How to explain what New Relic is to a 5 year old?
So you’re new to using New Relic, maybe you don’t even know what it is yet or even what it does. Welcome to the party!
This blog post aims to explain exactly what New Relic is, what it does, and why you would need it if you’re working in a Not For Profit organization and have a website, a donation page, running an awareness campaign or a volunteer sign-up form that just aren’t working as they should. We are going to explain to you in super simple terms, or as we like to call it the KISS principle: Keep it simple stupid ;-) exactly what New Relic is.
What is New Relic — as if you’re talking to a 5 year old?
So you know how there is this thing called the internet, and there are websites that live on the internet (yeah says my 5 year old, just like Roblox) yes, just like Roblox……. so these websites have lots of little things called systems that power these websites. Now these systems are made up of code.
And code is really just like lego.
Code is made up of itty bitty bits of information that connect to each another and talk to one another to exchange information. They also connect to each other to make things happen and tell websites what to do. Now these websites that are made up of lots of code that do all kinds of different things. And websites need help when they are trying to figure out if something goes wrong. Just like if the website doesn’t load properly and you see the spinning rainbow wheel or if something on the website is just broken and not working.
So you have a problem, right?
You need help to figure out what is broken, and where to start looking in your system? You want to find out why and how to fix your code problem as quickly and simply as possible……….Enter New Relic. New Relic is in its most simplest sense a really big powerful system that connects to your website and all of the systems that make up your website. Once you connect New Relic to your website and all of it’s components, it can then run some cool diagnostics, show you some fun infographics and essentially act as a health check for your website and its many systems.
Crystal clear code
New Relic can then show you your applications at a crystal clear code level. It can also bring in lots of different information and allow you to compare this information against other information from your website. You can think of this process maybe as sleuthing…. New Relic fires up its private investigator mode and goes digging searching for vulnerabilities and broken code.
Giant Humungous Train Set = New Relic
It is also helpful (at least we find this analogy helpful) to visualize in your mind New Relic as a giant humungous train set. Made up of lots of different carriages all designated to perform very specific important data tasks, carrying lots of super detailed bits of information, exchanging information, switching tracks to new tracks to carry more detailed information to different stations, that are all connected to each other. A train that is running constantly 24/7 around the clock powered up to do thousands upon thousands of different investigative tasks into your website and all of its sub systems.
If you are a nonprofit organization, looking to level up your Observability tools, New Relic offers free tools and full platform features along with 1TB of free monthly data injest and 5 user accounts to all qualifying global nonprofit customers! Just email us at hgruber(at)newrelic(dot)com to find out more!
