Unify and correlate frontend and backend data with retention filters

Datadog has introduced new RUM x APM cross-product retention filters, available in Preview, to enhance the correlation between frontend and backend data for improved application performance troubleshooting. These filters enable teams to retain all backend Application Performance Monitoring (APM) traces associated with retained Real User Monitoring (RUM) sessions, thereby providing a unified view of the user journey from browser events to backend service calls. By setting up cross-product retention filters, teams can easily diagnose issues like application errors or slowness that often stem from backend problems, such as database bottlenecks. The feature allows for efficient investigation of critical user experience moments by retaining sessions with relevant traces, helping identify the services or dependencies contributing to failures without additional configuration. Datadog offers a default 1% cross-product retention filter to ensure a representative sample of correlated sessions and traces, allowing users to analyze cross-stack issues at no extra cost. This integration of RUM and APM data facilitates faster troubleshooting and improved productivity by connecting frontend and backend observability, ensuring a consistent end-to-end view of factors affecting user experience.