Popular SaaS startup New Relic made its name monitoring application performance, but it has added server monitoring to the mix to make the service more functional. It’s actually a natural fit for New Relic, though, as what’s going on with the servers can have a big impact on how an application is running.
The new server-monitoring information is displayed in context with application-performance data so that users can drill down to the cause of a problem once they see performance start lagging. On the server side, New Relic monitors CPU, disk and memory utilization, network activity, and processes, which SVP of Product Jim Gochee told me lets the company keep an application-performance focus while hitting the key metrics that affect system health.
However, the company might expand its server-monitoring capabilities down the road. New Relic isn’t looking to replace any software designed for server-monitoring, Gochee said, but it’s always looking to expand its capabilities. He doesn’t know how much deeper it will go with server monitoring, but said users will let the company know what they need. New Relic currently has more than 13,000 active users.
Even with the current capabilities, though, Gochee said New Relic has already seen some impressive results from eating its own server-monitoring dog food. It’s “what’s running on the box that you’re not watching,” some process spinning up at 2 a.m. while admins are asleep, that causes problems, he explained, and the new tools can help users track those down. New Relic was able to improve its performance by putting disk-utilization data over a time-series graph and pinpointing performance peaks and valleys.
New Relic has partnerships in place with numerous cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services, Rackspace and GoGrid, and its new server-monitoring tools will work with virtual servers from these providers as well as on customers’ own local servers.
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