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Faustine Chisasa - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at TZ Telecom Ltd.
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Customizable, flexible, open source dashboarding tool supporting a lot of data sources
Pros and Cons
  • "Almost any kind of visualization is possible with Grafana and all dashboards are configurable."
  • "It is limited on the reporting type supported, which is important for managerial-level officers who want reports that are either general or specific."

What is our primary use case?

We use Grafana to visualize IT infrastructure monitoring data. We have real-time, historical, and trend data that we can visualize in a flexible manner using Grafana. We use Zabbix to collect, process, and store the data. Zabbix has its own inbuilt visualization widgets, dashboards, and graphs, however, Grafana adds more flexibility. We have integrated Zabbix with Grafana using the Zabbix API which gives access to almost all components of the Zabbix Software.

Our environment is on-premises so we have both Zabbix and Grafana locally installed.

How has it helped my organization?

Grafana has greatly improved the way we visualize monitoring data. Now, every team member from directors, managers, sales representatives, to technical engineers can be granted access to custom dashboards relevant to their line of work.

With the latest Grafana versions, reports can be generated from dashboards to update senior management officers. 

The dashboards are not only intuitive and insightful, but they are also beautiful so it makes monitoring and data visualization more enjoyable.

Since it can easily be integrated with other software, having that important part of data processing taken care of makes technical teams more focused on improving data sources and enriching the data.

What is most valuable?

The ability to create almost all kinds of graphs and visualize any kind of information in an appealing way is extremely useful to us.

The customizability of dashboards and widgets is impressive.

The flexibility in integration with other tools as data sources of data enriching tools has been great.

It is open-source, so it saves a lot on costs and the community is friendly and powerful.

The product can be used to cater to multiple use cases. Almost any kind of visualization is possible with Grafana and all dashboards are configurable.

The ability to import and export dashboards saves us a lot of time for popular systems and dashboards.

What needs improvement?

The lack of native ability to aggregate data from multiple sources could be improved. As it is not a data store, it is challenging to correlate data from multiple data sources. Adding an out-of-box capability to aggregate and correlate different types of data would make Grafana even better.

It is limited on the reporting type supported, which is important for managerial-level officers who want reports that are either general or specific. Improvements in that area would be great.

Machine learning capabilities are still limited. This is an improvement in that area is needed.

Performance improvement when querying and searching textual data would be beneficial.

Buyer's Guide
Grafana
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Grafana. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
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For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for more than three years

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

When computing resources are properly optimized Grafana runs in a quite stable manner. As Grafana is an analytics and visualization platform, it is a bit hungry on CPU and Memory usage. When Grafana instances are properly planned and configured, computing resources bottlenecks can be avoided. Our instances haven't given us headaches from the time we set them up. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Grafana is mainly for visualization, so many instances can be set as needed. Grafana can also be configured for high availability for some scenarios like alerting, authentication, and databases.

How are customer service and support?

We haven't bought technical support and haven't dealt with their customer service agents.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used native dashboards and graphs of another system we use. We use Zabbix for monitoring but we added Grafana to add more visualization flexibility.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward, however, some resource optimization and tuning were needed. We have experienced professionals in tuning OS systems and application resources so it was not too complex for us.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented everything fully in-house. Since we never had a vendor team, we don't know yet the level of expertise they have. The Grafana community has been so helpful in this regard.

What was our ROI?

I can confidently say we have a 100% return on investment. Grafana has greatly enriched our data visualization and analytics. We see the prospect of it appealing even to more senior management. They may not be quite technical, but they appreciate having data nicely visualized so they know what is going on.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

You can choose from the fully open-source or enterprise editions. We chose the open-source and did everything in-house. Thorough planning and performance considerations are important, as the tool can be heavy on memory and computing resources.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We considered Kibana before we chose this solution.

What other advice do I have?

The solution is great and is one of the best in the market for visualization.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Product Owner at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 10
Easy to deploy, and stable, but the multiple dashboards are complex
Pros and Cons
  • "Grafana is able to connect with multiple data sources, unlike Elasticsearch."
  • "There is room for improvement when using multiple dashboards because they can become complicated to keep track of and use."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution as a dashboard and visualization tool for our business units.

