Optimizing Kafka Tracing with OpenTelemetry: Boost Visibility & Performance

Created: Jul 04, 2025

Ideally, you should be using distributed tracing to trace requests through your system, but Kafka decouples producers and consumers, which means there are no direct transactions to trace between them. Kafka also uses asynchronous processes, which have implicit, not explicit, dependencies. That makes it challenging to understand how your microservices are working together.

However, it is possible to monitor your Kafka clusters with distributed tracing and OpenTelemetry. You can then analyze and visualize your traces in an open-source distributed tracing tool like Jaeger or a full observability platform like New Relic. In this post, I will leverage a simple application to show how you can achieve this.

Why I'm Excited for .NET Conf 2024

Created: Nov 12, 2024

Greetings fellow .NET enthusiasts and tech aficionados! With the highly-anticipated .NET Conf 2024 just around the corner, I find myself reflecting on how far we’ve come in the world of .NET development and what thrilling innovations are yet to come.

A Journey Through .NET

Let’s take a quick stroll down memory lane. My experience with .NET technologies dates back to 2002, when I first dipped my toes into the vast sea of possibilities offered by .NET. Over the years, I’ve seen it transform from a promising framework into a powerhouse that underpins countless applications worldwide. Every upgrade has brought something new and exciting, fueling my passion for staying on the cutting edge of technology.

Observability as code for AI apps with New Relic and Pulumi

Created: Sep 17, 2024

AI applications are complex and distributed, making effective monitoring challenging. Combining the New Relic intelligent observability platform with Pulumi’s infrastructure-as-code and secret management solutions allows for an end-to-end “observability as code” approach. This method enables teams to:

Define artificial intelligence (AI) and large language model (LLM) monitoring instrumentation along with cloud resources programmatically.
Securely manage API keys and cloud account credentials.
Automatically deploy New Relic instrumentation alongside AI applications and infrastructure.

Benefits include:

How To Observe Your Blazor WebAssembly Application With OpenTelemetry And Real User Monitoring

Created: May 16, 2024

Effortless integration and enhanced visibility with OpenTelemetry in Blazor WebAssembly

Challenges in observing WebAssembly applications

Observing WebAssembly applications presents unique challenges that stem from its design and execution environment. Unlike traditional web applications, where monitoring tools can hook directly into JavaScript and the Document Object Model (DOM), WebAssembly runs as binary code executed within the browser’s sandbox. This layer of abstraction complicates direct introspection, as traditional monitoring tools are not designed to interact with the lower-level operations of WebAssembly. The Bytecode Alliance plays a crucial role here, promoting standards and tools that aim to enhance the security and usability of WebAssembly, including better support for observability. Moreover, the performance characteristics of WebAssembly, which can closely approach native speeds, demand monitoring solutions that are both highly efficient and minimally invasive to avoid impacting the user experience. This creates a complex scenario for developers who need detailed visibility into their applications’ behavior without sacrificing performance.

Guide: How to route Docker logs correctly in New Relic

Created: Apr 11, 2024

Streamlining Container Log Management for Clarity and Control

Hello, New Relic aficionados! Picture this: you’re at a bustling local user group meetup, exchanging ideas and sharing tech stories. Amidst the animated discussions and clinking coffee cups, a fellow developer—let’s call him Alex—shares a frustrating puzzle. Alex’s Docker Compose applications are acting like rebellious teenagers, sending their logs to the New Relic Host UI instead of their designated New Relic Container UI. As you dive deeper into the problem, a light bulb goes off. This isn’t just Alex’s struggle; it’s a common snag affecting many of us in the Docker and New Relic community.

A Deep Dive into Zero-Day Vulnerability Alerts with New Relic APM

Created: Feb 23, 2024

Empowering Developers with Real-Time Security Insights and Proactive Vulnerability Management

Amidst the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, the recent revelation of a zero-day vulnerability in Fortinet’s FortiOS serves as a stark reminder of the constant cat-and-mouse game between defenders and attackers.

zero day vulnerability alerts fortinet

Staying ahead of potential security threats isn’t just a best practice; it’s a necessity. For developers, the challenge lies not only in identifying vulnerabilities but in doing so proactively, especially when it comes to zero-day exploits. In this blog post, we’ll explore how New Relic application performance monitoring (APM) empowers developers to create zero-day vulnerability alerts, offering a robust solution to enhance security postures without the need for extensive scanning.

Using .NET Aspire eShop application to collect all the telemetry

Created: Feb 09, 2024

Learn how to collect all the telemetry from the .NET Aspire eShop application and send it to an OpenTelemetry backend such as New Relic

.NET Aspire

.NET Aspire is the new kid on the block when it comes to an opinionated, cloud-ready stack for building observable, production-ready, distributed applications. Having a built-in dashboard for the monitoring data is nice during development. But how do you configure OpenTelemetry correctly to send it to an observability backend? This is what this blog post is all about. And you’ll also learn how to send custom attributes by leveraging OpenTelemetry SDKs.

How to monitor Microsoft 365: Observing AD FS

Created: Nov 27, 2023

A practical guide to Active Directory Federation Services for a resilient Microsoft 365 ecosystem

In our previous blog on how to monitor Microsoft 365 (M365), we delved into service overviews and the critical importance of synthetic user login monitoring. In this blog, we set our sights on a core component that forms the backbone of secure identity and access management: Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS).

As organizations increasingly migrate their operations to the cloud, ensuring the robustness of identity and authentication mechanisms becomes paramount. AD FS plays a pivotal role in this landscape, acting as the linchpin for seamless and secure single sign-on (SSO) experiences within the M365 ecosystem.

How to use CodeStream—and shift left your observability practice

Created: Oct 31, 2023

Your adventure in the world of observability, performance optimization, and security begins here.

In the fast-paced world of software development, the quest for smoother, more efficient applications feels like a never-ending adventure. But in this adventure, it’s not about slaying dragons or uncovering hidden treasures; it’s about ensuring your code performs seamlessly and your users are happy.

As a developer, I’ve faced the challenges of reactive observability, where we typically identify and resolve issues only after they’ve disrupted our applications. It’s a scenario that’s all too familiar for many of us. Adding New Relic CodeStream to your tool inventory can help rescue your team from a perilous fate and bring their observability game to a new level.

How to monitor Microsoft 365: Getting started

Created: Oct 17, 2023

One of the most popular and widely adopted business tool suites is Microsoft 365 (previously known as Microsoft Office 365) or just M365 for short. M365 offers a comprehensive array of applications and services, including email, document collaboration, video conferencing, and more, all hosted on the cloud. M365 provides numerous benefits in terms of flexibility and accessibility, but it also introduces new security, performance, and compliance challenges. This is why monitoring M365 applications is critically important for organizations of all sizes. Monitoring M365 applications is essential in helping businesses maintain a secure, efficient, and compliant digital environment.