How to monitor containerized and service-meshed network communication with Datadog NPM

Containers are portable and scalable but introduce monitoring challenges due to complex network communication in distributed environments. Datadog Network Performance Monitoring (NPM) helps visualize network traffic between objects within containerized environments, enabling users to monitor dependencies across containers, services, and deployments. NPM also supports service mesh analysis for identifying misconfigurations and ensuring efficient communication between services. The tool provides real-time visibility into network topology, allowing users to spot architectural inefficiencies and troubleshoot performance issues. Additionally, Datadog APM offers insights into application layer issues, while DNS monitoring helps identify service discovery problems. With support for Istio integration and Envoy monitoring, NPM provides full visibility into containerized applications and their communication.