Software is what makes technology tick. It’s the programming that tells computers, mobile phones and other devices what to do and how to do it. Virtually all consumers and enterprises use software in one way or another, and new programs and applications are constantly emerging to push the limits of what technology can do. Keep reading to see how some of the world’s largest software companies have distinguished themselves in developing and maintaining popular software products.
Largest Software Companies
- Duo Security
- Microsoft
- Oracle
- Salesforce
- Adobe
- SAP
Software Companies to Know
Founded: 2010
Headquarters: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Duo Security offers cybersecurity products that focus on authentication processes that verify user identities through a series of protocols like receiving a phone call on their telephone number of record or relaying a texted code). Duo’s two-factor and multi-factor authentication processes are used by some of the largest companies and organizations in the world, from higher education institutions to Facebook and Airbnb.
Founded: 1975
Headquarters: Redmond, Washington
A household name in software with over 200,000 employees worldwide, Microsoft creates some of the most highly used productivity software on the market. In consumer software, it offers Skype for virtual communications, Teams for collaboration, Outlook for email and the enduringly popular word processing software Microsoft Word. On the enterprise side, the Windows 365 suite of programs serves businesses in every industry.
Founded: 1977
Headquarters: Austin, Texas
Oracle has been in business since Larry Ellison founded it in the 1970s and has long established itself as an iconic American computer tech company. It is responsible for a huge range of software offerings, from enterprise resource planning to database services, and it is the world’s largest provider of database management.
Founded: 1999
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Salesforce is a cloud software company that offers a full suite of tools, products and services underneath the umbrella of its integrated CRM system. It coheres the operations of each department of a company — like sales, marketing and customer service — creating an integrated and automation-heavy series of processes that optimize outcomes and limit redundancy.
Founded: 1982
Headquarters: San Jose, California
Computer software giant Adobe invented the PDF and continues to dominate the document solutions market with programs like Acrobat. It also offers Photoshop, the photo retouching and editing software that arguably sparked a generation of photo manipulation apps and tools.
Founded: 1972
Headquarters: Newtown Square, Pennsylvania
SAP makes enterprise software for businesses, including programs for enterprise resource planning and customer relations. SAP programs take complex business processes, centralize the data and return a single, coherent view of insights that is accessible to all departments of the business.
