October 2023 Summaries

New Relic CodeStream is a developer-friendly observability platform that helps developers shift left with observability by integrating it into their development workflows. It allows for collaborative observability, early issue detection, root cause analysis, and vulnerability insights, all seamlessly integrated into the preferred development environment. This approach enables developers to identify and address performance and reliability issues early in the development cycle, reducing the risk of deploying problematic code. With New Relic CodeStream, developers can collaborate, visualize, and diagnose issues within their existing workflows, making observability an integral part of their daily routine. The platform provides a unified interface for viewing information about issues along with the entire stack trace, saving valuable time and resources. It also identifies security issues and provides invaluable insights, all integrated into the development environment through New Relic CodeStream. The tool enables data-driven decision-making, helping developers evolve and adapt their applications to meet changing user demands while staying one step ahead of potential vulnerabilities.

In the realm of software development, New Relic CodeStream emerges as a transformative tool that integrates observability into the development and testing phases, promoting a shift-left approach. This proactive strategy allows developers to identify and resolve issues early, ensuring smoother application performance and enhancing user satisfaction. CodeStream seamlessly integrates into existing workflows, providing collaborative observability by allowing developers to discuss, share insights, and create tasks within their development environment. It offers early issue detection, root cause analysis, and vulnerability insights, all within the familiar interface of an integrated development environment (IDE), making it a vital companion for improving code efficiency and security. By offering seamless integration with tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and GitHub, CodeStream facilitates a continuous quest for improvement in application performance and security, ultimately contributing to the creation of robust and reliable software solutions.

We are Angel Flight West, a non-profit organization that relies heavily on volunteer pilots to fly patients seeking life-saving treatments. To maintain reliability and reputation, we use synthetic monitoring with New Relic to monitor our app's performance, user experience, and system reliability. This allows us to identify potential issues before they happen, improve our application and infrastructure systems, and make data-driven decisions about resource allocation. Synthetic monitoring also helps us measure the impact of new features on performance, ensuring that we don't compromise user experience. By leveraging New Relic's observability tools, we've increased our team capacity, allowing us to focus on app development and product maintenance while maintaining 24/7 monitoring.

Angel Flight West, a non-profit organization, relies on volunteer pilots to fly patients to critical treatments not available locally and has developed an app to facilitate matching pilots with flight opportunities. To maintain and enhance the app’s performance and reliability as the organization grows, Angel Flight West employs New Relic’s synthetic monitoring tools. These tools allow the small tech team to monitor user experience, identify potential issues before they affect volunteers, and ensure key functions perform optimally, thereby helping to justify infrastructure improvements to the board. The use of synthetic monitoring also aids in refining new features based on real-time data, ensuring that any added complexity, such as personalized filters for pilots, does not degrade system performance. By leveraging New Relic's tools, the organization can focus on its mission of patient transport rather than technical issues, benefiting from the added capacity these tools provide as they continue to expand their services.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) offers vital insights into software performance by tracking key metrics, which helps identify and resolve issues such as bottlenecks and outages. Implementing a modern APM solution, like New Relic, involves a series of steps including planning a monitoring strategy, instrumenting services, auditing service health, and setting up alerts and dashboards. The process begins with choosing an initial service to monitor, progressing to full system coverage for comprehensive observability. Instrumentation methods range from guided installations to custom setups, ensuring flexibility to meet diverse requirements. Effective APM also involves fostering collaboration between teams and integrating with CI/CD pipelines to streamline workflows and reduce Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR) issues. New Relic facilitates this with user-friendly tools and features such as log forwarding, customizable dashboards, applied intelligence for alerts, and integrations with communication tools to enhance team collaboration and system reliability.

In today's digital world, where companies are racing towards cloud adoption, mobile application security is a pivotal concern. Mobile application security is a critical aspect of software development that focuses on the protection of mobile applications from various forms of cyber threats. The concept of mobile application security encompasses data protection, code security, authentication and authorization, network security, OS security, third-party integrations, regulatory adherence, monitoring and response, and more. As technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, the threats we face are evolving in tandem, making it essential for developers and businesses to stay ahead of the curve. The challenges of mobile application security include keeping up with evolving threats, diverse device and OS ecosystem, user behavior and education, resource constraints, regulatory compliance, rapid development cycles, monitoring and incident response, integrating security into DevOps, supply chain attacks, and more. To overcome these challenges, organizations can adopt a security-first culture, regular security audits and assessments, educate and train their team, implement strong authentication and authorization, encrypt sensitive data, regularly update and patch systems, leverage mobile security frameworks and tools, monitor and log application activity, develop and practice an incident response plan, adopt DevSecOps practices, stay informed and adapt. Mobile application security testing is essential to reinforce data safeguards and guarantee uncompromised data flows. New Relic IAST offers a hybrid advantage of both static and dynamic application security testing, providing real-time data capture and unparalleled insights into potential security hitches. By embracing these strategies and solutions, organizations can sculpt a resilient security posture that evolves in sync with the fluid landscape of threats.

