What Is Perforce?

Many development teams today know that the Perforce name has roots with version control. But the company does so much more.

Today, Perforce helps enterprises succeed by delivering world-class solutions and support they need to accelerate digital transformation, innovate at scale, and achieve DevOps success.

In this blog, we cover how the company has evolved. Read along or jump to the section that interests you most:

What Is Perforce Software?

Perforce Software is a leading provider of development and DevOps solutions. This includes the original Perforce version management system, now called Helix Core, as well as dynamic development, intelligent testing, risk management, and boundaryless collaboration solutions.

History of Perforce: We Started with Version Control

Perforce Software was founded in 1995 in Alameda, California. In 2016, the company headquarters moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since then, the company has grown significantly.

Perforce was the name of our version control solution for 20 years. When you say Perforce, many development teams still think version control.

However, the name of our version control solution has evolved from its roots as Perforce to Helix Core.

From Perforce to Helix Core

Our version control was called Perforce for 20 years, from 1995 to 2015. In 2015, it was renamed Perforce Helix — or Helix for short. In 2017, Perforce Helix evolved to Helix Core.

Today, Helix Core is the leading version control software for world-class development at enterprise scale. It’s used by some of the world’s leading companies in industries from game development to semiconductor.

Teams around the world trust Helix Core so they can:

• Spend less time dealing with tools and processes — and more time delivering value.
• Stop wasting developer’s time with manual workflows — and let them get back to coding.
• Handle everything — from 10s of 1,000s of users to petabytes of data.
• Tie what changed to why it changed — and create a complete version history.

Helix Core’s evolution doesn’t stop there. We continue to evolve the solution to meet growing market demands for managing assets in game development, virtual production, and embedded development (including automotive).

Learn More About Helix Core >>

Perforce and P4

Perforce also uses the acronym P4 for clients and tools related to Helix Core, including:

• P4 (Helix Command-Line Client)
• P4V (Helix Visual Client)
• P4Merge (Merge & Diff Tool)

P4 is also used for plug-ins for Helix Core:

• P4VS (Helix Plug-in for Visual Studio)
• P4Plugin for Jenkins
• P4Eclipse (Helix Plug-in for Eclipse)
• P4GT (Helix Plug-in for Graphical Tools)
• P4EXP (Helix Plug-in for File Explorer)

P4 is also used for commands in Helix Core, including in P4V. Get a list of P4 commands in the Perforce cheat sheet >>

Examples: How Perforce Powers Businesses to Succeed Today

Our mission at Perforce is to help our customers succeed in increasingly competitive markets, including game development, virtual production, semiconductor, automotive, and financial services. As Perforce has grown, we’ve added technologies that support these markets.

Perforce Powers Game Development

19 of the top 20 AAA game development studios use Helix Core from Perforce to build award-winning games. Using Helix Core delivers a competitive edge that pays off fast. Many game development studios, like Tequila Works, achieve ROI within a year.

Here are some examples of how Helix Core enables massive game development success:

• CD Projekt Red accelerates development with Helix Core. They used to spend one-third of their day on tasks related to versioning; they recouped that time with Helix Core.
• IO Interactive has used Helix Core to create Hitman bestsellers for over 10 years.
• Cloud Imperium Games uses Helix Core to support DevOps workflows and deliver a better product faster.

Perforce Powers Virtual Production

Virtual production is an emerging industry, partially due to COVID-19. And VFX studios are turning to game development tools to achieve success. That’s why we’re seeing demand for Helix Core to support virtual production workflows.

Perforce Powers Semiconductor Development

9 of the 10 top semiconductor companies use Helix Core and Helix IPLM (formerly Methodics IPLM) from Perforce to accelerate time-to-market. Using Perforce solutions helps semiconductor companies lower costs, get to market faster, and reduce risk.

Here are some examples of how Perforce solutions enable semiconductor development success:

• Seagate achieves DevOps success with Helix Core.
• NVIDIA automated repetitive tasks and achieves faster, more reliable backups with Helix Core. 
• Mixed-Signal Engineering gained true design collaboration and scales as they grow with Helix IPLM.   

