Application performance management provider New Relic is adding a free Application Speed Index to its SaaS application performance management (APM) tool, with the goal of giving customers a competitive advantage with real-time, application performance metrics.

With the new App Speed Index organizations can benchmark their own application performance against their peers, based on actual user data. New Relic also launched the Application Speed Index Leaderboard, a “living infographic that tracks the fastest applications and industries using New Relic.”

“At the end of the day, performance is really measured by the end user’s experience, and application speed definitely influences their buying decisions,” said Lew Cirne, founder and CEO of New Relic, in a prepared statement. “Right now, most companies measure speed and performance against their own subjective benchmarks, but they’re operating in a vacuum because they don’t have insight into how other companies in their industry compare. With New Relic’s massive Big Data collection and our new App Speed Index capability, we’re giving companies a huge competitive edge by providing a real benchmark they can measure against day after day.”

Other highlights regarding the announcement include:

Close to a month ago New Relic announced a partnership with Bulletproof Networks for its customers to receive New Relic Standard for free with a free two-week upgrade to New Relic Professional. Bulletproof customers can use New Relic’s “deep app performance visibility” to help them monitor and optimize their cloud applications. Bulletproof Networks provides hosting and outsourced server management and mission-critical infrastructure monitoring, and plans to include New Relic’s capabilities with new dedicated VM services.

Our readers can click here for an overview on the New Relic partner program.