Why Public DevOps Companies Are Attracting Wall Street's Attention in 2026

Public devops companies have emerged as critical investment opportunities as organizations worldwide accelerate their digital transformation initiatives. The demand for efficient software delivery has never been more urgent, and Wall Street analysts are taking notice of the companies pioneering solutions in this space.

The Growing Opportunity in Public DevOps Companies

The software industry’s transformation is creating unprecedented demand for tools that bridge development and operations. Public devops companies are at the forefront of this shift, addressing a fundamental challenge: how to deliver software faster, more securely, and with greater reliability.

According to market research, the DevOps platform market is experiencing robust expansion, with projections indicating substantial growth through the late 2020s. This expansion reflects a broader recognition that software development velocity directly impacts competitive advantage. Companies across every sector now understand that accelerating software delivery cycles translates into faster time-to-market, shorter product development timeframes, and enhanced ability to respond to customer demands.

KeyBanc’s analyst Jason Celino, a 5-star rated researcher covering this sector, articulates the investment thesis clearly: “In today’s world, every company must become a software company to effectively compete. This reality places increased emphasis on faster software delivery cycles, because rapid delivery enables faster market entry, compressed feature development cycles, and stronger competitive differentiation.” He adds that public devops companies are essential to achieving these goals, particularly as generative AI tools begin to democratize software development capabilities.

GitLab: A Leading Public DevOps Company Reshaping Software Development

GitLab stands as one of the most compelling examples of a public devops company building transformative solutions. The company specializes in DevSecOps platforms that integrate security directly into the development lifecycle, offering an open-source foundation that enables rapid innovation.

Founded on the principle that “everyone can contribute,” GitLab has cultivated an ecosystem of over 30 million users, with approximately 1 million active paying customers. The company’s distributed workforce—spanning 2,000+ employees across 60 countries with 3,300+ open-source contributors—reflects its pioneering embrace of remote-first operations.

The company’s strategic acquisitions demonstrate its commitment to expanding capabilities. Recent moves like acquiring Oxeye, a cloud-native security specialist, enhance GitLab’s ability to detect vulnerabilities from code through cloud deployment. This “code to cloud” security tracing represents a critical evolution in modern DevOps practices.

Financially, GitLab continues demonstrating strong execution. The company’s recent fiscal results showed revenue growth exceeding 33% year-over-year, with expanding profitability metrics. Industry analysts view GitLab as well-positioned within a massive market opportunity, with potential for sustained mid-20% growth driven by product consolidation, pricing optimization, and improved conversion metrics.

JFrog: How This Public DevOps Company Powers Seamless Software Updates

JFrog represents another exemplary public devops company, though with a distinct focus: enabling organizations to deploy software updates invisible to end users. The company’s “liquid software” concept envisions a world where updates occur seamlessly, without interrupting user experience or requiring manual restarts.

The platform’s architecture supports DevOps, security operations, and IoT organizations, offering universal, hybrid, and multi-cloud capabilities. Millions of software developers rely on JFrog’s tools daily to automate the deployment process, reducing operational friction significantly.

The company’s customer metrics reveal strong market traction. As of late 2023, JFrog served approximately 7,400 customers, with a growing concentration of high-value accounts. The number of customers generating over $100,000 in annual recurring revenue increased substantially year-over-year, and enterprise customers (those exceeding $1 million ARR) demonstrated even more impressive growth rates. This trend reflects strong product-market fit and pricing power.

Recent financial performance shows JFrog maintaining healthy growth momentum, with revenue expansion in the 25-30% range and improving profitability. Analysts note the company’s opportunity to expand horizontally through adjacent product offerings, while also benefiting from the broader adoption of AI-assisted development tools that increase software artifact volumes.

What Makes These Public DevOps Companies Stand Out to Investors

Both companies share characteristics that appeal to sophisticated software investors. Each controls a leading independent platform within the DevOps ecosystem, operates at significant scale, and benefits from secular tailwinds including digital transformation, security consciousness, and automation adoption.

Wall Street consensus on both public devops companies reflects strong conviction: both receive “Strong Buy” ratings from analyst consensus surveys. KeyBanc’s Celino, in particular, views both as “must-own” positions within software portfolios, citing substantial untapped market opportunities, multiple near-term catalysts for accelerated growth, and potential for multiple expansion as execution improves.

The analyst identifies several specific growth drivers for these public devops companies, including product consolidation opportunities, pricing power improvements, AI-powered development tool integration, and the expansion of developer tool markets currently characterized by fragmentation.

The Future of Public DevOps Companies in AI-Driven Development

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of investing in public devops companies involves their positioning for AI-enabled software development. As generative AI tools democratize coding capabilities, the volume of software artifacts, builds, and deployments is poised to increase exponentially. Public devops companies that can intelligently manage this expanded workload—while maintaining security and reliability—will capture substantial value.

The convergence of AI adoption, security regulations, and organizational digitalization is creating structural tailwinds for this sector. Public devops companies are uniquely positioned to benefit from this convergence, as they provide the critical infrastructure underlying modern software delivery.

For investors seeking exposure to the software infrastructure revolution, understanding public devops companies—and their competitive positioning—represents an essential component of portfolio strategy.

Disclaimer: This analysis is based on publicly available information and analyst reports. Investment decisions should be made after conducting thorough independent research and consulting with financial advisors.