Wily Technology

Wily Technology, established in 1998 by Lew Cirne, carved out the Application Performance Management (APM) category in the enterprise software market. Cirne, a computer science graduate from Dartmouth College with previous technical roles at Apple and Hummingbird Communications, single-handedly developed the initial technology. His vision was to create self-diagnostic Java programs during the early days of Web 1.0. The company's name was inspired by Cirne's affinity for complex and effective technologies, which he referred to as "wily technology".

The firm specialized in software that monitors the performance of web applications, enabling IT managers to diagnose bottlenecks and other issues, thereby ensuring application availability and performance. Its flagship product, Introscope, allowed for 24/7 monitoring of complex web applications, helping to identify problems down to specific servlets, EJB objects, and methods. The product suite also included tools like the Customer Experience Manager, which collected data non-intrusively to analyze network traffic and manage software modules. Wily's solutions were designed to have minimal performance impact, typically less than 5%, through lightweight traces and asynchronous sampling.

Wily Technology served a diverse client base across sectors such as finance, healthcare, media, telecommunications, retail, and government. By early 2006, the company had between 450 and 500 customers, including notable names like British Airways and FedEx.com. The business model focused on direct sales in North America, which accounted for about 90% of its revenue in the region, with an average deal size of approximately $200,000. After its founding, the company saw consistent growth, reporting $53 million in revenue in 2005, a 48% increase from the previous year. In 2003, it secured $15 million in a funding round led by Focus Ventures.

In March 2006, after eight years of operation, CA, Inc. (formerly Computer Associates) acquired Wily Technology for $375 million in an all-cash transaction. The acquisition was a strategic move by CA to enhance its application management portfolio and compete with other major players in the systems management space. Following the acquisition, Wily operated as a division within CA's enterprise systems management business unit. Lew Cirne, who had stepped down as CEO in 2001 to become CTO, later went on to found New Relic in 2008, a company that also specializes in APM, but with a Software as a Service (SaaS) model.

Keywords: Application Performance Management, APM, enterprise software, Lew Cirne, CA Technologies, Introscope, Java monitoring, web application performance, IT infrastructure management, application diagnostics, performance monitoring, root cause analysis, user experience management, transaction monitoring, enterprise systems management, software diagnostics, network traffic analysis, application availability, system monitoring, performance bottlenecks