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Grafana
open-in-new
<h2 id="history">History</h2> <p>Grafana was first released in 2014 by Torkel Ödegaard as an offshoot of a project at <a href="/facts/Orbitz/7CqCcjSV">Orbitz</a>. It targeted <a href="/facts/Time_series_database/sWQTXFBB">time series databases</a> such as <a href="/facts/InfluxDB/ngtlFGSR">InfluxDB</a>, OpenTSDB, and Prometheus, but evolved to support <a href="/facts/Relational_database/pEKGmJLy">relational databases</a> such as <a href="/facts/MySQL/QEEDNBDP">MySQL</a>/<a href="/facts/MariaDB/QWobVFIq">MariaDB</a>, <a href="/facts/PostgreSQL/LHdXuHfl">PostgreSQL</a> and <a href="/facts/Microsoft_SQL_Server/eCdt2JBL">Microsoft SQL Server</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a> </p><p>In 2019, Grafana Labs secured $24 million in <a href="/facts/Series_A_round/uzd006jy">Series A funding</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> In the 2020 Series B funding round it obtained $50 million.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a> In the 2021 Labs Series C funding round, Grafana secured $220 million.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17"><sup>17</sup></a> </p><p>Grafana Labs acquired Kausal in 2018,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18"><sup>18</sup></a> <a href="/facts/K6_(software)/cX4z2JVd">k6</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:19" href="#fn:19"><sup>19</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:20" href="#fn:20"><sup>20</sup></a> and Amixr<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:21" href="#fn:21"><sup>21</sup></a> in 2021, and Asserts.ai in 2023.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:22" href="#fn:22"><sup>22</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="adoption">Adoption</h2> <p>Grafana is used<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:23" href="#fn:23"><sup>23</sup></a> in <a href="/facts/Wikimedia/Gzhhm7GE">Wikimedia</a>'s infrastructure.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:24" href="#fn:24"><sup>24</sup></a> In 2017, Grafana had over 1000 paying customers, including <a href="/facts/Bloomberg_L.P./2NCtubRH">Bloomberg</a>, <a href="/facts/JPMorgan_Chase/bVu3VBTV">JP Morgan Chase</a>, and <a href="/facts/EBay/bDswVAKB">eBay</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:25" href="#fn:25"><sup>25</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="licensing">Licensing</h2> <p>Previously, Grafana was licensed with an <a href="/facts/Apache_License/5AeIjas8">Apache License</a> 2.0 license and used a CLA based on the <a href="/facts/Project_Harmony_(licensing)/Q0SvlXkf">Harmony Contributor Agreement</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:26" href="#fn:26"><sup>26</sup></a> </p><p>Since 2021, Grafana has been licensed under an <a href="/facts/GNU_Affero_General_Public_License/n1h9A893">AGPLv3</a> license.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:27" href="#fn:27"><sup>27</sup></a> Contributors to Grafana need to sign a <a href="/facts/Contributor_License_Agreement/rrn0Hl2o">Contributor License Agreement</a> (CLA) that <a href="/facts/Copyright_assignment/7GHEWEx9">gives Grafana Labs</a> the right to <a href="/facts/Software_relicensing/XfFlRdVw">relicense</a> Grafana in the future. The CLA is based on <a href="/facts/The_Apache_Software_Foundation/Xl9Tt9lE">The Apache Software Foundation</a> Individual Contributor License Agreement.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:28" href="#fn:28"><sup>28</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="related-projects">Related projects</h2> <p>Grafana Labs launched a series of related open-source projects to complement Grafana: </p> <ul><li>Grafana Loki - a log aggregation platform inspired by <a href="/facts/Prometheus_(software)/Vlcfymdn">Prometheus</a> first made available in 2019<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:29" href="#fn:29"><sup>29</sup></a></li> <li>Grafana Mimir - a <a href="/facts/Prometheus_(software)/Vlcfymdn">Prometheus</a>-compatible, scalable metrics storage and analysis tool released in 2022 that replaced Cortex<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:30" href="#fn:30"><sup>30</sup></a></li> <li>Grafana