Grafana's Big Tent

In the season two finale, hosts Tom Wilkie and Mat Ryer are joined by Richard "RichiH" Hartmann, Director of Community at Grafana Labs, and Pavel Strobl of Prusa Research to explore the intersection of 3D printing and observability. Prusa Research not only produces 3D printers that both Tom and Richi use to create everything from wind tunnels to miniature Grots, but the company also uses Grafana internally for their own systems, making this a dynamic conversation about how Grafana is being used to monitor and improve physical manufacturing processes as well as IT infrastructure.

Daniel Gomez Blanco, a Principal Engineer at Skyscanner, and Juraci Paixão Kröhling from Grafana Labs, delve into the fascinating evolution of OpenTelemetry. They recount the origin of its name and share insights on governance and effective monitoring. The duo discusses the challenges of implementing observability in software development and the importance of agile collaboration within the OpenTelemetry community. They also explore advancements in profiling and the integration of resource attributes, highlighting their impact on debugging practices.

Joining the conversation are Bryan Boreham, a distinguished engineer at Grafana Labs with a focus on databases, Niki Manoledaki, a Senior Software Engineer at Grafana who specializes in Kubernetes tools, and Thomas Dullien, the former CEO of Optimyze known for his contributions to OpenTelemetry. They dive into optimizing Kubernetes cluster performance and innovative methods to track carbon footprints. Highlights include strategies for better resource allocation, the Kepler project's energy profiling, and the balance between efficiency and sustainability in tech.

Torkel Ödegaard, the creative mind behind Grafana, joins Mitch Seaman, Senior Product Director, to discuss the groundbreaking Grafana 11. They delve into how hackathon projects evolved into essential features like Explore Metrics and Logs. Topics include the shift from Angular to React, the importance of user feedback in shaping updates, and new enterprise tools for cloud migration. They share humorous reflections on food and Grafana's twelve years of innovation, all while emphasizing a user-friendly experience for both novices and experts.

Liz Rice, Founder and CTO of Isovalent, shares her expertise on eBPF and its transformative impact on observability and security. Mario Macías, an Engineer at Grafana Labs, discusses tools like Grafana Beyla, showcasing eBPF's performance advantages. The duo explores the evolution of technologies like Tetragon, highlighting the humor in naming challenges. They also tackle eBPF integration on Windows, its expanding potential, and the importance of effective telemetry across varied programming languages, making observability not just advanced, but truly awesome!

Vasil Kaftandzhiev from Grafana Labs and Dio Tsoumas, DevOps lead at GWI, dive into the complexities of monitoring Kubernetes. They discuss why traditional monitoring falls short and explore the evolving landscape of cloud observability. The conversation highlights the growing responsibility for developers and the importance of collaborative ownership. They also cover effective resource management strategies, the vital role of 'golden metrics,' and the intricacies of handling service meshes in resource-demanding environments.

Patrick Oyarzun, a principal engineer at Grafana Labs, Mauro Stettler, a software engineer at Grafana Labs, and Oren Lion, head of Productivity Engineering at TeleTracking, dive into the metrics cardinality crisis. They explore how Adaptive Metrics evolved from a hackathon project to a key tool for efficient metrics management. The trio discusses the complexities of handling high cardinality in cloud-native environments, balancing cost and accessibility, and optimizing healthcare operations through tailored metrics.

Alex Forster, an Engineering Manager at Cloudflare, and Dee Kitchen, the VP of Engineering at Grafana Labs, dive into DDoS mitigation and observability. They break down the challenges of detecting attacks using relatable metaphors. The duo discusses the evolution of DDoS tactics, including state-level threats, and emphasizes the need for automation to bolster security. They also share practical strategies to enhance network observability, urging engineers to cultivate curiosity for continuous improvement. Tune in for insights on navigating today’s complex cyber landscape!

In this episode, hosts Tom Wilkie and Mat Ryer are teaming up with Grafana Labs’ Devin Cheevers and Prezi’s Alex Koehler to tackle the world of on-call responsibilities and incident management. Alex digs into Prezi's tech stack and provides a real-world look at observability practices and the lessons learned from managing a complex microservices architecture. Tune in to hear best practices for balancing innovation and reliability, but stay to hear everyone share the worst incident they’ve caused. 

To kick off season two of Grafana's Big Tent podcast, our host Mat Ryer is back and he's bringing along some heavy hitters! Get ready for a deep dive into the world of caching with Memcached maintainer Alan Kasindorf (aka dormando), along with caching aficionados Danny Kopping and Ed Welch. They’ll discuss CPU-level to application-level caching and share strategies that supercharge performance, especially in high-traffic, distributed systems like Grafana Loki.