New Relic Solutions [Private Offer Only]

Our main focus is APM-related functionality, so we were looking for a convenient way to get all the details, as some of them are missing from New Relic  and Grafana . Currently, we are working with Site24x7, where we are getting the information we are looking for in our comfort zone.

We used the Docker  container as the agent in our server, which was split into one agent to collect the client's logs and metrics to see the web vitals, and another metric to collect the server metrics and APM-related traces.

The main benefit we found was the Error Inbox, and having all features available at a single point was very useful for us. The API functionality allows us to get hit counts from external sources, such as APIs or databases, and everything is mapped very clearly. We can overview which components are experiencing response delays, which ones are getting correct responses, and identify any unknown external APIs inside the application. We can investigate why we are getting 400 responses and similar issues.

I reviewed another observability tool, DataDog, and we moved away from New Relic  because the pricing was not convenient and didn't fit our budget. With DataDog, some of the APM  features we were looking for were not available, so we discontinued using both solutions.

Grafana  is helpful, but it requires significant work in adding agents and configuring applications and server metrics. We implemented open-source Grafana, which wasn't convenient regarding APM , and most of the logs and traces related to APM were not what we needed, so we moved to Site24x7.

The Grafana Open Source implementation was done through their vendor. While they provided certain features, when compared to Grafana Cloud, the customized Open Source version wasn't really convenient for us. The only helpful aspect was that we could get server metrics on Grafana Open Source from our servers.

I have been working with New Relic for approximately six months.

New Relic was stable enough, and there were no downtimes or issues.

New Relic offers 400 GB per month free, but that quota was completely used within two weeks for a single server. We have substantial data in our server as our company is a trading financial company. For a single server, it takes around one and a half to two weeks to reach the limit. Additionally, we need to store logs for over five years based on SEBI regulations.

I didn't seek any support help from New Relic, but when I tried to get information regarding the plans, the response was delayed for a week. Other than that, everything was fine.

Positive

We reviewed Grafana and moved to another observability tool. We also evaluated DataDog, but we ultimately moved away from New Relic because the pricing wasn't convenient and didn't fit our budget. We are now using Site24x7 in production.

Implementing the New Relic agent is quite simple, and we were very comfortable with New Relic overall. However, it wasn't convenient based on our budget, which is why we discontinued using it.

The Grafana Open Source implementation wasn't done by ourselves; we worked with their vendor. They explained the features available in Grafana Open Source, and we implemented those solutions. However, compared to Grafana Cloud, the customized Open Source version wasn't really convenient for us.

The Error Inbox and consolidated features at a single point were very useful features. We could get hit counts from external sources, APIs, and databases, with clear mapping of all components. We could monitor response delays, correct responses, and identify unknown external APIs within the application.

We also reviewed DataDog as an observability tool, but we moved away from New Relic due to pricing concerns that didn't fit our budget. With DataDog, some of the APM features we were seeking weren't available, so we discontinued using both solutions.

We had everything in hand with New Relic initially. However, the pricing wasn't convenient for us, so we had to step back from using it.

I primarily focused on the data we were getting from New Relic, without exploring custom dashboards and other features. We were mainly focusing on the metrics and logs needed to trace our applications effectively.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate New Relic an eight. It's overwhelming from my point of view, and we needed to do some organizing in our New Relic account based on our preferences.

I use New Relic  for the creation of dashboards, alerts, and any type of observability resources that are relevant for my company.

The most valuable features of New Relic  are the ease of creating dashboards and its integration capabilities with many external tools. It enhances operational response by providing analytics and alerts that help us address issues quicker. 

Using New Relic speeds up troubleshooting and resolution, giving us a clearer picture of where issues are, thus saving time and effort.

Email alert customization is limited; it cannot be tailored much, which makes the system more rigid than optimal. The handling of logs from integration tools is not as advanced compared to other tools. AI integration, including predictive analytics, is available for certain features but is not comprehensive.

I have been using New Relic for one year.

I find New Relic to be a stable tool. It is reliable in the aspects that I use.

While responsive, customer service does not always provide straightforward solutions immediately. Issues that could be solved quickly sometimes take longer because they go around in circles. However, they are helpful when direct interaction is initiated.

Neutral

The setup is easy for the part I'm responsible for. However, since I do not manage the complete product setup, I cannot comment on the entire process.

For our part, New Relic has provided value by speeding up issue troubleshooting and resolution, allowing for more efficient use of time.

I rate New Relic seven out of ten. 

For those looking to use New Relic, it is more suited for networking and infrastructure monitoring rather than application performance monitoring, integration, or API log handling.

I use New Relic  for monitoring and observing the entire environment. It offers end-to-end monitoring and observability to predict potential impacts in the coming weeks. For instance, it can detect if two endpoints start consuming more bandwidth than usual, thereby providing more insights about potential impacts on the environment.

New Relic  helps us maintain and shape the environment from a network perspective by providing end-to-end monitoring and observability. It offers insights into normal and peak behaviors, alerts us to any issues, and assists with remediation plans.

The APM  feature is highly valuable as it can record session hosts, usage, and diagnose customer behaviors. Additionally, we can simulate user actions to assess the user experience. The alerting capabilities are also efficient, sending emails and desktop notifications, and providing remediation options.

The pricing could be improved as it is quite high relative to what is offered. The cost versus performance efficiency could be better. Apart from that, I don't need any specific improvements to the features themselves.

I have been working with New Relic for over one and a half years.

New Relic is highly stable. I have never experienced an outage or any misbehavior with this solution.

