New Relic will provide free access to the entire New Relic One observability platform for 90 days to any organization engaged in COVID-19 pandemic relief efforts that have a specific benefit to the public.
Erin Dieterich, director of corporate social responsibility at New Relic, said it’s apparent that the IT platforms of both nonprofits and private companies that are lending their services and expertise to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be taxed in unexpected ways.
To help IT teams rise to that challenge, New Relic will make it possible to identify both software and infrastructure issues that are having an adverse impact on applications, noted Dieterich. Those issues undoubtedly will be experienced by both non-profit organizations as well as private companies trying to leverage their existing IT environment to make additional digital services available. Examples of organizations beyond those providing humanitarian aid that are being invited to register to use New Relic One via NewRelic.org include public and private schools and other providers of education services.
New Relic also has a crisis management team in place to make sure the New Relic One service is not disrupted as the company’s own employees work from home across multiple geographies.
Many of the providers of COVID-19 relief services are likely to find their efforts stymied at some point by IT issues. As IT environments have become more intertwined in the age of the cloud, it’s become difficult to ascertain the root cause of any application performance issue. Platforms such as New Relic One provide access to a cloud service through which IT teams can more easily pinpoint where a specific issue is potentially creating a wave of downstream application issues that would not be obvious to the average IT administrator.
Beyond the teams of employees New Relic already allocates to New Relic.org on a full-time basis, Dieterich said the company is tapping volunteers from its own base of employees. Many of those employees themselves are now working from home, much like most of the rest of the global workforce.
It’s too early to say to when the COVID-19 pandemic might subside, so New Relic plans to re-evaluate this initiative three months from now. In the meantime, the company has also pledged to make available $100,000 to match employee contributions to COVID-19 relief efforts.
In the days and months ahead relief agencies of all sizes are going to be put to the ultimate test. While most of the focus is now on health care, it’s clear the COVID-19 pandemic also represents a major economic disruption. IT expertise will be needed to augment relief efforts spanning everything from tracking coronavirus cases to making sure people who are out of work receive food assistance. IT expertise that enables relief agencies to access public and private funding as quickly as possible is likely to be among some of the most important tasks ahead, regardless of whether anyone realizes today or much less even appreciates it tomorrow.