About Devada

We build the communities where developers and tech professionals learn, share and collaborate, so that, together we connect the world’s digital innovators

Our Values

Helping Developers Help Each Other is in our DNA.
ASSUME POSITIVE INTENT

We respect each other’s contributions, trust each other to do our best work, and take responsibility for the big picture together.

WORK TOGETHER

We partner with each other and our communities to understand what matters most and to achieve that with integrity, efficiency and a focus on excellence.

SOLVE PROBLEMS THOUGHTFULLY

We do what it takes as individuals and teams to solve problems with creativity, resourcefulness, urgency and accountability.

ROLL WITH THE CHANGES

We never rest on the status quo, continuously adapt to change and move with agility to continuously improve.

NEVER STOP LEARNING

We are curious, invest in ourselves, our teams and our communities, and we learn from our differences.

Devada’s History

Write once. Run anywhere.

That was a revolutionary idea in computer programming in 1995. And it became the eventual spark for two businesses – DZone.com and AnswerHub.

As the commercial internet came into existence, Devada’s founders saw the intense interest in Java, the write-once, run anywhere programming language that would become the underlying infrastructure for the entire worldwide web. They also saw a need that wasn’t being met – to enable Java developers to connect, share and learn from each other. Online bulletin boards existed, but they had no cohesive structure.

That changed with the founding of JavaLobby in 1997.

JavaLobby was less a product than a labor of love for the founders advocating for Java developers. It gave Java developers a place where they could talk code with their peers around the language that was driving the rise of the commercial internet.

As the Javalobby community grew, the founders saw a need for more than just forums, so the company added contributed articles for community members and in 2005 the Developer Zone was launched. The origins of the DeveloperZone (shortened to DZone in 2006) became the basis of the company and unlike traditional digital tech media sites, DZone.com focused on user (community) contributed content, something it still does today via its robust, global contributor network.

As the company grew, its hometown (the Research Triangle Park region) was becoming a hotbed for open source innovation with the rise of Red Hat (an early advertiser whose developers still contribute content to DZone) and later Epic Games. Over time, DZone added other forms of content called Refcards (tutorials and how-tos) and Guides, which provide overviews and expert opinion on developer trends as well as other developer-centric topics.

As DZone gained in popularity, more customers asked about adding a Q&A component to the company’s offerings. The concept of inviting developers to collaborate with a Q&A component was the impetus for Devada’s second product, AnswerHub. Companies wanted to create and grow their own communities where developers could ask questions and get answers about their products, service and support as well as share knowledge, collaborate with each other and learn the latest best practices.

The first offering focused on enabling Q&A capability, was an open source private community tool called OSQA. Early OSQA customers such as Epic Games and eBay liked the product so much that they asked for an enterprise version and AnswerHub was launched in 2011.

You’ve likely heard the quote “All companies are software companies” from Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella. It also describes AnswerHub’s clients today. We provide companies with a SaaS-based platform and toolset that help them build internal and external communities that enable developers and tech professionals to share knowledge, collaborate with each other and learn the latest best practices. Companies like SAP, Amazon, Nationwide, Discover and Epic Games utilize AnswerHub to drive great value and ROI for their companies and communities.

And DZone continues to help developers around the world grow and thrive. From its origins as JavaLobby, DZone now has 14 content-focused thematic zones covering Agile to WebDev which provide value to 36 million unique readers each year, a network of thousands of developer-contributed articles, and specialty publications like Refcards and Trend Reports.

In 2018, we brought both the DZone and AnswerHub brands under the corporate name Devada with a focus on “developers helping developers”. Developer collaboration comes in many forms, and Devada helps with all of them.