Tempo - a distributed tracing tool, released in 2021<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:31" href="#fn:31"><sup>31</sup></a></li> <li>Grafana Pyroscope - a continuous profiling tool, released in 2023<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:32" href="#fn:32"><sup>32</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"Grafana Enterprise Stack". Grafana Labs. Retrieved 2021-03-19. <a href="https://grafana.com/products/enterprise/" target="_blank">https://grafana.com/products/enterprise/</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Perrin, Jim. "Monitoring Linux performance with Grafana". OpenSource.com. Retrieved 2018-08-14. <a href="https://opensource.com/article/17/8/linux-grafana" target="_blank">https://opensource.com/article/17/8/linux-grafana</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Synopsys. "The grafana Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page". Open Hub. Retrieved 2021-03-19. <a href="https://www.openhub.net/p/grafana/analyses/latest/languages_summary" target="_blank">https://www.openhub.net/p/grafana/analyses/latest/languages_summary</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Anadiotis, George. "DevOps and observability in the 2020s". ZDNet. Retrieved 2020-02-04. <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/devops-and-observability-in-the-2020s/" target="_blank">https://www.zdnet.com/article/devops-and-observability-in-the-2020s/</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Jones, Anna (2019-01-25). "Open Source Monitoring Stack: Prometheus and Grafana". Bizety. Retrieved 2019-05-08. <a href="https://www.bizety.com/2019/01/25/open-source-monitoring-stack-prometheus-and-grafana/" target="_blank">https://www.bizety.com/2019/01/25/open-source-monitoring-stack-prometheus-and-grafana/</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>DeLosSantos, Louis (2018). "Netdata, Prometheus, Grafana stack". Netdata Documentation. Retrieved 2019-05-08. <a href="https://docs.netdata.cloud/backends/walkthrough/" target="_blank">https://docs.netdata.cloud/backends/walkthrough/</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Assaraf, Ariel (6 July 2018). "Grafana Vs Graphite". Coralogix. <a href="https://coralogix.com/log-analytics-blog/grafana-vs-graphite/" target="_blank">https://coralogix.com/log-analytics-blog/grafana-vs-graphite/</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Kumar, Santhosh; Muruganantham, Logeshkumar (2017-01-21). "Step By Step: Install and Configure Sensu + Grafana". Powerupcloud Tech Blog. Archived from the original on May 8, 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-08. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190508053430/https://blog.powerupcloud.com/step-by-step-install-and-configure-sensu-grafana-9cedca333396" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20190508053430/https://blog.powerupcloud.com/step-by-step-install-and-configure-sensu-grafana-9cedca333396</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>"Exporting Check_MK Performance Data to Grafana". TruePath Technologies. 2018. Retrieved 2020-09-24. <a href="https://truepathtechnologies.com/exporting-check_mk-performance-data-to-grafana/" target="_blank">https://truepathtechnologies.com/exporting-check_mk-performance-data-to-grafana/</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>DeLosSantos, Louis (2018). "Netdata, Prometheus, Grafana stack". Netdata Documentation. Retrieved 2019-05-08. <a href="https://docs.netdata.cloud/backends/walkthrough/" target="_blank">https://docs.netdata.cloud/backends/walkthrough/</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>Jones, Anna (2019-01-25). "Open Source Monitoring Stack: Prometheus and Grafana". Bizety. Retrieved 2019-05-08. <a href="https://www.bizety.com/2019/01/25/open-source-monitoring-stack-prometheus-and-grafana/" target="_blank">https://www.bizety.com/2019/01/25/open-source-monitoring-stack-prometheus-and-grafana/</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>"OpenSearch plugin for Grafana". Grafana Labs. Retrieved 2024-06-02. <a