New Relic’s Nic Benders on the observability adoption challenge, Gen AI & more

New Relic, a US-based cloud software company, is making a significant investment in India's talent and innovation capabilities. The company, which was acquired by private equity firms Francisco Partners and TPG Inc. for approximately $6.5 billion in November of last year, currently has around 2,600 employees across six continents, including Asia, Europe, and North America. Earlier this month, New Relic opened an innovation hub in Hyderabad to expand its workforce, marking its second centre in the city. During his recent visit to India, Nic Benders, Chief Architect and GVP at New Relic tells TechCircle how the company is developing high-quality software from India and building a strong team capable of leading and driving innovation across various areas of their product. Edited excerpts:
 
What is the importance of the Innovation Centre in Hyderabad? Has any of your latest solutions been developed in India?
 
We are creating a product for software engineers like ourselves. When we were established 16 years ago, we were able to find a unique community of developers who were passionate about creating great products and had experience in building at scale. When we expanded to Europe in 2013 and established our hub in Barcelona, we once again found that special combination of product, passion, and scale. Our Hyderabad Innovation Centre shares the same goal. India is home to a talented pool of engineers with diverse experience in both large tech enterprises and local fast-moving startups. The centre excels in developing scalable software and creating products. We aim to nurture this passion for building great software and build a team in India that can lead and drive innovation across various areas of our product. While our Innovation Centre model is still in its early stages, our teams in India have been actively involved in numerous projects over the past two years and have contributed to every major release.
 
What is your vision for AI and what are your expectations from the Indian market?
 
When we consider AI in our industry, we see a multifaceted opportunity. Firstly, companies are looking to use AI internally to enhance the productivity of their employees through tools like GitHub's Copilot. Secondly, companies are integrating AI into their products to provide new ways of interaction and better personalization for customers. Thirdly, companies utilizing AI need tools to understand and manage their AI-based systems. In India, I anticipate seeing all three aspects in action. As companies like New Relic expand their workforce in India and competition for top talent intensifies, the internal use of AI can help streamline onboarding processes and improve overall productivity. For instance, imagine being a new employee at a large company with access to a "virtual expert" to guide you through the learning process. With the demand for AI-powered features on the rise, companies worldwide will likely turn to the pool of talented software engineers in India to keep up with the evolving market. Lastly, as companies embrace AI for their operations, they will require observability tools to ensure the smooth functioning of these new technologies. For example, our AI Monitoring can provide the necessary support for this purpose. Observability is the ability to measure the internal state of a system or application by examining the data collected from that system or application.
 
How can these technologies benefit Indian digital businesses?
 
For any digital business, customer relationships rely on a complex chain of technologies operating in the background. This network must function seamlessly to prevent customer churn and maintain profitability. New Relic offers visibility into every component of this technology chain, enabling businesses to deliver optimal end-user experiences. For example, BigBasket, one of our customers in India, focuses on delivering essentials to customers within a 15 to 20-minute timeframe. If any part of their technology chain experiences issues, New Relic's observability platform can proactively identify and pinpoint the problem, allowing engineering teams to address it promptly. Another challenge we address is cost optimization. Indian businesses are keen on maximizing ROI and ensuring efficient resource utilization. Our observability suite enables businesses to monitor and optimize their entire technology stack, while our straightforward pricing model ensures that customers only pay for the services they use.
 
What are the new product areas that New Relic plans to explore in 2024? How important will the team in India be in achieving this goal?
 
The pace of change in high-tech is relentless, with new tools and technologies emerging every year. While these bring new capabilities to engineers worldwide, they also introduce complexity that requires constant learning and adaptation. This year, we will introduce several new features to help engineers navigate this increasingly complex landscape. Along with the recently launched AI Monitoring feature, we will also unveil the New Relic AI functionality, providing users with new ways to leverage the power of New Relic. In addition to the familiar "chatbot" interface, New Relic AI will be integrated into the UI, offering intelligent suggestions and explanations. Another significant trend we are observing is the growing volume and complexity of observability data that customers are dealing with. This not only raises costs but also poses potential data exposure risks. To assist customers in managing this complexity, we are preparing to release a new set of "telemetry pipelines" features, enabling easy filtering, aggregation, routing, and transformation of observability data. Bringing these and other new features to fruition in 2024 will require collaboration across various business functions, with our Innovation Centre in India playing a crucial role in this strategy. This ensures that we can continue to expand our engineering capacity globally with skilled, product-focused engineers.
 
There is an obvious talent gap when it comes to AI and data analytics in India. With the Hyderabad Development Centre, how does New Relic plan on contributing to bridge this gap?
 
As technology is constantly changing, we have found that the most important skill is not just knowing something, but knowing how to learn new things. This is no different in India, which is fast becoming one of the world’s key hubs for data, AI, and analytics. We held an internal “hackathon” event last week, and while we were reviewing the results, it was a treat to see many engineers picking up AI and data science tools for the first time and exploring the realm of the possible. Events like these combined with the growing Indian technology ecosystem, I can confidently say that even as AI experience is emerging globally, we can build a team of lifelong learners who are equipped to tackle any challenge the future brings.
 
Generative AI is taking the world by storm. In the next five years, where will India stand in terms of AI adoption and innovation?
 
Over the next five years, we anticipate a wider adoption of generative AI-powered observability solutions across the Indian market. Simultaneously, observability will also accelerate the adoption of AI, allowing Indian businesses to monitor their AI-powered applications. Similar to how the public cloud enabled entirely new businesses, I believe that Generative AI will have a significant impact on our field in the next five to ten years, surpassing our current expectations. Already, we can see hints of better human-AI cooperation and its impact on learning. In a rapidly expanding market like India, the ability for engineers to learn faster and companies to react quicker will give a competitive advantage to those who embrace it. Expertise and innovation will follow from increased usage as today's university students become tomorrow's engineers and more companies adopt AI tools, leading to innovation and growth in India.
 
One of your key areas is observability. What are the challenges to observability adoption in India?
 
A recent survey found that only 10% of respondents had full-stack observability in place, highlighting the challenge of observability adoption and the vast market opportunity it presents. One obstacle is the use of different observability solutions by large enterprises, leading to tool sprawl across various vendors and making it difficult to see the complete picture. Despite the intention of these tools to resolve issues, data often ends up in silos, requiring engineers to spend significant time gathering information during incidents. Another challenge is the lack of awareness among businesses about full-stack observability and its relevance to their operations. However, as systems become more complex, organizations are recognizing the need for cost-effective technology investments. We believe that a single, unified view of all observability data at an affordable price, interoperable with open standards and with data control in the hands of the customer, is the solution to these challenges.