IAST is an interactive application security testing approach that harnesses real-time context and user interactions to pinpoint vulnerabilities in software applications. It offers several compelling advantages over traditional static security solutions, including real-time vulnerability detection, better accuracy, insight into the flow and behavior of applications, effective in complex environments, and broad applicability across various stages of the software development lifecycle. IAST can be used in production environments and detects a wide range of vulnerabilities, from SQL Injections to intricate business-logic vulnerabilities. It is poised to become the gold standard in application security with the power of AI and machine learning, offering an airtight security fabric around software assets when integrated into observability platforms like New Relic.

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape where security vulnerabilities are increasingly common, secure code reviews have become a crucial aspect of application development to ensure that software is not only cutting-edge but also fortified against potential risks. A secure code review involves a thorough examination of source code by developers or security experts to identify and fix vulnerabilities, with a focus on prioritizing security best practices. The process typically involves static analysis, manual review, feedback, remediation, and re-testing to ensure the application is secure and reliable.

The need for effective and efficient security testing has surged as applications become more complex, with Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) emerging as a solution that monitors applications in real-time to spot vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. IAST is perfectly fit into the integrated ethos of DevSecOps, merging development, security, and operations. The core concepts of DevSecOps emphasize prioritizing security from day one, ensuring collective accountability among developers, operations, and security teams, and always-on security monitoring. By integrating IAST into DevSecOps, developers can gain instant feedback, fewer false alarms, early issue spotting, smooth compliance, and empowered developers. However, proper tool selection, data management, and team training are critical components to nail, as New Relic IAST is designed for developers, providing real-time, actionable insights that align seamlessly with DevSecOps.

Security analytics is a data-inspired method that helps organizations anticipate, dissect, and confront potential risks before they escalate, making it a vital tool in battling cyber threats. By leveraging data as a dynamic force, security analytics can provide proactive detection, risk reduction, compliance assurance, operational efficiency, cost effectiveness, and reputation building benefits. To make the most out of security analytics, organizations should establish clear objectives, integrate comprehensive data sources, regularly update and fine-tune models, train their team, act on insights, review and iterate, collaborate and share intelligence, and leverage expert partners. By taking a thoughtful approach to security analytics, organizations can turn data into a steadfast ally in protecting their digital assets and maintaining trust with stakeholders.

Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) emerges as a vital evolution in software security, addressing the limitations of traditional methods like static (SAST) and dynamic (DAST) testing by offering real-time, in-depth insights into application vulnerabilities. IAST functions by interacting actively with running applications, providing more accurate and immediate detection of vulnerabilities, even in complex environments like microservices. This approach integrates seamlessly across various phases of the software development lifecycle, including quality assurance, production monitoring, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. With the increasing importance of application security, IAST—enhanced by artificial intelligence and machine learning—is set to become a standard, with platforms like New Relic offering tailored solutions to ensure robust software security.

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, mobile application security is a crucial aspect of software development that requires businesses to protect their applications from a range of cyber threats as they embrace cloud technology. Mobile application security encompasses data protection, code security, authentication, network security, and regulatory compliance, among other elements. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, organizations must adopt a holistic approach to security, integrating it throughout the app's lifecycle and leveraging tools like New Relic's Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) to proactively identify and address vulnerabilities. The ever-changing nature of mobile threats demands constant vigilance and adaptation, making it essential for developers and organizations to stay informed and refine their security strategies continually. Through best practices such as regular audits, strong authentication, and encryption, businesses can fortify their apps against potential breaches, ensuring user trust and safeguarding sensitive data.

Securing software applications is now essential due to the growing complexity of cyber threats, with Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) emerging as a key solution by combining static and dynamic testing strengths. IAST aligns well with the DevSecOps approach, which integrates security into every stage of software development, ensuring that security is not just a feature but a fundamental aspect of the process. The IAST method monitors applications in real-time, identifying vulnerabilities early, reducing false alarms, and ensuring compliance, thereby empowering developers with immediate feedback. New Relic's IAST tool exemplifies this integration by providing real-time, actionable insights to developers, enhancing their ability to build secure and robust applications. However, successful IAST integration requires careful tool selection, data management, and team training to fully leverage its benefits, ultimately supporting faster and safer software deployment.

Security analytics is an advanced approach to cyber defense, utilizing data-driven methodologies to anticipate, detect, and counteract potential threats before they escalate. It involves the aggregation and analysis of data from various sources, such as network activities and user interactions, to identify unusual patterns indicative of security breaches. As cyber threats grow more complex, security analytics serves as a proactive measure, offering organizations the ability to transform their data from a potential vulnerability into a robust defense mechanism. Key components of an effective security analytics strategy include comprehensive data collection and integration, advanced analysis using machine learning, rapid response mechanisms, and continuous improvement to adapt to evolving threats. Additionally, integrating security analytics into an organization’s operations enhances regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, and brand reputation. The text also highlights the importance of training, regular updates to analytical models, and collaboration with expert partners to fully leverage the benefits of security analytics, with New Relic's Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) offering real-time feedback on vulnerabilities to fortify applications intrinsically.

