Grafana Labs vs New Relic

Tempo 3.1 release: new features for Kafka, TraceQL metrics updates, trace redaction, and more

Grafana Labs blog features a new post on Tempo 3.1 release with new features for Kafka, TraceQL metrics updates, trace redaction, and more.

Observability Stack: Prometheus, Node Exporter, Grafana

A technical how-to explaining the three-piece observability stack: Prometheus (time-series database that scrapes metrics), Node Exporter (exposes OS-level metrics at a /metrics HTTP endpoint), and Grafana (visualizes Prometheus data as dashboards). The article describes the pull-based model Prometheus uses, the role of Node Exporter as a translator of OS stats, how Grafana queries Prometheus, default ports (Prometheus 9090, Node Exporter 9100, Grafana 3000), basic install commands, a sample prometheus.yml with scrape_interval and job_name, and next steps such as adding scrape targets, writing PromQL queries, and adding Alertmanager for notifications.

• Prometheus is a time-series database and monitoring system that scrapes metrics from HTTP endpoints and exposes its own metrics on port 9090.
• Node Exporter exposes hardware and OS-level metrics at a /metrics endpoint (default port 9100) and is typically installed one-per-machine.
• Grafana queries Prometheus (e.g., via PromQL) to render dashboards and runs by default on port 3000; it stores no metrics itself.

Building an Internal Developer Platform on Azure AKS

This technical article explains how to create an Internal Developer Platform (IDP) using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). It outlines core components including AKS as the managed Kubernetes backbone, a service mesh (e.g., Istio or Linkerd) for microservice communication, CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins) for automated build and deployment, monitoring and logging tools (Azure Monitor, Prometheus, Grafana, Azure Log Analytics), and security/compliance controls (RBAC, Pod Security Policies, Azure Policy, Azure Security Center). The piece describes an example developer workflow from code push to production and summarizes benefits such as increased efficiency, scalability, security, and consistency.

• An Internal Developer Platform (IDP) is a set of tools, processes, and automations that simplifies development, testing, and deployment for developers.
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is presented as the central managed Kubernetes environment where containerized applications run.
• Service meshes such as Istio or Linkerd are recommended to manage microservice communication, including load balancing, traffic management, and security policies.

New Relic Change Tracking Brings Headless Intelligent Observability Directly into GitHub Copilot, Empowering Developers to Ship Code with Confidence

New Relic announced a new integration bringing headless intelligent observability into GitHub Copilot, and SBS scales for record FIFA World Cup audiences using New Relic Intelligent Observability.

Consolidate Observability Platform: Unify agent management and telemetry pipelines with New Relic Control

New Relic announced the general availability of Linux and Windows host-based fleet support for New Relic Control, an intelligent observability control plane. Building on existing Kubernetes support, the solution centralizes agent lifecycle management, remote orchestration, and in-flight telemetry optimization to reduce operational overhead and cloud ingest costs. Fleet Control and Agent Control are included for all platform users at no extra cost, while Pipeline Control is offered under the Advanced Compute SKU.

• New Relic Control support for Linux and Windows host-based fleets is now generally available.
• The platform consists of three core components: Fleet Control, Agent Control, and Pipeline Control.
• Agent Control is built on an extensible supervisor architecture using the Open Agent Management Protocol (OpAMP) standard, supporting New Relic agents, NRDOT collectors, Prometheus, and Fluent Bit.

New Relic Report Finds Compliance and AI Governance Drive Observability Demand in Financial Services

New Relic released its 2026 Observability Forecast for Financial Services based on a survey of 278 industry IT and engineering leaders conducted with Enterprise Technology Research. The report found that 22% of financial services companies run AI agents in production without any monitoring, creating severe compliance risks under frameworks like DORA. However, the sector plans aggressive expansion, with AI application monitoring projected to rise from 42% to 83% over the next 12 months.

• 22% of financial services firms operate AI agents in production with zero monitoring, creating compliance blind spots under regulations like DORA.
• Over the next 12 months, AI monitoring adoption in financial services is projected to reach 83% (up from 42%), while agentic AI monitoring is expected to reach 75% (up from 38%).
• Financial services detects high-impact IT outages in 35 minutes (versus 41 globally) and resolves them in 49 minutes (versus 54 globally), costing $1.69 million per hour versus $1.85 million globally.