New Relic and Agentic DevOps with Nic Benders

Software Engineering Daily

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4.4 • 662 Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2026

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Observability emerged from the need to understand complex software systems, and involves tracking metrics, logs, and traces so engineers can detect and diagnose problems before they affect users. However, modern applications often encompass hundreds of services, containers, and dependencies, generating more observability data than dashboards and alerts alone can effectively surface. New Relic is a

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0:00.0	Observability emerged from the need to understand complex software systems and involves tracking metrics, logs, and traces, so engineers can detect and diagnose problems before they affect users.
0:12.0	However, modern applications often encompass hundreds of services, containers, and dependencies, generating more observability data than dashboards and alerts alone can effectively surface.
0:24.3	New Relic is a leading observability platform, with a history that spans the full arc of modern software operations.
0:31.6	Today, they are working to apply AI to move observability beyond passive monitoring toward active intelligence, where systems can
0:39.7	surface what matters, reduce alert noise, and ultimately take autonomous action before problems
0:45.6	reach engineers or users. Nick Benders is the chief technology strategist at New Relic, where he
0:52.2	has worked for 16 years. In this episode, Nick joins Lee
0:56.6	Acheson to discuss the evolution of observability from dashboards and alerts to AI-driven
1:02.1	intelligence, how LLMs and statistical tools work together to surface meaningful signals from massive
1:08.7	datasets, the emerging challenge of observing AI systems themselves,
1:13.6	and what the rise of AI means for the future of software engineering as a profession.
1:18.7	This episode is hosted by Lee Acheson. Lee Acheson is a software architect, author, and thought
1:25.8	leader on cloud computing and application modernization.
1:29.6	His best-selling book, Architecting for Scale, is an essential resource for technical teams
1:34.4	looking to maintain high availability and manage risk in their cloud environments.
1:39.5	Lee is the host of his podcast, Modern Digital Business, produced for people looking to build and grow their
1:45.1	digital business, listen at MDB.fm. Follow Lee at Software Architecture Insights.com and see all his content
1:54.2	at Lee Atchison.com. AI and observability. How exactly do they work together? My guest today is Nick Benders.
2:14.6	Nick is the chief technology strategist for New Relic, one of the major
2:18.8	observability platforms that is now focused on AI. And Nick is also a personal friend of
2:24.8	mine. So Nick, welcome to Software Engineering Daily. Thanks, Lee. It's great to be here.
2:29.8	Now, you and I go back a long time from Ne Relic days, early in the New Relic days.
	...

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