href="https://grafana.com/grafana/plugins/grafana-opensearch-datasource/" target="_blank">https://grafana.com/grafana/plugins/grafana-opensearch-datasource/</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>Ödegaard, Torkel (2019-09-03). "The (Mostly) Complete History of Grafana UX". grafana.com. Retrieved 2020-10-06. <a href="https://grafana.com/blog/2019/09/03/the-mostly-complete-history-of-grafana-ux/" target="_blank">https://grafana.com/blog/2019/09/03/the-mostly-complete-history-of-grafana-ux/</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>"MySQL data source | Grafana documentation". Grafana Labs. Retrieved 2024-04-23. <a href="https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/datasources/mysql/" target="_blank">https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/datasources/mysql/</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>Anadiotis, George. "Is open source the way to go for observability? Grafana Labs scores $24M Series A funding to try to prove this". ZDNet. Retrieved 2020-02-04. <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/is-open-source-the-way-to-go-for-observability-grafana-labs-scores-24m-series-a-funding-to-try-to-prove-this/" target="_blank">https://www.zdnet.com/article/is-open-source-the-way-to-go-for-observability-grafana-labs-scores-24m-series-a-funding-to-try-to-prove-this/</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:16"><p>Grafana (2020-08-17). "Grafana Labs Raises $50 Million to Accelerate R&D Investments in Open Source Logs, Metrics and Composable Observability". GlobeNewswire News Room (Press release). Retrieved 2021-07-23. <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2020/08/17/2079144/0/en/Grafana-Labs-Raises-50-Million-to-Accelerate-R-D-Investments-in-Open-Source-Logs-Metrics-and-Composable-Observability.html" target="_blank">https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2020/08/17/2079144/0/en/Grafana-Labs-Raises-50-Million-to-Accelerate-R-D-Investments-in-Open-Source-Logs-Metrics-and-Composable-Observability.html</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:17"><p>Grafana (2021-08-24). "Grafana Labs Raises $220 Million Round at $3 Billion Valuation". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2021-08-22. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-24/grafana-labs-raises-220-million-round-at-3-billion-valuation" target="_blank">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-24/grafana-labs-raises-220-million-round-at-3-billion-valuation</a> <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:18"><p>"Kausal to join Grafana Labs to bring Prometheus to the masses". Kausal.co. 2018-03-10. Retrieved 2024-05-27. <a href="https://kausal.co/blog/grafana-labs-to-acquire-kausal/" target="_blank">https://kausal.co/blog/grafana-labs-to-acquire-kausal/</a> <a href="#fnref:18" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:19"><p>"Grafana Labs acquires load-testing startup K6". VentureBeat. 2021-06-17. Retrieved 2021-07-27. <a href="https://venturebeat.com/2021/06/17/grafana-labs-acquires-load-testing-startup-k6/" target="_blank">https://venturebeat.com/2021/06/17/grafana-labs-acquires-load-testing-startup-k6/</a> <a href="#fnref:19" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:20"><p>"Grafana Labs Acquires k6 to Add Open Source Load Testing Tool - DevOps.com". devops.com. 17 June 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-27. <a href="https://devops.com/grafana-labs-acquires-k6-to-add-open-source-load-testing-tool/" target="_blank">https://devops.com/grafana-labs-acquires-k6-to-add-open-source-load-testing-tool/</a> <a href="#fnref:20" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:21"><p>"Russian-founded incident management tool Amixr acquired by US major Grafana Labs". ewdn.com. 2021-11-12. Retrieved 2021-11-12. <a href="https://www.ewdn.com/2021/11/12/russian-founded-incident-management-tool-amixr-acquired-by-us-major-grafana-labs/" target="_blank">https://www.ewdn.com/2021/11/12/russian-founded-incident-management-tool-amixr-acquired-by-us-major-grafana-labs/</a> <a href="#fnref:21" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:22"><p>"Grafana Labs acquires AI startup Asserts.ai to ease application observability headaches". siliconangle.com. 