigaOm report “Key Criteria for Evaluating Feature Flag Solutions,” we describe in more detail the key features and metrics that are used to evaluate vendors in this market.

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Moving from continuous delivery to continuous deployment is an extremely valuable way for organizations to maintain a competitive edge. Continuous delivery is partly manual, whereas continuous deployment requires higher levels of automation, which also calls for a higher level of governance to be in place. FFs are used to toggle specific application capabilities on and off at execution time without deploying new code. Software development teams using continuous delivery or continuous deployment in an agile environment use FFs to manage the lifecycle of features being developed and released The benefits and use cases of this approach are summarized in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Comparative Summary of Development Stages With and Without Feature Flags

FFs enable developers to wrap new functionality in inactive code paths and activate the functionality at a later time. This approach helps with validating functionality in the production environment and reducing the number of code branches and environments.

FFs are also useful in situations when features must be released for a time-bound period (especially in connection with an event) or on a fractional basis, especially if the feature is partially complete, and there is a need to solicit feedback.

FFs assist with selectively releasing new features for canary releases, which are made available to a subset of the user base. FFs help development and operations (DevOps) teams understand user behaviors regarding new functionality as part of experimentation via A/B testing. Only a subset of users are offered the new functionality and their usage behaviors can be compared with the remaining user base. In addition, FFs enable experimentation to be delegated to product teams, conserving developer time and avoiding upsetting release schedules.

This GigaOm Key Criteria report details the criteria and evaluation metrics for selecting an effective FF solution. The companion GigaOm Radar report identifies vendors and products that excel on those criteria and metrics. Together, these reports provide an overview of this category and its underlying technology, identify leading feature flag offerings, and help decision-makers evaluate these solutions so they can make a more informed investment decision.

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To be considered a full-featured platform, a SaaS management platform (SMP) should enable SaaS financial operations (SaaSFinOps) to handle spend and contract renewal, as well as SaaS operations (SaaSOps) for user lifecycle and sensitive data management. Most SMPs started with a focus in one or the other of these areas and are now evolving to support both. They’re doing so by continuing to mature SMP foundations while investing in intelligence and emerging capabilities, as shown in Figure 1. The expectation is that vendors that deliver a full-featured platform will see wider adoption, while those that do not will become niche providers.

Full-featured SMP platforms enable a cross-functional, integrated SaaS application operating model that provides several benefits, including:

• Visibility of SaaS application usage, spend, security risks, and entitlements.
• Seamless integration for discovering and managing applications.
• Cost savings from reducing underutilized and redundant applications.
• Operational efficiencies and governance enabled by automated workflows and low-code development tools.
• On-time contract renewals with optimized entitlements aligned to application usage.
• Reduced security risks through discovery and remediation of unauthorized applications and exposed sensitive data.
• Continuous improvement enabled by insights, recommendations, benchmarks, and machine learning (ML).
• Increased user engagement, productivity, and satisfaction through use of an application catalog, along with sentiment surveys, intelligent provisioning recommendations, and collaboration analytics.

Figure 1. SMP Feature Specialization and Evolution

SMPs are generally priced per user seat based on the number of users in the company’s identity provider directory. In many cases, they offer a base tier, then higher tiers or add-ons for premium features. The ability to negotiate depends on the volume of users and the level at which the vendor sets the entry point. It’s important to map the desired features to each vendor’s pricing model and evaluate relative differences in pricing, as well as the floor and ceiling pricing across vendors. This market is still evolving, so pricing when renewing subscriptions is likely to change accordingly. Most vendors bundle basic support in the per-seat license costs. Some provide managed services for data curation, integration, and vendor management at additional cost.

This GigaOm Radar report highlights key SMP vendors and equips IT decision-makers with the information needed to select the best fit for their business and use case requirements. In the corresponding GigaOm report “Key Criteria for Evaluating SaaS Management Platforms,” we describe in more detail the key features and metrics that are used to evaluate vendors in this market.

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As Figure 1 shows, SaaS application management platforms (SMPs) enable more efficient operations by consolidating cost and application usage data through integration, creating an application inventory, identifying contract entitlement and cost savings, automating operational lifecycles, and enforcing security controls.

Figure 1. SMP Functions

SaaS applications require standard processes to address spending, operational, and security challenges. Unnecessary costs may be incurred when over-committing to contract entitlements or maintaining redundant or underused applications. Operational overhead grows when managing access, licensing, and user requests manually. Security risks escalate without proactive monitoring and remediation to protect sensitive data being stored in the applications.

Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and enterprises alike benefit from investing in an SMP:

• SMPs create an application catalog with visibility into all applications in use through discovery. The catalog enables collaboration and shared accountability across finance, IT, security, and sourcing departments for cost savings and operational efficiency. It is enriched with application spend, licensing, and usage data obtained directly from the managed applications.
• Spend management enables cost savings by identifying opportunities to reduce usage. Contract management enables cost savings by determining areas to cut or cross-level an entitlement.
• Operational efficiencies are achieved by using workflow automation to offload operations from people performing repetitive tasks. Security risks are reduced by leveraging application integration to identify locations where sensitive data is stored and using workflow automation to remediate access to exposed sensitive data.

The GigaOm Key Criteria and Radar reports provide an overview of the SMP market, identify capabilities (table stakes, key criteria, and emerging technology) and evaluation metrics for selecting an SMP, and detail vendors and products that excel. These reports will give prospective buyers an overview of the top vendors in this sector and will help decision-makers evaluate solutions and decide where to invest.

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