Quest Software's best-known tool was called TOAD, and it spread through companies one administrator at a time. Behind every big business application sat a database, and keeping it fast and healthy was a full-time job. Quest made tools for the people who did that job, beginning with Oracle databases. When it filed to go public in the summer of 1999, companies ran more critical systems than ever, and their administrators were stretched thin.

Tools From the Ground Up

Quest was founded in 1987 in Southern California. Its bet was simple: database and application administrators needed better tools than the vendors gave them. Quest sold practical utilities, such as TOAD for Oracle developers, that solved everyday problems. Administrators bought what saved them time, and many of Quest's products spread inside companies from the ground up. It later moved its headquarters within Orange County.

Dozens of Deals, Then Dell

Quest priced at $14 a share in August 1999. It kept growing after the crash, buying dozens of smaller software companies and expanding into Windows management, security and data protection. It became a large, profitable software company. In 2012, after a bidding contest with private equity firms, Dell bought Quest for about $2.4 billion. After Dell sold the business, Quest returned as an independent software company.

Cover: St. George on Horseback, Albrecht Dürer. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a knight on horseback (the quest).