2023-11-14. Retrieved 2024-06-14. <a href="https://siliconangle.com/2023/11/14/grafana-labs-acquires-ai-startup-asserts-ai-ease-application-observability-headaches/" target="_blank">https://siliconangle.com/2023/11/14/grafana-labs-acquires-ai-startup-asserts-ai-ease-application-observability-headaches/</a> <a href="#fnref:22" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:23"><p>Anadiotis, George. "DevOps and observability in the 2020s". ZDNet. Retrieved 2020-02-04. <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/devops-and-observability-in-the-2020s/" target="_blank">https://www.zdnet.com/article/devops-and-observability-in-the-2020s/</a> <a href="#fnref:23" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:24"><p>"grafana.wikimedia.org". Wikitech. Retrieved 2021-04-09. <a href="https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grafana.wikimedia.org" target="_blank">https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grafana.wikimedia.org</a> <a href="#fnref:24" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:25"><p>"Grafana Labs acquires load-testing startup K6". VentureBeat. 2021-06-17. Retrieved 2021-07-27. <a href="https://venturebeat.com/2021/06/17/grafana-labs-acquires-load-testing-startup-k6/" target="_blank">https://venturebeat.com/2021/06/17/grafana-labs-acquires-load-testing-startup-k6/</a> <a href="#fnref:25" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:26"><p>"Grafana Labs Contributor License Agreement". Retrieved 2021-01-22. <a href="https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/developers/cla/" target="_blank">https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/developers/cla/</a> <a href="#fnref:26" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:27"><p>Dutt, Raj (2021-04-20). "Grafana, Loki, and Tempo will be relicensed to AGPLv3". grafana.com. Retrieved 2021-04-21. <a href="https://grafana.com/blog/2021/04/20/grafana-loki-tempo-relicensing-to-agplv3/" target="_blank">https://grafana.com/blog/2021/04/20/grafana-loki-tempo-relicensing-to-agplv3/</a> <a href="#fnref:27" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:28"><p>"Grafana Labs Contributor License Agreement". grafana.com. 2021-04-20. Retrieved 2021-04-21. <a href="https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/developers/cla/" target="_blank">https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/developers/cla/</a> <a href="#fnref:28" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:29"><p>Lobo, Savia (November 20, 2019). "Grafana Labs announces general availability of Loki 1.0, a multi-tenant log aggregation system". Packt Hub. Retrieved 19 April 2023. <a href="https://hub.packtpub.com/grafana-labs-announces-general-availability-of-loki-1-0-a-multi-tenant-log-aggregation-system/" target="_blank">https://hub.packtpub.com/grafana-labs-announces-general-availability-of-loki-1-0-a-multi-tenant-log-aggregation-system/</a> <a href="#fnref:29" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:30"><p>Gain, B. Cameron (August 10, 2022). "The Great Grafana Mimir and Cortex Split". The New Stack. Retrieved 19 April 2023. <a href="https://thenewstack.io/the-great-grafana-mimir-and-cortex-split/" target="_blank">https://thenewstack.io/the-great-grafana-mimir-and-cortex-split/</a> <a href="#fnref:30" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:31"><p>Deutscher, Maria (June 8, 2021). "Grafana Labs eases IT monitoring with Tempo tracing tool and new Grafana release". Silicon Angle. Retrieved 19 April 2023. <a href="https://siliconangle.com/2021/06/08/grafana-labs-eases-monitoring-tempo-tracing-tool-new-grafana-release/" target="_blank">https://siliconangle.com/2021/06/08/grafana-labs-eases-monitoring-tempo-tracing-tool-new-grafana-release/</a> <a href="#fnref:31" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:32"><p>Vizard, Mike (August 31, 2023). "Grafana Labs Delivers Open Source Code Profiling Tool". DevOps.com. Retrieved 27 May 2024. <a href="https://devops.com/grafana-labs-delivers-open-source-code-profiling-tool/" target="_blank">https://devops.com/grafana-labs-delivers-open-source-code-profiling-tool/</a> <a href="#fnref:32" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>