October 2024 Summaries

New Relic has unveiled its Intelligent Observability Platform, transforming observability into a key driver of business growth and developer velocity for enterprises worldwide. The platform is strengthened by the New Relic AI Engine, which predicts potential issues before they arise and makes intelligent recommendations to prevent problems. This is achieved through the integration with GitHub Copilot, agentless SAP monitoring, and New Relic Pathpoint Plus for business observability. Additionally, the New Relic Retail Solution drives business impact by connecting all retail touchpoints and analyzing digital interactions to enhance customer engagement and maximize sales opportunities.

The text discusses the integration of PM2 (Process Manager 2) with New Relic's Flex platform to monitor Node.js applications running under PM2. The process manager provides robust features, including automatic application restarts and monitoring capabilities, making it an essential tool for managing production-grade Node.js environments. The PM2 API offers detailed telemetry data, which can be invaluable when troubleshooting performance issues. The integration with New Relic's Flex platform allows capturing insights from PM2, such as resource consumption, CPU and memory usage, process-level details, debug pointers, version control, and deployment information. A configuration file is provided to capture these metrics, using a combination of commands and JSON transformation with JQ. Once the configuration is ready, it can be validated with Flex's debug mode and then integrated into New Relic's platform for visualization and analysis. The integration enhances visibility into application performance, simplifies root-cause analysis, and enables proactive monitoring.

In large-scale Node.js production environments, monitoring multiple applications is crucial, and PM2 serves as an effective process manager for managing Node.js applications. PM2 offers features such as automatic restarts, load balancing, and detailed telemetry data, including CPU and memory usage, which are vital for troubleshooting and performance analysis. Although there is no direct integration between PM2 and New Relic agents, a custom integration using Flex can be created to capture PM2's metrics and export them to New Relic. This process involves configuring a file using the PM2 jlist API, sanitizing the JSON data with JQ, and utilizing New Relic's Query Language (NRQL) to analyze and visualize the data. The integration enhances application performance monitoring and root-cause analysis by providing a unified view of process-level insights, including version control and deployment details, enabling developers to set up personalized alerts and dashboards for effective monitoring.

New Relic has introduced its Intelligent Observability Platform at New Relic Now 2024, aiming to transform observability from a mere reliability tool into a catalyst for business growth and developer efficiency. The platform is enhanced by the New Relic AI Engine, which uses compound and agentic AI to predict and prevent potential issues, offering smart recommendations. Key innovations include the integration with GitHub Copilot to boost developer productivity, agentless SAP monitoring for comprehensive visibility, and New Relic Pathpoint Plus, which connects digital insights with business KPIs to extend observability beyond technical teams. The platform also introduces the New Relic Retail Solution, designed to unify and enhance the monitoring of complex retail environments, thereby optimizing customer engagement and sales. These advancements position New Relic at the forefront of the evolving observability landscape, promising to address the challenges posed by data growth and the increased demand for business and developer velocity.

The New York Public Library is a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond, offering a wide range of services including research, exhibitions, programming, and digital resources to its patrons. The library has recently hired a new Chief Digital Officer to transform digital engagement and accessibility, with a focus on making digital content accessible to everyone. NYPL's digital ecosystem is structured into comprehensive portfolios, including a Drupal-based content management system, a catalog system, an e-reading platform, and a digital asset management system. Observability tools like New Relic help the library identify and resolve issues quickly, allowing teams to focus on meaningful work and address emerging challenges such as synthetic content generated by AI. The library is also participating in the Synthetic Content Working Group for the AI Safety Institute to evaluate tools and standards around digital trust and ensure public trust, information integrity, individual safety, and its role as a digital assets custodian.

The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a prominent educational and informational resource with 92 locations and a significant digital presence aimed at making information accessible to a global audience. Serving over 18 million patrons annually, NYPL is enhancing its digital engagement through the appointment of a new Chief Digital Officer and the implementation of a structured digital ecosystem, including a Drupal-based Digital Experience Platform, a comprehensive Library Services Platform, and a proprietary e-reading app. The library's Digital Asset Management initiative ensures the protection and accessibility of its digital content, supported by observability technology from New Relic, which aids in identifying system issues and managing digital operations efficiently. As NYPL navigates the challenges of digital trust and information integrity, it participates in the Synthetic Content Working Group for the AI Safety Institute, addressing the implications of synthetic content on public trust and information integrity.

We are excited to share that we have been named a Leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM). Our DEM solution is an AI-driven, fully integrated offering that provides end-to-end visibility of customer experience across the entire application stack. This allows businesses to identify bottlenecks, optimize performance, and deliver high-quality digital experiences. With the increasing pressure to adopt AI technologies, our solution helps enterprises monitor real user interactions, identify incorrect AI responses, and flag friction points, ensuring frictionless experiences wherever users interact. We are innovating ahead of market with enhancements such as superior insights without high costs, comprehensive mobile log management, and actionable user journeys without event duplication. Our solution is highly rated by customers for its product capabilities, with an overall rating of 4.5 stars out of 5.0 on Gartner Peer Insights. We remain committed to eliminating disruptions to your digital enterprise so that your business can grow.

New Relic has been recognized as a Leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM), highlighted as the "furthest in vision" in the market. Their AI-driven DEM solution offers comprehensive, end-to-end visibility of customer experiences, allowing businesses to optimize application performance across web, mobile, and AI applications. This solution integrates real user monitoring with APM 360 and AI monitoring, aiming to enhance digital experiences and support AI adoption without interruptions. New Relic's platform is noted for its innovative features, such as session replay capabilities and extensive mobile platform support, providing actionable insights and facilitating issue resolution. Customers have praised New Relic's observability capabilities, with a high rating of 4.5 stars on Gartner Peer Insights, citing improved uptime and deep insights across their tech stack. The company remains committed to advancing its DEM offerings to drive business outcomes and maintain high customer satisfaction.

