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New Relic’s Simplicity Limits Need for Global Systems Integrators, CEO Says

New Relic remains a fast-growing provider of cloud-scale monitoring software. But the company's fast growth won't necessarily trigger big opportunities for global systems integrators, according to New Relic CEO Lew Cirne.

New Relic CEO Lew Cirne
New Relic CEO Lew Cirne

While classic client-server applications like Oracle could drive lengthy systems integrator and consultant engagements back in the 1990s and early 2000s, New Relic's software is far easier for customers to activate and consume on their own, Cirne asserts.

During a New Relic earnings call with Wall Street analysts last week, Cirne put it this way:

"I'm always delighted when I go into a customer prospect and say, "How's your evaluation going?" Then they say: "Well, I wanted to put it in on one application was so easy, I put it in on 10." "

As customers dive deeper with New Relic's platform, there may be opportunities that require a more consultative engagement model from systems integrators, he adds. "So that maybe something that happens in the future, but right now our ease of use and adoption means that it's not necessarily a natural fit for a big systems integrator projects," Cirne says.

New Relic Partners, and Rivals' Alternatives

Still, New Relic certainly needs and values partners -- especially as the company continues to diversity its monitoring platform while competing against Cisco AppDynamics, Datadog, Dynatrace, LogicMonitor and SolarWinds, among others.

New Relic's current portfolio extends across mobile, infrastructure, web browser and application performance monitoring (APM), among other areas. The company has a formalized developer partner program, and also works closely with a range of MSPs that support end-customer and cloud monitoring.

New Relic Financial Results

New Relic remains in growth mode. The company's revenue was $124.0 million for its third quarter of fiscal 2019, compared to $91.8 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2018. The company had a net loss of $10.2 million, larger than the $7.7 million net loss for Q2 of fiscal 2018. The results generally exceeded Wall Street's expectations.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.