Grafana's Big Tent

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. 

From the saddest log line in the multiverse to how metrics, logs, and traces are like a mother sauce, our intrepid hosts, Mat Ryer, Matt Toback, and Tom Wilkie, have been joined by distinguished guests to tackle a wide-range of discussions (not to mention a few conversational detours). For a special bonus episode to cap off the first season, Mat, Matt, and Tom got together to share their favorite episodes from the past season and plot their plans for the next one.

Note: This episode contains a couple of curse words. If you have sensitive ears nearby, maybe save it for later.In this special episode, Grafana Labs' founders Raj Dutt, Anthony Woods, and Torkel Ödegaard answered a wide range of questions about the past, present, and future of the company — and how the people behind the products have always been the driving force behind its success. Recorded live at GrafanaFest, the company-wide event that brought together more than 600+ Grafanistas from around the world in Whistler, British Columbia, Raj reminded everyone who was gathered, "we're in this together. We are building relationships that are going to last beyond this company, whatever our personal journeys are."

Darren Murph, Head of Remote at GitLab and author of Living the Remote Dream, joins host Matt Toback to discuss all the advantages of adopting a remote work culture and, in turn, creating a more positive, results-only environment. "There shouldn’t be a focus on availability and visibility," says Darren. "The idea is that we focus on the results. We care a lot less about how you get there, or the clothes you wear while you’re doing it, or at what time of the day or week you accomplish it." Luckily, they also won't care if you take time to listen to this episode and learn more about the personal benefits of remote work and how you can advocate for this shift in your workplace. Added bonus: Instead of all those "This-could've-been-an-email" meetings, your in-person gatherings will quickly become more productive and meaningful. 

Three times a year, Grafanistas can take a week away from their day jobs and invest their creative energy into a company-wide hackathon. In this episode, winners from the recent Grafana Labs hackathons share what motivated their teams to deliver successful projects. (It's not just the prize money—though that helps.) You'll also learn more about the judging process and which projects landed on the product roadmap.

Nayana Shetty, a principal engineer at Lego Group specializing in observability, shares her insights with hosts Mat Ryer and Matt Toback. They discuss the importance of site reliability engineering in microservices and the evolution of monitoring practices in tech. Nayana emphasizes the value of incident drills for team preparedness and tackles the challenge of alert fatigue in managing feedback. She also reveals how she built her observability career brick by brick, all while sharing amusing anecdotes about public speaking and travel.

What's the saddest log line in the multiverse? How do you store logs efficiently? Grafana Labs Software Engineer and Grafana Loki tech lead Ed Welch covers everything you need to know about logs and shares some of his tricks for logging at scale with Grafana Loki. Plus: Learn about the logfmt chants you didn't know existed in the Go community!