Start 30 days free, no card. Full Pro access for a month, then decide. Start free
Analyst
Eric Heath
Period: Reporting periods mapped to calendar 2024 Q4 – 2026 Q2 (7 quarters; questions recorded in 6).
- Questions
- 13on tracked calls
- Challenge rate
- 8%1 of 13 questions
- Companies
- 5questioned at least once
- Reporting periods
- 6with questions
These figures cover the whole profile: every tracked question, all reporting periods.
How to read these numbers
Challenge rate is the share of questions that pushed back, pressed for specifics or questioned management’s assumptions. It describes how questions were asked on the calls tracked here; it does not measure whether any view turned out to be right.
Rounding. Rates are rounded to whole percentages, so a small share can show as 0% even when some questions were challenging. The count beside each rate is exact; “none of N questions” means no question was challenging.
No questions recorded. “—” means there is nothing to calculate: no questions were recorded for that period on the calls tracked here. It does not mean there was no activity.
Fewer than 3 questions. A company-level rate is withheld when fewer than 3 questions were recorded for that company; the questions are still counted everywhere else.
Small samples. Profiles with fewer than 10 questions are marked Limited sample.
Reporting periods. Questions are grouped by the calendar quarter each company’s fiscal reporting period maps to, not by the date of the call. Periods without a calendar mapping are listed separately under their fiscal label.
Questions asked
Grouped by company, most questions first. Open a company to read its questions, newest reporting period first.
Showing 13 of 13 questions from 5 companies
DDOGDatadog5 questions · 3 reporting periods · 0 of 5 challenging
Calendar 2026 Q2
get your thoughts on the impact of diversification of AI model usage in your customers and what you're seeing there?
Show response
Olivier said model diversification is positive, creating opportunity and complexity Datadog helps manage, and that open-source model proliferation opens a new market as customers do more of their own training.
It seems like it's a little below your sequential levels of how you've guided your previous Q3s.
Show response
David attributed the Q3 guide to the same conservative methodology plus the incorporated decline at the recently renewed largest customer, but did not detail the specific assumptions the analyst asked for.
Calendar 2025 Q3
How meaningful this can be for 2026 as a differentiator versus competition and also as a revenue contributor
Show response
Pomel noted very positive feedback with some customers already purchasing. Monetization impact may come from Bits AI directly or from broader platform differentiation driving usage. Many teams now working on deepening capabilities.
Calendar 2024 Q4
curious from displacement activity that you're seeing with some of the recent M&A takeouts on the SIEM and log management vendors
Show response
Pomel noted majority of Flex Logs migrations start with DevOps use cases, with SIEM following; historically SIEM was harder to convert.
which parts of the core observability platform that you think are most relevant or going to be most beneficial to your business
Show response
Pomel described growing customer adoption of LLM Observability for agent workloads, noting rapid evolution in the market.
ZSZscaler3 questions · 3 reporting periods · 0 of 3 challenging
Calendar 2026 Q1
AI agents will drive a lot of network traffic. So Jay, Kevin, just how should we think about how you can monetize that increased traffic?
Show response
Jay said AI agents accessing applications or talking agent-to-agent should go through Zero Trust Exchange. One hijacked agent could infect entire enterprise without Zero Trust. More agentic traffic = more revenue. Probably the biggest upside for Zscaler growth.
Calendar 2025 Q4
is the outperformance relative to your expectations because the book of firewall business up for refresh maybe was bigger or earlier than you anticipated
Show response
Jay said deals aren't driven by refresh cycles but by the story: eliminate lateral movement (ransomware defense), cost savings from removing multiple branch products. Only 450 customers done, millions of branches remain.
Calendar 2025 Q3
Could you just talk about your exposure to retail and specifically as we think about fiscal 2026, calendar 2026, how are you thinking about the opportunity for Zero Trust branch in the retail segment
Show response
Jay said retail is a priority sector for Zero Trust Branch in FY2026. Retail branches are straightforward and similar to each other, making deployment rollout easier. Progression: small branches → larger branches → plants/factories.
CRWDCrowdStrike2 questions · 2 reporting periods · 0 of 2 challenging
Calendar 2026 Q2
Do the pricing models need to move to more of a token based pricing model? Just how do you see this evolving?
Show response
George said Flex already contemplates token and credit consumption, so the company can layer token-based pricing in over time as the market evolves.
Calendar 2025 Q4
I believe this part of the infrastructure stack historically was never able to support endpoint agents before. So does this expand the endpoint TAM
Show response
Kurtz confirmed F5 partnership expands TAM to previously unprotectable appliance infrastructure. Already seeing conversion of non-customers through F5 deployments within a week.
FTNTFortinet2 questions · 2 reporting periods · 1 of 2 challenging
Calendar 2025 Q2
product revenue, excluding this refresh benefit has been flat to negative in the last couple of quarters. So can you just help me understand why the underlying firewall demand isn't stronger?
Show response
Ken pushed back on the flat-to-negative framing, emphasizing refresh is a small percentage of total business since products are 12-15 years old. Positioned the raised billings guidance as evidence of broader demand strength.
Calendar 2024 Q4
How should we be thinking about inventory levels in anticipation of that demand?
Show response
Keith indicated target inventory turns around 2x. Christiana said upgrade assumptions are more gradual than spiky, with second-half acceleration as end-of-service dates approach.
MDBMongoDB, Inc.1 question · 1 reporting period · 0 of 1 challenging
Calendar 2024 Q4
should we structurally rethink the EA business differently and think of this more as a healthy double-digit growth
Show response
Michael reaffirmed the run-anywhere strategy and EA investment via community, while Dev said FY25 cohort quality is too early to call.
Challenge rate by company
Every company this analyst questioned, most questions first. A company-level rate is shown from 3 questions; below that it is withheld.
| Company | Questions | Challenge rate |
|---|---|---|
| DDOG Datadog | 5 | 0%none of 5 questions |
| ZS Zscaler | 3 | 0%none of 3 questions |
| CRWD CrowdStrike | 2 | —Rate withheld: fewer than 3 questions |
| FTNT Fortinet | 2 | —Rate withheld: fewer than 3 questions |
| MDB MongoDB, Inc. | 1 | —Rate withheld: fewer than 3 questions |
Activity by reporting period
Questions recorded for each calendar quarter that companies’ reporting periods map to (not the call date), with the challenge rate for that period. Periods inside the range with no questions are shown as “No questions recorded”.
| Calendar period | Questions | Challenge rate | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q4 | 4 | 0%none of 4 questions | 3 |
| 2025 Q1 | No questions recorded | — | — |
| 2025 Q2 | 1 | 100%1 of 1 question | 1 |
| 2025 Q3 | 2 | 0%none of 2 questions | 2 |
| 2025 Q4 | 2 | 0%none of 2 questions | 2 |
| 2026 Q1 | 1 | 0%none of 1 question | 1 |
| 2026 Q2 | 3 | 0%none of 3 questions | 2 |
- 2024 Q44 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 4 questions) · 3 companies
- 2025 Q1No questions recorded
- 2025 Q21 question · challenge rate 100% (1 of 1 question) · 1 company
- 2025 Q32 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 2 questions) · 2 companies
- 2025 Q42 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 2 questions) · 2 companies
- 2026 Q11 question · challenge rate 0% (none of 1 question) · 1 company
- 2026 Q23 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 3 questions) · 2 companies
Topics
Topics tagged on this analyst’s questions.
- Product Launch4
- Demand4
- Cloud & AI4
- Competitive Dynamics4
- Revenue Growth3
- Innovation & R&D2
- Pricing1
- Guidance Reliability1
- M&A1
- Inventory1