Amazon CloudWatch vs New Relic

June 03, 2023 | Author: Michael Stromann
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Amazon CloudWatch
CloudWatch collects monitoring and operational data in the form of logs, metrics, and events, providing you with a unified view of AWS resources, applications, and services that run on AWS and on-premises servers.
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New Relic
New Relic gets you immediate code-level visibility to build faster software, create better products, and delight your customers. New Relic gets you immediate code-level visibility to build faster software, create better products, and delight your customers.
Amazon CloudWatch and New Relic are both cloud monitoring and observability platforms, but they have distinct differences:

1. Cloud Environment: Amazon CloudWatch is a native monitoring solution provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and is tightly integrated with AWS services. It offers comprehensive monitoring capabilities for AWS resources, including EC2 instances, RDS databases, Lambda functions, and more. New Relic, on the other hand, is a multi-cloud monitoring platform that supports not only AWS but also other cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.

2. Application Performance Monitoring (APM): New Relic specializes in APM, providing deep insights into application performance and user experience. It offers code-level visibility, transaction tracing, and real-time performance monitoring for applications running on various platforms and languages. Amazon CloudWatch, while it provides basic application-level metrics, does not offer the same level of detailed APM features as New Relic.

3. Third-Party Integrations: New Relic has a rich ecosystem of integrations with a wide range of third-party tools and services. It can seamlessly integrate with popular DevOps tools, collaboration platforms, and incident management systems, enabling a more holistic monitoring and management experience. Amazon CloudWatch, while it has some integrations, may not offer the same breadth of third-party integrations as New Relic.

4. Pricing Model: The pricing models of Amazon CloudWatch and New Relic differ. Amazon CloudWatch operates on a pay-as-you-go model, where you pay for the specific metrics and features you use. New Relic, on the other hand, offers tiered pricing based on the scale and scope of your monitoring needs, including the number of monitored entities and the level of APM features required.

5. Ease of Use and User Interface: Amazon CloudWatch provides a familiar user interface within the AWS Management Console, making it easy for AWS users to navigate and configure monitoring settings. New Relic offers a user-friendly interface with intuitive dashboards, customizable visualizations, and advanced querying capabilities.

See also: Top 10 IT Monitoring software
Amazon CloudWatch vs New Relic in our news:

2023. New Relic launches Grok, its AI observability assistant



Enterprises and related companies are currently in the midst of integrating large language models into their services. New Relic has announced its own offering Grok, which it claims is the first generative AI assistant for observability. The aim is to leverage a large language model to assist engineers in performing routine tasks within New Relic, such as setting up instrumentation, creating reports, and managing accounts using natural language. The use of these models provides a significant advantage in helping engineers analyze the large amounts of data collected by the service, which is crucial not only for ensuring the performance of a given service but also for managing its associated costs - an increasingly important concern for most enterprises.


2022. New Relic enters the security market with its new vulnerability management service



New Relic, renowned for its observability platform, has ventured into the security market by unveiling a new vulnerability management service. Aptly named New Relic Vulnerability Management, this service consolidates data from both New Relic's native vulnerability detection system and third-party tools. It offers a unified solution for security, DevOps, SecOps, and SRE teams to monitor their software stack for vulnerabilities. The company emphasizes that one of its key advantages is the seamless integration with third-party security tools. This capability enables teams to prioritize security risks effectively, considering the overwhelming number of potential risks, and the service assists in identifying the necessary actions to address and mitigate these risks.


2022. New Relic launches its new infrastructure monitoring experience



In the year 2020, New Relic introduced its New Relic One platform, aiming to consolidate the various individual solutions developed by the company over the years into a unified framework. Building upon this foundation and leveraging its NRDB data storage system, New Relic enhanced its offerings by incorporating advanced features such as enhanced network monitoring, a tool for monitoring and tracking ML model performance, and error tracking capabilities. Today, the company is finalizing one of the remaining components of this initiative by making its new infrastructure monitoring experience widely available. This solution is specifically designed to assist DevOps, SRE, and ITOps teams in monitoring their infrastructure and promptly resolving issues across public, private, and hybrid cloud environments. New Relic users can now access this new solution.


2020. New Relic acquires Kubernetes observability platform Pixie Labs



New Relic, a publicly traded company specializing in monitoring and observability platforms, has completed the acquisition of Pixie Labs, a Kubernetes observability platform. Despite the acquisition, Pixie Labs will retain its brand and product, enabling New Relic to expand its platform capabilities to the edge. Pixie Labs initially focused on offering observability for cloud-native workloads operating on Kubernetes clusters. While most similar tools cater to operators and IT teams, Pixie Labs aimed to develop a tool specifically tailored for developers' preferences. By utilizing eBPF, a relatively recent method of extending the Linux kernel, the Pixie platform can gather data directly from the source without requiring an agent.


2020. New Relic is changing its pricing model to encourage broader monitoring



In the field of monitoring, it's common practice to incur fees for monitoring each new instance. This approach can result in significant costs if you have a high level of activity within a month. As a result, many organizations choose to limit their monitoring scope to manage expenses. However, New Relic aims to revolutionize this paradigm by introducing a user-based payment model that includes a smaller, more affordable data component. In addition, the company is streamlining its product offerings to encourage customers to monitor everything instead of selectively choosing what to monitor based on cost considerations. By adopting this approach, organizations can gain comprehensive insights without worrying about exorbitant monitoring bills.


2014. Mobile analytics startup New Relic is now a billion-dollar company



New Relic, a provider of app-monitoring services on a SaaS basis, has experienced a successful debut in the stock market, with its first day of trading propelling it to a billion-dollar valuation. The closing share price exceeded expectations, reaching 47 percent higher than the initial offering price of $23.00 per share. This surge in value places the company's worth at approximately $1.5 billion. New Relic specializes in delivering a SaaS Software Analytics Platform, which encompasses Application Performance Management and Real User Monitoring for web applications deployed in Cloud and Data Centers, supporting various programming languages such as Ruby, Java, .NET, Python, PHP, and Node.js. Additionally, New Relic provides mobile monitoring solutions for iOS and Android applications. As the company enters the new year, it is focused on maintaining its momentum and likened its achievements to that of a football player making it to the big leagues.


2014. Application-monitoring platform provider New Relic files for an IPO



New Relic, an application-monitoring startup, has officially filed for an initial public offering, according to recent reports. In their filing, the company disclosed a revenue of $63.2 million for the year 2014, surpassing the previous year's figure of $29.7 million. New Relic, established in 2007, introduced its inaugural product in 2008. In early October, the startup acquired Ducksboard, a Barcelona-based startup, which grants New Relic the capability to integrate with diverse cloud services, consolidate the data, and produce a comprehensive dashboard. Furthermore, New Relic launched its highly anticipated real-time analytics service called Insights in July. Allegedly, this service can extract even more information from the vast amount of data collected by the New Relic platform. Despite competition from other application analytics startups like AppDynamics, ThousandEyes, and AppNeta, New Relic remains determined to make its mark in the industry.

Author: Michael Stromann
Michael is an expert in IT Service Management, IT Security and software development. With his extensive experience as a software developer and active involvement in multiple ERP implementation projects, Michael brings a wealth of practical knowledge to his writings. Having previously worked at SAP, he has honed his expertise and gained a deep understanding of software development and implementation processes. Currently, as a freelance developer, Michael continues to contribute to the IT community by sharing his insights through guest articles published on several IT portals. You can contact Michael by email stromann@liventerprise.com