OpenTelemetry with Grafana

Overview

OpenTelemetry (OTel) is a vendor-neutral framework for collecting observability data (metrics, logs, traces, profiles). Grafana Labs integrates it as a core strategy, offering a full stack to collect, ingest, store, analyze, and visualize telemetry data.

Four-Step Implementation Model

1. Instrument - Add telemetry using Grafana SDKs, Beyla (eBPF), or upstream OTel SDKs
2. Pipeline - Build processing infrastructure with Grafana Alloy or OTel Collector
3. Ingest - Route data to Grafana Cloud OTLP endpoint or self-managed backends
4. Analyze - Dashboards, alerts, Application Observability, Drilldown apps

Grafana Backends