In the fast-paced realm of digital innovation, secure code reviews are essential to ensure that software not only remains cutting-edge but also resilient against security vulnerabilities. Secure code reviews involve developers or security experts examining source code to identify and address potential security risks, prioritizing security best practices over traditional concerns of functionality and performance. Key components of secure code reviews include assessing authentication, input validation, session management, error handling, and cryptography, among others. The process generally involves defining the scope, conducting static analysis, performing manual reviews, providing feedback for remediation, and re-testing. Despite the challenges such as time constraints, skill gaps, and potential false positives from automated tools, integrating secure code reviews into the software development lifecycle is crucial. Automation of these reviews can enhance consistency, scalability, and provide near-instant feedback, with tools like New Relic's Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) offering real-time security insights.

Automating open-source security observability is crucial for organizations to effectively manage the risks associated with the use of open-source libraries. Leveraging New Relic's comprehensive capabilities can streamline vulnerability identification, remediation, and communication processes, resulting in more secure applications, efficient use of engineering resources, and reduced risk of system downtime. Additionally, integrating New Relic's capabilities with existing tools and processes provides actionable insights to empower organizations to continuously improve their security posture and stay ahead of emerging threats.

Observability is a crucial capability for understanding the internal state of large-scale infrastructure systems by examining their external outputs, providing a lens to monitor, analyze, and troubleshoot various components. Large-scale infrastructure systems are complex and challenging to manage due to issues that can arise from anywhere, making complexity the enemy of stability. Observability tools can help pinpoint issues with laser focus, optimize resource utilization through capacity planning, enhance team collaboration by fostering transparency, and integrate into incident response strategies for turning chaos into order. The New Relic comprehensive solution offers flexible, dynamic observability of entire infrastructure, including cloud-based solutions, and provides a wide range of infrastructure monitoring capabilities, automation tools, and best practices to master observability. Observability is particularly important in microservices infrastructure, where it provides granular insights into each service, making it easier to monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize them individually and as part of the larger system. By implementing observability strategies, organizations can reduce complexity, make informed decisions about scaling, and improve overall management of large-scale infrastructure systems.

Observability is essential for understanding the internal state of large-scale infrastructure systems by analyzing their external outputs, and New Relic provides a comprehensive solution for this through its dynamic monitoring tools suitable for both cloud and dedicated hosts. These systems, which consist of interconnected servers, databases, and resources, present significant monitoring and management challenges due to their complexity and geographic dispersion. Observability tools, like those offered by New Relic, enable pinpointing issues, optimizing resource capacity, and fostering team collaboration by providing a holistic view of the infrastructure. They allow for effective incident response, facilitate better capacity planning, and support scaling decisions by delivering real-time performance data. New Relic also integrates with various cloud platforms and offers specific solutions for microservices and Kubernetes, enhancing monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities. Ultimately, while observability provides deep insights, it should be complemented with other strategies for a holistic approach in managing large-scale infrastructure systems.

Open-source security involves ensuring that third-party open-source libraries used in applications are free from vulnerabilities, with software composition analysis (SCA) playing a key role in identifying and assessing these libraries. Despite the reliability and community support often associated with open-source projects, security risks persist, as highlighted by the critical Log4j vulnerability discovered in 2021. Organizations are increasingly turning to automated solutions like New Relic Security RX to streamline vulnerability detection and management, reducing the manual effort and potential system downtime associated with traditional methods. New Relic offers continuous runtime SCA, leveraging existing application performance management (APM) agents to monitor vulnerabilities across various programming environments, thereby enhancing security processes and communication through its unified platform. Additionally, New Relic integrates with other security tools and provides interactive application security testing (IAST) to identify vulnerabilities in custom code, helping organizations maintain a robust security posture throughout the software development lifecycle.

As threats evolve and become more sophisticated, so too must our methods for detecting and mitigating them, requiring a comprehensive approach to application vulnerability testing that dives deep into the intricacies of applications to shine a light on potential weaknesses. This process encompasses initial exploration, strategizing the test, active testing using techniques like static, dynamic, and interactive application security testing, diving deep into vulnerabilities, addressing gaps, double-checking solutions, staying alert through ongoing monitoring, and charting a path forward with the right mindset and tools. Vulnerability testing is not just about identifying weaknesses but also about fostering a culture of continuous learning, adaptation, and collaboration to stay ahead of evolving threats and ensure robust application defense. By embracing tools like New Relic IAST and adopting a proactive approach, organizations can bolster their applications' defenses and navigate the digital landscape with greater peace of mind.

Trace-level logging is a detailed level of logging that provides a step-by-step account of an application's operation, including function calls, loop iterations, variable changes, and more. It offers concrete advantages in various domains of software development and operations, such as insight into system behavior, complex systems analysis, understanding legacy systems, enhanced error detection and troubleshooting, optimizing performance, compliance and security measures, and trace-level logging with New Relic. Developers can use trace-level logging during development and debugging, troubleshooting specific issues, and understanding performance bottlenecks, but should exercise caution in using it in production environments due to the sheer volume of logs. Tools like New Relic make this powerful functionality more approachable and manageable, transforming it from a flood of information into a wellspring of actionable insights that can pave the way to more robust, efficient, and insightful software development processes.