Perforce Powers Automotive Development

9 of the top 10 automotive companies use Perforce solutions — including Helix QAC — to deliver safe, secure, and reliable software. Using Helix QAC supports ISO 26262 compliance and ensures quality.

Here are some examples of how Perforce solutions enable automotive development success:

• Delphi Diesel saw quality and consistency of code skyrocket by using Helix QAC.
• Protean Electric finds issues that other tools would miss by using Helix QAC.

Perforce Powers Financial Services

Over 1,000 of the world’s financial institutions rely on Perforce solutions — including Perfecto, OpenLogic, Akana — to reduce risk, accelerate delivery, and increase customer satisfaction.

Here are some examples of how Perforce solutions enable financial services success:

• A leading U.S. bank reduced mobile app testing from three days to just 35 minutes with Perfecto.
• A financial services company saved $1,000s over Red Hat and innovated without risk by enlisting OpenLogic.
• A Fortune 500 company ensures that its APIs perform extremely well to keep customers happy by using Akana.
• A North American bank got more consumable and easier to use APIs that opened doors to new, innovative partnerships with IoT and disruptive FinTech companies by using Akana.

Perforce Support Powers Teams Everywhere

Perforce support is renowned as the best in the industry by customers everywhere — which is why Perforce has industry-leading renewal rates.

Here are some examples of feedback that we’ve received from customers around the world:

• “Perforce stands behind their product and has always been willing to go the extra step to help us succeed!”
• “If there would be a 6th star I would given that! Always fast and very precise.”
• “Support jumps in and saves the day!”

What Are the Perforce DevOps Solutions?

Perforce DevOps and development solutions enable dynamic development, intelligent testing, risk management, and boundaryless collaboration.

Here’s how our solutions help you solve DevOps challenges.  

Plan

Helix ALM

Helix ALM is an application lifecycle management tool. Use it to manage requirements, test cases, and issues with complete traceability.

"Helix ALM helped us go from Word docs to compliance and CE certification in record time." — Ann Rossi, Senior Software Quality Assurance Manager, Fractyl

Helix Plan

Helix Plan (formerly Hansoft) is an Agile project management tool. Use it to plan, track, and manage progress (including Agile, Waterfall, hybrid Agile methods).

"Choosing [Helix Plan] is a no-brainer. Looking at the results so far, I’m confident we made the right decision.” — Eddie Zhang, Lead Project Manager, Giant Interactive

Gliffy

Gliffy is a diagramming tool available online, as well as for Atlassian’s Confluence and Jira. Use it to communicate and collaborate better.

“Gliffy has a low barrier to entry — I have yet to encounter any employee at CarGurus that cannot immediately understand what to do or how to do it.” — Daniel Renfro, Principal Architect, Technical Learning & Knowledge Management at CarGurus

Create

Helix Core

Helix Core is the original Perforce version control software. Use it to version everything — code, digital assets, binary files, etc. — for world-class development at scale.

“Helix Core reduced release timelines tremendously." — David Kaye, CRYENGINE Lead System Engineer at Crytek

Helix Swarm

Helix Swarm is the code review tool for Helix Core. Use it to review code, collaborate faster, automate workflows, and monitor progress.

Helix TeamHub

Helix TeamHub is a code management platform. Use it to host Git, SVN, and Mercurial repositories. You can also do Git code reviews.

Helix4Git

Helix4Git is a Git server inside a Perforce server. Use it to bring Git code into your build pipelines.

Helix IPLM

Helix IPLM provides IP lifecycle management and traceability solutions. Use it to manage intellectual property and reuse IP across teams with traceability and security.

“Helix IPLM offered a powerful solution by providing use with a collaborative platform to perform IP reuse more efficiently and in a sustainable, scalable way.” — Rick Stawicki, Executive Director, EDA Engineering, Maxim Integrated

JRebel and XRebel

JRebel and XRebel are Java application development tools. Use them to build better Java applications faster.