New Relic offers high scalability. It is quite flexible and can scale according to our needs.

The technical support team for New Relic is good. I would rate them a nine out of ten.

Positive

Before New Relic, we did not use any specific solution for observability. We used normal monitoring tools.

The initial setup of New Relic is super easy and straightforward. It involves proposing the solution to the client, activating administrative users, and customizing dashboards and alerts based on customer needs. Training and preparation made the process smooth and efficient.

The deployment typically requires two to three tier-one or tier-two team members from the technical team.

The pricing is relatively high. It can be quite costly compared to the performance efficiency, making it not very value for money, especially for smaller businesses.

We evaluated several other options like Datadog . However, after comparing prices and support, we chose New Relic.

Do not implement New Relic until you have identified your needs and ensured that it meets your specific requirements. Proper assessment and planning are crucial.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

A typical use case with New Relic, it’s an APM tool. We basically put the agent in, the agent discovers, and then we feed it onto predefined monitors with a controlled baseline. That baseline will then feed the problems that New Relic is detecting into PagerDuty. PagerDuty is our incident management tool. PagerDuty has something called Event Orchestration.

The incident that comes down from New Relic has a payload. We look at the payload, the attributes, and define rules in Event Orchestration. Let’s say the team wants to implement suppressions on alerts, some mutations, delays. They want to actually cross-engage a different team. So there are a lot of use cases that come about once we get the incident into PagerDuty from New Relic. New Relic obviously has the conditional baseline, which can be adjusted as we go along. So, that’s basically a staple activity that we perform with New Relic. Among other advanced use cases, which will take me a bit to explain here.

It’s like any other APM tool. One of the most outstanding features of any APM tool is the anomaly detection part. If there is logic that is going to detect the anomaly, with a predefined baseline that the system will produce over a period of time, for instance, a week, then keep adjusting it as you go along. That is one of the most useful cases of any APM tool that I feel.

One of the things that our enterprise actually had a challenge with was the licensing structure for New Relic. I remember there are two things that I feel are different in New Relic from Dynatrace. You have a user model version, and you wanted your clients to be on user model version two. But that’s not easy. You have to build that user structure from scratch. That was one of the downers we felt in Nutanix. And the other thing was the licensing.

The licensing structure was slightly different from Dynatrace. Dynatrace gave us a better deal, to be honest. Apart from that, I don’t feel they’re two different tools. These are the same tools.

I have been using it for about four years. 

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. It is stable. Everyone uses SaaS platform. It never went out. There was no unplanned outage, at least that I experienced, apart from the regular maintenance windows or predefined windows by the vendor itself. 

So, it has been stable product.

It’s easily scalable because you deploy your agent. Our enterprise used to have a starter kit. The starter kit was basically an initialization of deploying the agents against our OpenShift. We had Kubernetes running under OpenShift. So there was a starter kit that deployed it. I didn’t feel anything really difficult with the implementation of the starter kit. So it was pretty okay.

I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten because nothing is perfect.

We regularly used to meet with the success manager, and there were technical people as well. We had at least once a month office hours with them. And then on an ad hoc basis, if we needed them, we used to engage them.

Positive

I have used Dyntrace, GCP and Prometheus. Dynatrace has a little bit more edge, not from the product technicality point of view, but purely from the way I think the licensing scheme is modeled. The product behaves a little more easily compared to New Relic.

The initial setup is easy and straightforward. 

Dynatrace is a little more complicated than New Relic, but New Relic was easier to deal with.

I would rate my experience with the initial setup an eight out of ten, with ten being easy and one being difficult. It is not that difficult to setup.

The licensing model was more expensive compared to competitors because of the way they were defining their user structure; there was full-stack observability and less than full-stack observability. 

There’s no advantage to having anything less than full stack observability because once you get people on board with an APM tool, they would like to know as much as possible about what the agent can discover. 

If the agent is able to discover and you’re not giving anybody full-stack observability, it’s like you’re treating your product like Lego. The more you buy, the more expensive it gets. If you want to make it into any bigger construction, you gotta pay more. So that was a downer.

Overall, I would rate it a seven out of ten because of the licensing issue. 

At this point, Dynatrace is doing better than New Relic.

It is used to monitor applications, error logs, and Azure Kubernetes. We have used this as a self-hosted service in Kubernetes. We are not using it as an agent-based service. We self-hosted this New Relic on Kubernetes and maintained it as a service.

It can be integrated with PagerDuty and ServiceNow, which can auto-generate alerts and incidents and assign them to the concerned team. The dashboards can also be customized. We can also check the trends over the past year or so.

It helps prevent issues but does not cause losses. The error messages and deep insights may help us find the root cause and resolve the issue.

It could be bit better. We are looking at sorting the error loss by date, keyword, or something similar and grouping the logs with some keywords, like error.

I have been using New Relic for two years.

I rate the stability an eight out of ten.

I rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

I haven't got any issues, so I should get support from a New Relic technical team. We hosted this on our own, and even though this is a self-hosted service, we are managing it. 

The initial setup is simple. We are using the Relic Chart deployment on Kubernetes, but it can be done in an hour and should not take longer.

We just got a license for self-hosting and have set it up to do this.

Some add-ons have been integrated. You can integrate with New Relic to get deeper insights into the logs.

I have worked on two monitoring tools: New Relic and OpeRant. In addition, I used Azure Monitor. It's completely different, monitoring only the infrastructure, not the applications. We need to know application insights about querying and everything, but it's more user-friendly.

Overall, I rate an eight out of ten.