IT Outsourcer Globant Sells Innovation, Wows Google, LinkedIn

In 2006, when Google was preparing to launch its e-commerce platform, Google Checkout, it had to try to break it, a crucial step in any software development process. While some of that testing happens in-house, developers often outsource some of the time-consuming task to low-cost shops that can throw a lot of people at it to click all over the site looking for bugs and vulnerabilities.

In this case, Google wanted a robust test to attack the complex payment system, simulating the battering it could expect in the real world. The search giant hired Globant, then a 350-employee Buenos Aires startup that had germinated in a bar in 2003. Within a few months the software development and services company was back with surprising results. It had mounted an unexpected attack (using PHP, a computer language not typically used by Google but popular with app developers) to inject deceptive information, successfully stealing money.