Application vulnerability testing is a crucial process for identifying and addressing weaknesses in software applications to protect against evolving threats. It involves a comprehensive approach that begins with understanding an application's functionalities and security priorities, followed by strategizing the testing process using techniques such as static, dynamic, and interactive application security testing (IAST). The process includes compiling and assessing vulnerabilities, implementing solutions, and conducting re-tests to ensure effectiveness while remaining vigilant to new threats through continuous monitoring. Challenges in vulnerability testing include the complexity of modern applications, the fast-evolving nature of threats, a shortage of cybersecurity professionals, and limitations of testing tools, necessitating a diverse toolkit and ongoing training. Tools like New Relic IAST can aid in staying ahead of threats, but a proactive mindset and a culture of continuous learning and collaboration are equally important for maintaining robust application security.

Trace-level logging provides the most granular level of detail in software logging, capturing every step of an application's operation, making it invaluable for debugging, understanding complex systems, and optimizing performance. Unlike other log levels such as DEBUG, INFO, WARN, and ERROR, which offer less detailed insights, trace-level logging records function calls, loop iterations, and variable changes, thus furnishing a comprehensive narrative of system behavior. This detailed logging is particularly beneficial for analyzing multi-tier architectures, understanding legacy systems, identifying root causes of errors, and monitoring resource utilization. However, due to the vast amount of data generated, it is recommended to use trace-level logging judiciously, especially in production environments where it can become overwhelming and affect system performance. New Relic enhances the management of trace-level logging through its user-friendly platform, which supports various programming languages and offers real-time monitoring and visualization tools, thus transforming complex data into valuable insights while ensuring compliance and security.

We're thrilled to be recognized by GigaOm as a Leader in this year’s Radar for Application Performance Management (APM) report! Since introducing our flagship APM tool in 2008, marking the launch of a new industry, our product has grown far beyond APM for Ruby on Rails to an all-in-one observability platform for every engineer—offering full-stack observability with over 30 monitoring capabilities and 700 integrations in one, unified platform. Our evolution is tied to our practice of focusing everything we do around creating value for our customers as they navigate the complexities of modern dynamic digital environments; helping customers like Forbes, AB InBev, and Bigbasket get ahead of issues, deliver exceptional customer experiences, and help their companies thrive. Rising to today’s challenges, New Relic has proven to be a unified source of truth for DevOps and ITOps teams with its consolidated platform providing an edge to understanding the critical interdependencies between application, infrastructure, network performance and security without switching screens or correlating data across disparate tools. Over the last year, we’ve developed new experiences that leverage this deeply integrated architecture to bring more insights from across capabilities into cohesive, actionable workflows, empowering engineering teams with relevant context for improved collaboration, accelerated issue remediation, and a more proactive approach to full-stack observability. Our distinguished placement at the center of GigaOm's radar of four axes underscores our relentless dedication to serving the DevOps and ITOps community, emphasizing affordability, scalability, and user-friendliness in our consumption-based pricing, cloud-based architecture, and industry’s largest open-source integration ecosystem. Innovating for what’s next, we’re committed to product innovation that anticipates the needs of the engineering community to help them reduce time diagnosing and resolving issues, and deliver higher-performing software, recognizing the transformative role of Generative AI in the observability industry with our launch of a generative AI assistant for observability: New Relic AI.

New Relic, recognized as a leader in GigaOm's Radar for Application Performance Management (APM) report, has evolved from a Ruby on Rails APM tool into an all-encompassing observability platform with over 30 monitoring capabilities and 700 integrations. By focusing on creating customer value, New Relic helps companies like Forbes and AB InBev enhance customer experiences and business outcomes through features such as distributed tracing, log data examination, and full-stack error tracking. The platform supports DevOps and ITOps teams by providing a unified source of truth for monitoring application performance, correlating signals across hosts and services, and offering proactive monitoring solutions. New Relic's commitment to innovation includes the integration of Generative AI and OpenAI GPT monitoring, enabling advanced problem-solving and business decision-making. Their consumption-based pricing and expansive integration ecosystem facilitate scalability and ease of use, reflecting their dedication to serving the engineering community's evolving needs.

We use logs extensively at New Relic to monitor and tune our services, but we can't instrument everything ahead of time. Logs are unstructured text that can be a challenge to work with, but they can also provide valuable insights. With structured logging, we can add meaning to our logs by emitting JSON data instead of raw text lines, which makes it easier to process and analyze them. We can relate logs to other data in a centralized system, such as an ELK stack or New Relic's own NRDB, and use tools like NRQL to query and parse the logs. By extracting relevant information from our logs, we can gain new visibility into our systems, locate errors more easily, and drive improvements in alerting and monitoring. We can even use logs to measure performance data that may not be available as metrics, such as startup times between different points in the log stream.

