New Relic adds Docker monitoring, joins CloudFoundry Foundation

New Relic, which provides software analytics, is expanding its platform to monitor Docker containers and microservices in a move that takes it deeper into the enterprise.

The company's updates to its Software Analytics Platform add modular cloud application monitoring. New Relic's move is designed to address cloud computing, containers, microservices and platform-as-a-service.

Separately, New Relic said it will join the Cloud Foundry Foundation and contribute its service broker and build pack technologies.

New Relic rode to an initial public offering by bridging application monitoring and business intelligence for mostly mid-sized to smaller enterprises. Now the company's moves are likely to take it into larger enterprises where AppDynamics would play.

Patrick Lightbody, vice president of product management, said the update to New Relic is about supporting increasingly complex architectures as enterprises break down applications into smaller services. "Software has been splitting into smaller pieces that talk to each other," said Lightbody. "

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The update to New Relic's monitoring in addition to the CloudFoundry move will enable the company to cover multiple areas. Lightbody said joining CloudFoundry will give it more access to private and hybrid cloud architectures and ultimately enable New Relic to be activated in more enterprises over time.

According to New Relic, the new updated features to its monitoring suite include:

• Monitoring for Docker. In a public beta available Wednesday, New Relic will add Docker monitoring to its platform so customers can better track containers being utilized. Enterprises have been either using Docker or evaluating it for production environments.
• Service maps, which are a take on New Relic's App Map feature. Service Maps monitor microservices within an architecture. Service Maps will cover browser layer applications as well as backend services and extensions to third parties.
• Streamlined alerts. New Relic is now grouping alerts into one incident dashboard to follow outages quickly. New Relic is looking to cut down on alert fatigue. The alert dashboard works with New Relic's iOS and Android apps.

Here's a look at Docker monitoring and service maps.