The 2024 Observability Forecast highlights the growing importance of observability in maintaining business performance and reliability in a digital ecosystem. With increasing pressure to avoid costly downtime, businesses are adopting observability to gain real-time insights into system health, performance, and business outcomes. This enables them to unlock new levels of innovation, productivity, and operational efficiency, ultimately driving growth and operational efficiency. Observability is not just about technology but also about empowering teams, reducing downtime, and enhancing reliability, making it a strategic imperative for modern digital strategies.

The 2024 Observability Forecast highlights the evolving role of observability in modern digital ecosystems, emphasizing its strategic importance beyond just maintaining system uptime and reliability. With engineering teams dedicating substantial time to outage management and high-impact outages proving costly, the report underscores observability's potential to provide real-time insights into system performance and business outcomes, driving innovation and operational efficiency. The adoption of AI-driven observability is notably linked to higher business value and ROI, with AI technologies, including AI monitoring and AIOps, being primary motivators for its implementation. Business observability, which correlates telemetry data with business outcomes, is on the rise, with expectations of widespread deployment by 2027, offering reduced outage costs and downtime. The report also notes the benefits of full-stack observability in minimizing downtime and costs, alongside a trend toward tool consolidation, simplifying management and enhancing insight accuracy. While open-source solutions are used by over half of the respondents for some capabilities, they are not the predominant choice. Ultimately, observability is shown to improve developer productivity significantly, allowing teams to focus more on business growth by providing actionable insights and reducing disruption response times.

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated in the U.S. from September 15 - October 15. The author, who serves as Chief Customer Officer at New Relic, is proud to be an Executive Sponsor of Relics of Color, an Employee Resource Group for people of color and allies. This year's theme was Pioneers of Change - Shaping the Future Together, which led to internal programs such as trivia games, learning about Hispanic trailblazers, financial literacy sessions, and personal reflections on pioneering values instilled by their mother. The author reflects on how these pioneers have shaped their own life and career, and now seeks to inspire the next generation of Latino-Americans with direction, guidance, and purpose.

Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrated in the U.S. from September 15 to October 15, was marked by New Relic's Employee Resource Group for people of color and allies, Relics of Color, with the theme "Pioneers of Change - Shaping the Future Together." The month featured engaging internal programs, starting with a trivia game highlighting Hispanic trailblazers and concluding with a financial literacy session focused on generational wealth. For Arnie Lopez, New Relic's Chief Customer Officer, the month was a personal reflection on the influence of his mother, who instilled values of hard work and resilience, shaping his life and career. Lopez, who has over 30 years in the tech industry, sees himself as a pioneer for the next generation of Latino-American children, drawing parallels between his journey and his mother's legacy. The blog post underscores the importance of small actions leading to significant achievements and the responsibility of guiding future generations.

The Selenium web driver provides a way to set cookies for scripted browser monitors using the `$webDriver.manage()` function and its `addCookie()` method, which can simplify the process of bypassing cookie modals and multi-factor authentication. The Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) also offers a way to set cookies without accessing the UI, allowing for more control over the browser's behavior. By utilizing CDP and its methods, developers can create more efficient and effective scripted browser monitors.

In the realm of scripted browser monitors, managing cookies can streamline processes by eliminating the need to script actions like accepting cookie modals or handling multi-factor authentication (MFA). Using methods such as addCookie() from $webDriver.manage() or the Network.setCookie method available through the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP), users can set cookies to bypass these common interruptions, reducing complexity in browser automation tasks. The CDP, accessible through a connection established with Selenium's createCDPConnection() function, facilitates setting cookies without user interface intervention and can also be leveraged to capture other data for observability purposes. The blog emphasizes the importance of using secure credentials for cookies and highlights the optional use of event listeners for debugging. It concludes by encouraging readers to engage with the Explorers Hub for further discussion and support, noting that the views expressed are those of the author, Steve Cunnew, and not necessarily representative of New Relic.

New Relic Pathpoint offers a strategic, real-time view of critical system health in relation to actual business stages, enabling proactive issue resolution, process optimization, and alignment of IT investments with business goals. It provides intelligent business observability, empowering executives, analysts, managers, and IT teams with insights that drive growth and competitive edge. The platform features an improved no-code interface to simplify integration of business and technical metrics, as well as AI-driven insights that provide actionable data without requiring extensive technical expertise. Pathpoint enables IT, engineering, and business teams to better understand the business impact of software development and operation by providing intuitive UX, multiple business journeys, playback mode, import/export with audit trails, automatically identifying monitoring gaps, real-time business health visibility, and AI-driven insights. The platform can model unique business journeys, optimizing business performance across various industries such as hospitality, online marketplaces, ridesharing, consumer packaged goods, and more. By focusing on critical business stages first, breaking down stages into steps, adding relevant signals, following best practices, and utilizing workloads, metadata tags, and KPIs, teams can unlock better business insights and make informed decisions to drive growth.

New Relic Pathpoint is a tool designed to bridge the gap between technical performance and business outcomes by providing real-time insights into system health in relation to business processes. Introduced in January 2024, Pathpoint integrates business observability with technical metrics to offer a comprehensive view of how digital application performance impacts business results. It features a no-code interface and AI-driven insights, simplifying the integration of various metrics into a unified platform. This approach empowers teams across industries such as hospitality, rideshare, and retail to model and optimize their unique business journeys. By focusing on critical business stages and employing practices like alert quality management and workload grouping, Pathpoint allows enterprises to enhance decision-making and drive growth. The tool is part of the New Relic Intelligent Observability Platform and is available as an open-source project under the Apache 2.0 license.