“JRebel boosts our productivity and reduces the time spent on restarts, which helps us speed up our debugging processes.” — Lead Software Engineer at Digital Economy Solutions

Test and Validate

BlazeMeter

BlazeMeter is an end-to-end continuous testing platform. It helps unlock shift-left testing with powerful tools like mock services, synthetic test data, and API monitoring – combining functional and performance testing in a single, intuitive workflow.

"With BlazeMeter, our main gains were in agility and efficiency in the execution of performance tests and delivery of post-test reports. It has helped us to implement shift-left testing." – Technology Services Specialist, Financial Services Firm

Perfecto

Perfecto is a web and mobile app testing platform. Use it to test throughout the SDLC with scalable test automation in the cloud.

“Perfecto has helped us think differently. It has enabled us to align delivery of a great desktop web experience while also ensuring a great mobile browser experience, with little automation code change.” – Darrell Kennedy, Director of QA, Elevate

TestCraft

TestCraft is codeless Selenium test automation software. Use it to create codeless test scripts — no framework required — with AI maintenance.

“With the code-free nature of TestCraft we were able to quickly and efficiently train our entire testing team to create automated tests." — Chen Halio, Director of Quality, Phoenix Insurance

Helix QAC

Helix QAC is static code analysis software for C and C++. Use it to ensure safe, secure, and reliable code for functional safety compliance.

“Since we began using the Helix QAC and the MISRA compliance module, the quality and consistency of our first generation code has skyrocketed. Our final products have been virtually error-free.” — Stuart Jobbins, Head of Software Development at Delphi Diesel

Klocwork

Klocwork is a static code analysis software for C, C++, C#, and Java. Use it to improve the quality and security of your code.

"Even with a relatively small development team, we estimate 900 person hours saved by using Klocwork." — Justin Thomas, Software Team Lead, APL C&C

Operate, Manage, and Scale

Akana

Akana is a full lifecycle API management tool. Use it to design, secure, manage, and publish APIs.

Puppet

Puppet is an IT and infrastructure automation and configuration management solution. Use it to build, automate, configure, and enforce infrastructure at scale across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid.

"We are automating the heck out of everything ... Having the right tools and capabilities, like Puppet, makes it possible." – Mithran Naiker, CTO, Transurban

OpenLogic

OpenLogic is an open source support solution. Use it to get enterprise support on 100s of open source projects.

"Easy process. Great support. Frankly, the overall process was easier than we thought it would be, and the support we get from OpenLogic is better than what we previously had." — CTO at Financial Services Company

Zend

Zend is an enterprise PHP development and longterm PHP support solution. Use it to cut risk, save time, and simplify upgrades on PHP.

TotalView

TotalView is an HPC debugging software. Use it to debug C/C++, Fortran, and Python supercomputer applications.

IMSL

IMSL is a numerical libraries solution. Use it to get battle-tested algorithms for data mining and analysis in C/C++, Fortran, Java, and Python.

SourcePro

SourcePro is a collection of cross-platform C++ tools. Use it to reduce time-to-market, increase reliability, and extend the life of your applications.

HostAccess

HostAccess is a suite of terminal emulation software. Use it to secure access to legacy, host-based applications.

HydraExpress

HydraExpress is a development and hosting framework for high performance C++ web services. Use it to respond to rapidly evolving customer needs and market changes.

PV-WAVE

PV-WAVE is visual data analysis software. Use it to rapidly import, manipulate, analyze, and visualize data.

Stingray

Stingray is a GUI development tool for Windows. Use it to develop complex GUI applications that are easy to build, maintain, and evolve.

Visualization

Visualization is a toolset for visualization in C++, Java, and Adobe Flex. Use it to upgrade user interfaces to highly-interactive, highly-graphical displays.

Discover the Power of Perforce

Through this comprehensive solution set, Perforce accelerates time to market and reduces risk in technology development environments where the cost of failure is high.

See for yourself how your team can leverage the power of Perforce and gain a competitive edge. Contact us to get started.

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