May 2015 Summaries

** Cloud computing offers numerous benefits to organizations of all sizes, including flexibility and faster implementation, but it requires strategic leadership from IT departments. Traditional organizations often struggle to develop and implement cloud computing strategies due to skeptics who resist change or stick their head in the sand. To become a cloud leader, IT professionals must own the build vs. buy decision, developing a cloud vendor evaluation framework that considers factors such as availability and resiliency, data providence, SLAs, and terms & conditions. They must also scrutinize security risks associated with any cloud migration and plan for the long-term, continuously checking assumptions and expectations against evolving business and technical needs. By adopting a proactive approach, IT professionals can capitalize on the benefits of cloud computing and become leaders in their organization's technology innovation.

Cloud computing offers organizations significant advantages such as scalability, flexibility, and rapid implementation, but it requires strategic IT leadership to harness its full potential. Traditional businesses transitioning to cloud solutions may face challenges, including resistance to change, and need to overcome these by developing robust cloud strategies. Key steps include making informed decisions on whether to build or buy technology solutions, creating a framework for evaluating cloud vendors, scrutinizing security protocols in line with industry regulations, and planning for the long-term evolution of cloud services to ensure continuous alignment with business needs. IT professionals are encouraged to leverage these opportunities to become leaders in cloud adoption, rather than resisting the technological advancements that cloud computing brings.

A new feature called Service Maps has been released in New Relic APM to help customers view and understand their complex microservices architectures. This feature provides a visual, real-time map that represents the customer's specific view of the world, allowing them to better manage their software architectures. The maps are auto-generated and reflect any changes to the architecture in real-time, making it easier for teams to troubleshoot and optimize their systems. Service Maps can be customized to show different perspectives, such as the view from developers, ops teams, or site engineering teams, helping to reduce complexity and improve situational awareness. The feature is now available for general availability and is being rolled out to all New Relic APM customers with a paid account.

New Relic has launched Service Maps, a new feature in New Relic APM designed to help users understand and manage complex microservice architectures through real-time, dynamic visualizations. As modern software systems grow increasingly intricate, microservices have emerged as a solution to enable independent evolution of specific functions, though they bring challenges in service visibility and management. Service Maps address these challenges by auto-generating visual representations of architectures, reflecting any changes in real-time, and displaying the health status of each component for troubleshooting. This tool allows developers, operations, and DevOps teams to gain a customized view of their architectures, enhancing understanding and decision-making. The Service Maps feature promotes shared situational awareness among teams, offering a platform for saving and sharing maps through unique URLs. While the rollout is ongoing for all New Relic APM customers with paid accounts, the feature marks the beginning of further developments in spatial and temporal visualizations within New Relic's platform.