At New Relic, application performance monitoring (APM) is extensively used to optimize services, but when preemptive instrumentation falls short, logs serve as a critical alternative for troubleshooting. Logs, despite being unstructured, are ubiquitous and can provide insights when other telemetry is unavailable. However, their lack of structure can lead to inconsistencies and challenges in data management, especially given the massive volume they can generate. To enhance log utility, structured logging, such as using JSON format, can impose order and facilitate easier data processing. New Relic's features allow for the integration of logs with other data, enabling better correlation and analysis through the use of New Relic Query Language (NRQL), which can parse and extract valuable metrics from log messages. This capability is particularly useful for tracking performance data, identifying errors, and improving monitoring without the need for additional instrumentation. The blog emphasizes the power of logs in providing new visibility into systems, advocating for effective logging practices as a means to enhance observability and performance analysis.

Application security is essential in today's fast-paced and interconnected world, where cyberattacks are becoming increasingly common and businesses cannot afford to neglect it. To maintain application security, it is crucial to adopt a comprehensive approach that includes regular security audits, secure coding techniques, the use of trusted security frameworks and libraries, encryption of sensitive data, and staying current with updates and patches. Additionally, implementing practices such as minimalism with the principle of least privilege (PoLP), shifting-left with DevSecOps, protecting with web application firewalls, organizing continuous security training sessions, building security into every phase of software development lifecycle (SDLC), regularly backing up data, developing an incident response plan, designing with foresight through threat modeling, and harnessing the power of container security can help enhance application security. By adopting these best practices and utilizing tools like New Relic's interactive application security testing (IAST), businesses can get ahead of potential threats and secure their applications today.

Application security is crucial as the number and complexity of applications rise, ensuring their security to deliver a great user experience and business growth. Application security vulnerabilities are soft spots in software that unwanted intruders search for, which can lead to unauthorized access, modification of app functionalities, theft of sensitive data, or complete app shutdown. Common application security vulnerabilities include injection attacks, broken authentication, sensitive data exposure, XML external entities, broken access control, security misconfigurations, cross-site scripting, insecure deserialization, using components with known vulnerabilities, and insufficient logging and monitoring. To address these vulnerabilities, it's essential to have a robust security foundation through methodical evaluation and consistent action, such as drafting a security policy, cataloging assets, embracing automated vulnerability scanning, engaging in annual code review, conducting penetration testing, threat modeling, patch management, nurturing developers, establishing a feedback system, instituting a bug bounty program, prioritizing monitoring and logging, and having a battle-ready incident response plan. New Relic IAST offers continuous, real-time security feedback to empower teams to catch, address, and verify vulnerabilities swiftly and efficiently.

Navigating the intricate web of modern technology means businesses face an evolving set of challenges. As we lean more into software applications for our daily operations, application vulnerability testing isn't just a recommendation—it's imperative. Application vulnerability testing is a health checkup for your apps, scouring them for potential weaknesses that might give cyber troublemakers an easy way in, allowing you to catch and mend these issues early and reduce the risk of security breaches. Various types of vulnerabilities can be exploited, including injection flaws, cross-site scripting (XSS), insecure direct object references (IDOR), security misconfigurations, and unvalidated redirects and forwards, making it essential to use multiple testing techniques such as static analysis security testing (SAST), dynamic analysis security testing (DAST), and interactive application security testing (IAST). Investing in vulnerability testing offers benefits like spotting issues before they become major problems, saving money by avoiding costly security breaches, maintaining a good reputation, meeting regulatory requirements, and playing by the rules. When evaluating the right application vulnerability testing tool, consider factors such as the app's nature, compatibility with your work environment, coverage of vulnerabilities, pricing, scalability, guidance provided, and support offered. By leveraging a trusted solution like New Relic IAST, businesses can foster a proactive culture of security awareness, future-proofing their enterprise against emerging challenges.

A well-crafted application security policy is crucial for safeguarding digital touchpoints and driving business value in today's digital landscape. It encompasses a collection of directives and practices governing application security throughout its lifecycle, from development to deployment. A robust policy requires collaboration, alignment with broader organizational objectives, and the integration of recognized security standards such as OWASP Top Ten, ISO/IEC 27001, PCI DSS, and NIST Cybersecurity Framework. Leveraging tools like New Relic interactive application security testing (IAST) can empower DevOps teams to produce secure code swiftly and confidently, while ensuring effective deployment and adherence across the organization.

In the digital age, the importance of application security is paramount, with a robust security policy being essential to protect applications throughout their lifecycle. An application security policy is a comprehensive framework outlining directives and practices to safeguard data, prevent breaches, and ensure continuous user experience. Key elements include defining the policy's scope, assigning roles, establishing standards, planning for incident response, and ensuring regular updates. Creating and implementing such a policy involves collaboration with stakeholders, conducting risk assessments, drafting and refining policy details, and educating teams. Incorporating recognized security standards like OWASP, ISO/IEC 27001, PCI DSS, and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework can enhance security posture. New Relic's Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) offers a dynamic tool for identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, enabling DevOps teams to produce secure code efficiently, thus placing application security at the forefront of digital strategies.

Application security is essential for protecting software applications from vulnerabilities that can lead to unauthorized access, data theft, or app shutdown, especially as the number and complexity of applications grow. Common security vulnerabilities include injection attacks, broken authentication, sensitive data exposure, XML external entities, broken access control, security misconfigurations, cross-site scripting, insecure deserialization, using components with known vulnerabilities, and insufficient logging and monitoring. Addressing these involves employing strategies such as multi-factor authentication, encryption, role-based access control, regular audits, and using security headers. New Relic's Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) offers a proactive approach by integrating into the runtime environment to provide real-time security feedback, helping teams swiftly identify and address vulnerabilities. This approach is complemented by practices like automated vulnerability scanning, code reviews, penetration testing, and consistent developer training, ultimately aiming to maintain a secure, user-friendly application environment.