What is most valuable?

Grafana is able to connect with multiple data sources, unlike Elasticsearch.

What needs improvement?

There is room for improvement when using multiple dashboards because they can become complicated to keep track of and use.

I would like to have alerting functions added to the solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Pearl and PHP but they were outdated.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are using the open-source license.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution a seven out of ten.

The solution requires one day a week for maintenance.

We have 200 people using the solution in our organization.

We built a web service around Prometheus and Grafana and control them through the web API, which is very helpful with deployment.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Grafana
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Grafana. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Erika Loots - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps engineer at Telesure Investment Holdings (TIH)
Real User
Top 5
Good features and can be deployed quickly
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution has good features."
  • "Lacks in-depth graphs and sufficient AI."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is for insight on CPU, what's happening in namespaces and nodes.

What is most valuable?

We like the features, it's a basic dashboard.

What needs improvement?

I'd like to see more in-depth graphs and more AI, alerting and log aggregation.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've used this solution for two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable if you use it separate to Rancher. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability could be improved. 

How was the initial setup?

Deployment is straightforward and takes a few minutes. It comes with Rancher so you can spin it up quickly. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We're using the open-source version. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2069535 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at a tech consulting company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 20
Helpful for matrix and logging, but we need different applications to view specific information
Pros and Cons
  • "The integration between Loki and Tempo is valuable."
  • "We need different kinds of applications in our infrastructure to see information in Grafana."

What is our primary use case?

We use Grafana for matrix and logging Kubernetes.

How has it helped my organization?

Many bottlenecks are sent to the base on the logs generated on Loki. We can create alerts based on that log, see the traces and find the bottlenecks easily.

What is most valuable?

The integration between Loki and Tempo is valuable.

What needs improvement?

We need different kinds of applications in our infrastructure to see information in Grafana. For example, some other companies use OneAgent, which takes control like Grafana but in one place and is better than Grafana.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for three years and are using the below enterprise. It is deployed on-premises.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable based on different metrics, and we have 40 users.

How are customer service and support?

We have raised a lot of tickets, and they respond fast. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are working with the Dynatrace team to have POC email infrastructure.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex because we needed to specify many configurations. I rate the setup a seven out of ten. A third party completed the deployment, and the maintenance was done in-house. It is not difficult to maintain.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution a seven out of ten. Regarding advice, ensure there is proof of courses for every tool to see the best fit for your infrastructure.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Technical Consultant Project Lead at Capgemini
Real User
Graphical representation enables great visibility and source of any issue
Pros and Cons
  • "It provides a graphical representation and it's clear to see what's happening."
  • "Multiple dashboards combined into one dashboard has slowed things down for us."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for monitoring activity for e-commerce businesses. With Grafana, we can identify in detail where issues come from and solve the problem. We are customers of Grafana. 

What is most valuable?

The solution provides more of a graphical representation so we can see any incoming requests, each and every functionality, and quickly know where the issue is. It's very helpful in terms of monitoring with respect to the market from a request to a response.

What needs improvement?

Grafana has made some changes recently. Previously, we had different dashboards but they have now merged the three designs into one dashboard and now we have to monitor a single dashboard for multiple reasons. It may not seem challenging, but we have critical issues that arise, and we don't know where they're coming from. We have to check all three aspects which takes us longer than it used to and can also affect productivity.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for one year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Grafana is a stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable, we have over 40 users. 

How are customer service and support?

We have good technical support. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this solution but for someone who doesn't have experience with Grafana, it may take a while to understand because it presents everything with a graphical representation and you need to figure out why there are multiple dashboards.  

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2116467 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Provides good integration and generates application metrics efficiently
Pros and Cons
  • "It integrates well with other solutions."
  • "Its interface could be more accessible."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for login and creating dashboards.

What is most valuable?

The solution provides good integration and accurate application metrics.

What needs improvement?

The solution's interface could be more accessible.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution for three years.

How are customer service and support?

