Grafana Labs showcased its commitment to the open source ecosystem at GrafanaCON 2025 in Seattle, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of the company and its tools. The event highlighted several key updates and initiatives, including the release of Grafana 12, the integration of an AI-powered observability assistant, and the donation of its eBPF-based auto-instrumentation tool to OpenTelemetry. Additionally, the company unveiled new enhancements to simplify data exploration and performance testing. Grafana 12: Reimagining Observability as Code Grafana 12, the latest iteration of Grafana Labs' flagship data visualization platform, introduces a transformative approach to observability as code. The primary goal is to enhance user experience by making dashboards more consistent and manageable through code. Key features include: App Platform: This serves as the backbone of the observability as code strategy, offering consistent and version-controlled APIs for managing Grafana resources like dashboards, and a set of tools for building custom applications. New Dashboard Schema: A revised JSON structure that separates general settings from content, improving readability and facilitation of dashboard generation. Dynamic Dashboards: Enhanced flexibility and customization options, powered by the new schema, allowing users to create and modify dashboards more intuitively. Git Sync: Automatic synchronization of Grafana dashboards to a GitHub repository, enabling code reviews and maintaining higher-quality, more portable dashboards. As Code Tools: New products like the Terraform provider and GrafanaCTL, designed to integrate seamlessly into existing CI/CD pipelines and support observability as code practices. 15 New Data Sources: Expanded connectivity with various data sources, including DynamoDB, CosmosDB, Cloudflare, Atlassian Statuspage, and PagerDuty, allowing users to explore and visualize a wider range of data. SQL Expressions: The ability to combine and transform data from different sources using SQL, simplifying real-time data merging and analysis. Torkel Ödegaard, Co-Founder of Grafana Labs, highlighted the importance of these changes, stating, "We reimagined how users can provision dashboards and improve API and schema structures. Grafana 12 focuses on making dashboard creation and management more efficient and user-friendly." Grafana Assistant: AI-Powered Observability In another groundbreaking move, Grafana Labs launched a private preview of Grafana Assistant, an integrated, context-aware chat experience within Grafana Cloud. This AI agent aims to make observability more accessible and practical by enabling users to interact with their data using natural language. Whether users are new to Grafana or seasoned professionals, they can benefit from: Educational Support: New users can gain insights into general concepts and detailed information about specific tools and integrations. Natural Language Queries: Experienced users can run complex queries and investigations without needing to write code, enhancing their productivity and efficiency. Context-Aware Interface: The assistant provides relevant suggestions and assists in diagnosing issues based on the current page context, making it easier to identify and resolve problems. Tom Wilkie, CTO of Grafana Labs, emphasized the significance of this integration, noting, "Grafana Assistant leverages our open source roots to provide meaningful assistance from day one, making AI-powered observability a practical reality for our users." OpenTelemetry Leadership: Beyla Donation and Alloy's First Anniversary Grafana Labs solidified its leadership in the OpenTelemetry ecosystem by donating Grafana Beyla, an eBPF-based auto-instrumentation tool, to the OpenTelemetry project. Rename to OpenTelemetry eBPF Instrumentation, this tool simplifies data collection and telemetry generation, making it more accessible and community-driven. Nikola Grcevski, Principal Software Engineer at Grafana Labs, explained, "Beyla's unique capability to instrument where other methods fail made it essential to integrate into the OpenTelemetry project. This donation will drive more innovation and interoperability within the ecosystem." Additionally, GrafanaCON 2025 celebrated the first anniversary of Grafana Alloy, a distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector that includes Prometheus pipelines. The 2025 Observability Survey conducted by Grafana Labs revealed that OpenTelemetry is rapidly gaining mainstream adoption, with 50% of organizations increasing their investments for the second consecutive year and 75% using open source licensing for observability. Simplifying Data Exploration: Grafana Drilldown Addressing the common challenge of complexity in observability, Grafana Labs introduced Grafana Drilldown, a suite of tools designed to streamline data exploration and analysis. Initially available for Metrics, Logs, and Profiles, the company now announced the general availability of Traces Drilldown. This feature simplifies the process of filtering through traces by allowing users to point and click, significantly reducing the need for query languages like PromQL or LogQL. Deepika Muthudeenathayalan and Alex Simion, engineers at Glovo, shared their positive experience with Traces Drilldown, stating, "This tool has been invaluable for isolating specific span types and deep diving into issues, whether local or global, making our troubleshooting more efficient." Grafana k6 1.0: Advancing Reliability Testing Grafana Labs also celebrated the general availability of Grafana k6 1.0, a major achievement for the open source performance testing tool. Acquired by Grafana Labs in 2021, k6 1.0 emphasizes trust, predictability, scalability, and developer-friendliness. Key features include: Predictable and Scalable Testing: Reliable simulations for both small and large-scale testing scenarios, ensuring accurate performance benchmarks. k6 Studio: An open source desktop application that aids in generating k6 test scripts, further simplifying the testing process for developers. Théo Crevon, Staff Software Engineer at Grafana Labs, remarked, "k6 1.0 is not just a version update but a testament to our commitment to making reliability testing more accessible and effective for all users." Industry Insights and Company Profile GrafanaCON 2025 demonstrated Grafana Labs' ongoing dedication to pioneering advancements in open source observability. Industry insiders praised the company’s strategic moves, highlighting the importance of its contributions to the ecosystem. The event featured a diverse array of talks, showcasing innovative use cases such as monitoring apple orchards, assisting in global drone navigation, and playing a crucial role in Firefly Aerospace's lunar landing mission. Grafana Labs, founded in 2013 by Raj Dhanak, Torkel Ödegaard, and Jaana Dogan, has grown to serve over 5,000 customers and 25 million users. The company’s offerings, including the LGTM Stack (Logs, Metrics, Traces, and Monitoring) and Grafana Cloud, aim to help organizations achieve seamless and scalable observability. Backed by top-tier investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital, Grafana Labs continues to lead the charge in making monitoring and data visualization more accessible and powerful for businesses worldwide.