Ashan Willy - CEO of New Relic

How Observability is Shaping the Future of Cloud and SaaS with Ashan Willy
As cloud environments and SaaS models grow increasingly complex, observability has become a crucial element in ensuring the stability, performance, and scalability of modern applications. With the shift to microservices, multi-cloud architectures, and dynamic infrastructure, businesses must be able to monitor and understand their systems in real-time to detect issues, optimize performance, and deliver seamless user experiences. In today's interview with Ashan Willy from New Relic, we discuss New Relic's $6.5 billion acquisition, its transition into a new chapter, and how its observability model is central to achieving strategic growth. We also dive into strategic leadership, discussing how to steer innovation and manage ambiguity in such a dynamic and competitive landscape.
Ashan Willy is the CEO of New Relic, the most widely used observability platform in the world. New Relic invented application performance monitoring (APM) and evolved it into an all-in-one observability platform that gives valuable insights and remediation to operators. Ashan has over 25 years of leadership experience in engineering, product management, worldwide strategy and planning across global markets. He has held senior leadership positions with organizations throughout the Information Security, Networking, Unified Communications, Cloud Security, and SaaS industries.
Tune in!
What You Will Learn:
[00:01] Intro and what is in for you in today’s show
[01:00] New Relic acquisition by Francisco Partners and TPG and its transition
[03:09] What Ashan is excited about and has learned from his new role as a CEO
[05:18] Ashan’s Internal discoveries and New Relic’s position as a software company
[07:33] Why New Relic stands as an attractive SaaS model in the tech landscape
[09:31] Ashan’s vision and strategic roadmap for leading New Relic into its new chapter
[13:42] How New Relic works with companies to prepare for high-traffic events like Black Friday
[14:52] Ashan’s leadership journey: Evolution, challenges, and personal growth
[18:11] Navigating ambiguity: How Ashan manages uncertainty as part of his leadership role
[21:15] How Ashan knew he was on the right path and positioned himself for success
[22:56] Ending the interview
Standout Quotes:
“Tough problems role upwards in leadership and you have to deal with ambiguity” [18:14]
“You have to get comfortable getting into a decision that is not going to be always right, but you also have to do the work and understand that you are making the best decision with people you trust and all the information you have.” [19:45]
“If you haven’t gone the right direction, the genius is to figure out what is going wrong with your execution and pivot.” [20:18]