Application vulnerability testing is essential for businesses to identify and address security weaknesses within their software applications, thereby protecting against potential cyber threats. This process involves identifying vulnerabilities such as injection flaws, cross-site scripting, insecure direct object references, security misconfigurations, and unvalidated redirects. Various testing methods, including static analysis security testing (SAST), dynamic analysis security testing (DAST), and interactive application security testing (IAST), offer different approaches to uncovering these vulnerabilities. Investing in such testing not only helps prevent costly security breaches but also maintains a company's reputation and ensures compliance with regulatory requirements. Choosing the right vulnerability testing tool involves considering factors like compatibility with the application's environment, comprehensive vulnerability coverage, ease of use, and scalability. New Relic's Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) provides a proactive solution that helps businesses identify vulnerabilities in real-time, fostering a culture of security awareness and offering a competitive edge in safeguarding operations.

In an increasingly interconnected world where cyber threats are prevalent, maintaining application security is crucial for businesses, necessitating the adoption of comprehensive security practices. Key strategies to enhance application security include conducting regular security audits, employing secure coding techniques, using trusted frameworks and libraries, encrypting sensitive data, and implementing the principle of least privilege. Additional measures such as keeping software updated, integrating security within the software development lifecycle (SDLC), and maintaining a web application firewall further strengthen defenses. Regular security training, incident response planning, threat modeling, and container security are also emphasized as important practices. New Relic's Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) is highlighted as a proactive tool to mitigate potential threats, underscoring the importance of integrating advanced security solutions in the digital age.

CI/CD pipelines are a critical component of modern software development, but they also come with security challenges that must be addressed to ensure performance, reliability, and trustworthiness. Embedding protection mechanisms throughout the pipeline is essential to prevent breaches and maintain code integrity. Implementing security measures at every stage of the pipeline, including the development, integration, deployment, and post-deployment phases, can help organizations build a fortress of reliability and trust around their software applications. By adopting a comprehensive strategy that combines speed, efficiency, and ironclad security, developers can power their progress with peace of mind, transforming their CI/CD pipelines into well-guarded pathways that allow innovation to flow swiftly and securely to users.

M365 is a widely adopted business tool suite that offers various applications and services, including email, document collaboration, video conferencing, and more, all hosted on the cloud. Monitoring M365 applications is critical for organizations to maintain a secure, efficient, and compliant digital environment. To monitor these applications, Microsoft provides native tools and APIs, such as the Health Dashboard, auditing, reporting, and the Microsoft Graph API. However, leveraging these tools requires knowledge of how to collect health metrics and analyze performance, security, and user activity. New Relic can be used to gather this information on a continuous basis by creating synthetic scripted API monitors or browser monitors. These scripts leverage secure credentials stored in New Relic to access M365 services and retrieve health data. The gathered information can then be visualized using custom dashboards, providing an up-to-date overview of service health information. User login monitoring can also be achieved through New Relic's synthetic scripted browser monitor, which continuously executes a script that accesses M365 websites, types username and password, logs in to the portal, and navigates to the home page.

As a website hosting company, BHOOST faced challenges in identifying issues on either server or software side due to manual log combing. The New Relic free tier helped them make progress without upfront costs and resonated with their open-source foundation. Simple installation and intuitive learning enabled easy adoption of the platform. They utilized New Relic for logs, dashboards, application performance monitoring, database queries, CPU usage, and Core Web Vitals to identify issues quickly. The platform's synthetic monitoring capabilities will enable proactive steps in consulting customers, identifying resource inefficiencies, and explaining factors impacting performance. With the free tier, BHOOST was able to troubleshoot issues more efficiently, prepare for traffic surges during the high season, and improve customer experience metrics such as First Input Delay.

Microsoft 365 (M365) is a widely used cloud-hosted business tool suite offering various applications and services, such as email, document collaboration, and video conferencing. Monitoring M365 is crucial for maintaining a secure, efficient, and compliant digital environment, especially since users cannot add monitoring agents due to its SaaS nature. Instead, organizations rely on tools like the Microsoft Graph API, Health Dashboard, and New Relic to gather and analyze performance, security, and user activity data. The blog outlines a method to monitor M365 service health and user login activities using New Relic synthetic monitors, which involve API and browser scripts that utilize secure credentials. These scripts provide insights into service degradation and user experience by tracking metrics such as service availability, latency, and login performance. The article encourages the use of New Relic's free account for setting up monitoring strategies and emphasizes the importance of observability in cloud environments.