I refer to the solution's online documentation in case of technical errors.

How was the initial setup?

The solution's initial setup process is complicated. Its complexity depends on the use cases. Also, as it is self-hosted on Grafana cloud, it requires minimum maintenance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is expensive. Although, its price depends on infrastructure.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution a nine.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Principal Member of Technical Staff at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Great graphs and dashboards with the ability to try to free
Pros and Cons
  • "There are multiple kinds of models there to create dashboards, which is quite useful."
  • "There are some areas of network drives that are not showing as expected based on server usage."

What is our primary use case?

We're getting the data from the CA team to Grafana, just feeding the data here from there. I used to create the standard dashboards and the custom dashboards based on the user's request.

We use the product in a logistics project where I used it for creating the dashboard for the packages and delivery kind of logistics projects.

What is most valuable?

There are multiple data fields we can create and graph models and gauge models. There are multiple kinds of models there to create dashboards, which is quite useful. 

The solution is stable.

Support is helpful.

What needs improvement?

I don't have any notes for improvement. 

There are some areas of network drives that are not showing as expected based on server usage. On the server, it was showing in GB model. However, in Grafana, It is in bytes. Therefore, the calculation it was not showing correctly. That is something that needs to be changed by the vendor team. 

The initial setup is not necessarily straightforward.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for two and a half years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable and reliable. There aren't bugs. It's not glutchy. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product works for monitoring as well, including log monitoring, monitoring, and alerting. However, we are using just the dashboard. Therefore, I cannot give my view on whether it is scalable or not.

We have about seven admins and 20 users on the solution. 

How are customer service and support?

As Grafana is involved with the DX APM, we used to reach out to the vendor about any issues on the Grafana related to the DX APM. They had good expertise on Grafana and helped us a lot.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've used other solutions. Grafana graph in representation is more clear for users. They like the view better. Any application has performance issues. We can set up the thresholds on the dashboard to 90% critical and 80% as warnings. We can update those values in the dashboards if we want. It is very colorful with multiple colors to differentiate things. It's just easier to use than anything else.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup isn't straightforward. Users need to learn the product first. At that point, it becomes easier. 

There isn't really a deployment so much as a one-time integration from the APM for Grafana.

Whenever we create a new agent or an existing agent is used to create the dashboard in Grafana, it normally takes one or two hours to create one dashboard. One dashboard means it has multiple panels like CPU, memory, and application back and front end.

There are a lot of panels. If the user request has very minimal panels, then it takes just 30 minutes to an hour. If they need multiple panels and multiple windows for the graph on a dashboard, then it takes two to three hours to complete it.

Once it is set up, the solution is easy to maintain. 

What about the implementation team?

I handled the deployment myself. 

What other advice do I have?

I was involved in the Broadcom DX APM. I did some POCs and created the dashboard. 

There is a feature called DX Dashboards there. It was used in the Lucene queries, and the dashboards are very innovative, and users like it a lot based on the dashboards.

We're using the solution that's the latest version. 

If a potential customer is already into any other dashboard view, I would advise them to create one free license and create dashboards and observe how it looks compared to their existing dashboard. That way, they'd be able to compare and see which would be better for them.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior Software Engineer at Snapminds
Real User
Top 20
Easy to set up monitoring solution that could improve its end-point monitoring
Pros and Cons
  • "The installation process is easy. We have deployed it on the cloud. I have around 20 to 30 people using the solution in my company."
  • "The main drawback is the necessity for endpoint monitoring."

What is our primary use case?

In my company, we regularly use it to monitor the status of our running reports, CPU usage, memory applications, and other relevant metrics.

What needs improvement?

The main drawback is the necessity for endpoint monitoring. Due to this requirement, we faced challenges in fetching details related to endpoint monitoring. We are considering the implementation of better tools.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for the past two and a half years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have around 20 to 30 people using the solution in my company.


How are customer service and support?

I’m not involved with contacting customer service.

How was the initial setup?

The installation process is easy. We have deployed it on the cloud.


What other advice do I have?

Overall, I rate the product a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Grafana Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: December 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Grafana Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.