Software monitoring powerhouse New Relic is extending its reach deeper into the cloud with New Relic Insights, a real-time analytics service that allows developers to glean more meaningful insights into how users interact with their applications. Formerly known by the code name Project Rubicon, New Relic Insights utilizes the same embedded agents customers use for server monitoring to log clicks, page views, transactions and other fast-moving metrics that may be relevant to the bottom line.

Collecting all this data while it’s still fresh makes it possible to identify patterns sooner and more accurately. However, a big problem is, most companies don’t have the infrastructure needed to support Web-scale event stream processing. That’s why New Relic is offering a hosted “database super-cluster” that enables developers to run queries against billions of data points at a time using a relatively simple SQL-like syntax dubbed the “New Relic Query Language” or NRQL for short.

Besides searching for patterns, NRQL can also be used to quickly turn results into custom visualizations accessible to even non-technical decision makers. That capability represents a stark departure from the traditional approach to business intelligence in which IT would spend weeks designing and implementing a dashboard that was destined to become obsolete by the time it’s rolled out.

New Relic claims that the solution is applicable to a wide range of use cases, namely customer experience management, product optimization, targeted advertising and DevOps. It’s already been put to the test by a number of prominent organizations including CURE International, Yellow Pages Group and Bleacher Report.

New Relic Insights, which is currently in public beta, is available for free to all New Relic users until the official release. Paid customers can store up to billion metrics per week at no charge.

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Suzanne Kattau contributed to this article.