BHOOST, a website hosting company, leverages the free tier of New Relic, an open-source platform, to efficiently diagnose server and software issues without incurring upfront costs. The intuitive installation process and comprehensive documentation make it accessible for the team to integrate New Relic's features, such as logs, dashboards, and application performance monitoring, which are crucial for tracking database queries, CPU usage, and run performance. The platform aids in identifying root causes of issues swiftly, particularly with scaling challenges faced by tools like Elasticsearch. New Relic's capabilities also enhance BHOOST's ability to monitor Core Web Vitals (CWV) to improve customer experience for their predominantly eCommerce clientele, particularly during high-traffic periods like Black Friday. By conducting load tests and using synthetic monitoring, BHOOST prepares for traffic surges and optimizes resource usage, ultimately delivering better value to their customers and ensuring a seamless user experience.

Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines are crucial for modern software development, but they also present security challenges that need to be addressed to maintain performance, reliability, and trustworthiness. New Relic emphasizes the importance of embedding security measures throughout the CI/CD process, comparing it to a traffic management system that ensures smooth and secure code deployment. Key aspects of CI/CD security include protecting sensitive data, preserving code integrity, and implementing robust security practices at each development phase. This involves secure coding, automated security testing, and real-time monitoring, all aimed at transforming the pipeline into a secure and efficient pathway for innovation. By adopting these strategies, organizations can build software that not only functions efficiently but also upholds reliability and trust, with New Relic offering tools like Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) to support this process.

The integration of Azure Machine Learning with New Relic allows users to monitor their machine learning workspaces, endpoints, and deployment-related metrics in a unified dashboard, providing pre-built visualizations and troubleshooting capabilities for ML-related issues alongside other infrastructure and application telemetry. This new integration offers features such as tracking ML workspace activities, monitoring endpoint performance, getting oversight of deployments, and customizing alerts, all within a comprehensive dashboard that includes detailed views of model metrics, CPU and GPU usage per workspace, and endpoint-specific resource utilization metrics. Additionally, the integration captures logs monitoring of Azure Machine Learning models in New Relic, providing information about deployment details, endpoint-specific traffic, and latency.

Azure Machine Learning has been integrated with New Relic to enhance monitoring capabilities for machine learning workspaces, endpoints, and deployment metrics, focusing on performance, availability, and resource utilization. This integration provides pre-built visualizations and a unified dashboard to troubleshoot ML-related issues alongside other telemetry data. It allows users to track workspace activities, monitor endpoint performance, and oversee deployments with customization options for alerts. The dashboard includes detailed views of model metrics, job executions, CPU and GPU usage, and endpoint-specific resource utilization, while the entity explorer view captures deployment details and traffic metrics. Additionally, it offers logs monitoring, capturing details like container names and Azure Machine Learning resources. Users are encouraged to explore further by deploying the quickstart dashboard or signing up for a free account for extended data ingestion and user access.

As Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month comes to a close, it's essential to acknowledge the significant contributions this vibrant community has made to global culture, emphasizing resilience, entrepreneurship, and economic empowerment. Latinx and Hispanic people have played a vital role in shaping the American economy, with many achieving prosperity themselves while paving the way for future generations. The theme "Prosperity. Power. Progress" highlights the importance of embracing these values, fostering an environment where everyone has equal access to opportunities, amplifying diverse voices, and working towards progress and inclusion. By celebrating the achievements of the Latinx and Hispanic community, committing to providing equal opportunities, and addressing challenges together, we can truly honor their heritage while shaping a world that values every individual's identity.

As Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month concludes, New Relic reflects on the significant contributions of the Latinx and Hispanic community to global culture, emphasizing the themes of "Prosperity, Power, Progress." Celebrations highlighted the importance of economic empowerment, representation, and cultural progress, including the achievements of Latinx and Hispanic entrepreneurs and leaders. The company hosted educational sessions on generational wealth and the racial wealth gap and facilitated storytelling events to amplify diverse voices within the community. These efforts aimed to nurture inclusivity and support the journey towards a more equitable society. Through social events and educational initiatives, New Relic underscored its commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), recognizing that celebrating heritage and providing equal opportunities are pivotal in fostering a future that values diversity and unity.

Building secure software development lifecycle (SSDLC) is crucial for creating resilient digital experiences. The SSDLC is a holistic approach that embeds security into every phase of software development, from ideation to deployment. It's guided by principles such as least privilege, data protection, regular audits, and secure coding practices. Secure software development best practices include early integration, continuous testing, education and training, collaboration and communication, automating tasks, and empowering developers to build security into their software from the get-go. The challenges of secure software development include resource strain, complex regulations, cultural resistance, false positives, and balancing speed and security. By equipping your team with the right tools, knowledge, and culture, you can turn these challenges into opportunities for growth and excellence. New Relic's interactive application security testing (IAST) is an integrated, continuous, and intelligent approach to security that complements secure software development practices.

Domino's Pizza, a large franchise business with over 1,200 stores across the UK and Ireland, has implemented a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) capability to support its complex technology stack. The company took an "anatomy of a capability" approach to SRE, dividing it into six dimensions: technical systems, skills, managerial systems, values, routine activities, and learning. This approach is guided by academic theories, including the work of Dorothy Leonard-Barton and David Teece. Domino's uses a microservice architecture, API gateway, and New Relic for monitoring and improving its system proactively. The company establishes golden signals and error budgets to monitor performance and reduce risk in production releases. With this capability-focused approach, Domino's engineers can take a proactive approach to incident response and modernize its change management process.

In today's digital landscape, applications are prime targets for cyber threats, and application security management is crucial to protect them. This guide focuses on empowering applications to stand tall against persistent digital adversaries by identifying, patching up, and averting software vulnerabilities throughout their lifecycle. Understanding application security risks is paramount in the cloud-driven era, where risks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, distributed-denial-of-service attacks, and others can jeopardize application integrity. Effective application security management involves regular vulnerability checks, incident response planning, secure coding protocols, and continuous code review to minimize vulnerability risks. Interactive application security testing tools like New Relic IAST can help identify high-risk vulnerabilities ahead of time, allowing developers to craft safe, efficient applications.

Domino's Pizza Group in the UK and Ireland has undertaken a transformation of its technology stack to enhance site reliability engineering (SRE) capabilities for its extensive network of over 1,200 stores. By shifting from a monolithic architecture to a microservices-based system, Domino's has improved its ability to test new features and manage performance and reliability across its digital ordering platforms. This change is part of the Phoenix program, which focuses on continuous improvements and modern engineering principles. The company employed academic theories, particularly those of Dorothy Leonard-Barton and David Teece, to shape its SRE strategy, developing a "capability pizza" model that identifies key components like technical systems, skills, managerial systems, and values. The implementation of SRE includes the use of GitOps workflows, New Relic for monitoring, and a focus on proactive incident response and error budget management. This allows Domino's to conduct canary testing and manage changes efficiently while maintaining high service reliability and performance standards.

Applications are central to business operations but are also vulnerable to cyber threats, making application security management crucial. This involves identifying, fixing, and preventing vulnerabilities throughout the software lifecycle to protect against data breaches and service disruptions. As software development increasingly shifts towards cloud-native and containerized environments, the risk landscape expands, necessitating proactive security measures. Key strategies include embedding security early in development, modeling potential threats, adhering to secure coding practices, and conducting regular vulnerability assessments. Tools like New Relic's Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) can help identify and address high-risk vulnerabilities, ensuring applications remain secure and efficient. The article emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive security management plan tailored to specific needs, including regular code reviews, minimal access rights, and incident response strategies, to mitigate risks and safeguard applications effectively.

In today's fast-paced digital world, balancing rapid deployment with robust security measures is crucial due to the increasing reliance on digital platforms and the growing threat of cyberattacks. Secure code development best practices, including integrating security testing early in the software development lifecycle, using secure coding guidelines and standards, and leveraging tools like static and dynamic code analysis, are essential for achieving this balance. By adopting a holistic approach to security, developers can create software that is not only secure but also robust and reliable, capable of withstanding both current and emerging threats. Tools like New Relic provide integrated observability and security capabilities, empowering teams to uphold the principles of shift left and deliver secure, high-quality software at speed.

In an increasingly digital world where data breaches and cyberattacks are prevalent, secure coding has become essential for protecting software systems used by businesses, governments, and individuals. The challenge is finding a balance between rapid software deployment and robust security measures, which can be achieved through understanding and addressing code vulnerabilities, incorporating early and continuous security testing, and adhering to secure coding practices. Tools and techniques such as static and dynamic code analysis, input validation, and secure configuration management play crucial roles in identifying and mitigating potential security threats. New Relic offers a comprehensive solution for integrating security into the software development lifecycle, supporting methodologies like Agile and DevOps, and facilitating secure code management within CI/CD pipelines. By leveraging these tools and practices, developers can ensure they are shipping secure, high-quality software efficiently, maintaining security throughout development and deployment.

To optimize performance and improve operations in Amazon Web Services (AWS), integrating New Relic's AWS Metric Streams with AWS CloudWatch is essential for comprehensive visibility, real-time alerts, enhanced visualization, scalability, and flexibility. By sending AWS CloudWatch metrics to New Relic, users can gain a unified view of their AWS environment alongside other application performance metrics, simplify monitoring, and troubleshoot faster. The choice between using AWS API polling or CloudWatch Metric Streams depends on specific requirements, complexity tolerance, and cost considerations, with CloudWatch Metric Streams being less expensive and providing real-time data, low overhead, and customizability. New Relic offers a widget to compare costs, and best practices for integration include defining monitoring objectives, creating custom dashboards, configuring alerts, and regularly reviewing and optimizing performance data.

Integrating New Relic with AWS CloudWatch Metric Streams provides a robust solution for optimizing the performance and monitoring of AWS resources, offering comprehensive visibility, real-time alerts, and enhanced data analysis through customizable dashboards. Users can choose between AWS API polling and CloudWatch Metric Streams for sending monitoring data to New Relic, with Metric Streams being generally more cost-effective and offering real-time data access with lower overhead costs. However, it lacks support for certain AWS services like AWS Billing and AWS CloudTrail. The article suggests best practices such as defining monitoring objectives, creating custom dashboards, configuring alerts, and regularly reviewing performance data to optimize AWS infrastructure. This integration allows businesses to gain in-depth insights into their AWS environments, enhancing their ability to troubleshoot and make informed decisions.