What's New & Next in Grafana Alloy: The Official OpenTelemetry Collector Distribution

Presenters Bejal Marko Source GrafanaCon 2026 Alloy’s OpenTelemetry Engine: What’s New and What’s Next 🚀 Grafana Labs is leveling up its observability game with significant advancements in Alloy, their open-source observability data collector. This year marks a pivotal moment as Alloy officially becomes a fully compliant OpenTelemetry Collector distribution, bringing a wealth of new capabilities and a future-proof architecture. The Evolution of Alloy: From Collector to Standard-Bearer 🕰️ Alloy’s journey began two years ago, announced as a collector supporting both Prometheus and OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) formats. Last year, the focus sharpened on unifying high-performance Prometheus pipelines with OTel Collector workflows within Alloy. Now, the narrative shifts dramatically: Alloy is officially recognized as a fully compliant OTel Collector distribution, boasting native YAML support. ...

May 14, 2026 · 6 min

How the AI Team Scaled Grafana Assistant Context and Built AI Observability

Presenters Ivana Yasir Source GrafanaCon 2026 Grafana Assistant: From Promising Prototype to Production Powerhouse 🚀 GrafanaCON attendees, get ready for a deep dive into the evolution of our AI agent, Grafana Assistant! Last year, we introduced this game-changer, capable of querying data, building dashboards from scratch, and generally making your life easier in Grafana, all through natural language. The response has been incredible, with thousands of you actively using Assistant, sharing your successes on social media, and even creating YouTube content showcasing its speed. We’ve seen hours of work slashed into mere minutes, transforming how users interact with Grafana. ...

May 14, 2026 · 8 min

Grafana for Business Intelligence: How Grafana Labs Runs on Grafana

Presenters Chris Sam Jewell Source GrafanaCon 2026 Grafana: Beyond Observability - Powering Business Intelligence and Analytics 🚀 Hey tech enthusiasts! Ever wondered if that powerful tool you use for keeping an eye on your systems could also be the key to unlocking deeper business insights? At Grafana Labs, we’ve been doing just that, transforming Grafana from a go-to for SREs and engineers into a central hub for our business data. Join us as we dive into how we’ve built Grafana dashboards for Business Intelligence (BI) internally, creating a versatile visualization layer on top of our entire business data stack. ...

May 14, 2026 · 7 min

GrafanaCON 2026 Golden Grot Awards Ceremony: Aurora Chaser, Blue Ghost Mission 1, AI Innovations

Presenters Mohamed Adem Jackson Sweeney Oren Lion Dhananjay Yadav Source GrafanaCon 2026 The Golden Grot Awards: Celebrating Innovation in Observability! 🌟 Welcome to a special highlight from GrafanaCON, where we celebrate the brightest minds and most innovative projects in the observability space with the coveted Golden Grot Awards! This year marks the fifth anniversary of these prestigious awards, recognizing excellence and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, especially with the growing influence of AI. Let’s dive into the incredible winners who are shaping the future of technology! 🚀 ...

May 14, 2026 · 7 min

A Golf Launch Monitor That Actually Works | Open Source | OpenFlight | GrotShotPro

Presenters Coleman Source GrafanaCon 2026 From Passion Project to Open-Source Golf Tech: Meet OpenFlight! 🏌️‍♂️✨ Hey there, tech enthusiasts and golf aficionados! Coleman, a Staff Engineer at Grafana, recently shared his incredible “Science Fair Project,” and it’s a game-changer for golfers looking to up their game without breaking the bank. Get ready to dive into the world of launch monitors and how an open-source approach is shaking things up! 🚀 The Golfer’s Dilemma: Expensive Gadgets & Subpar Software 💸📉 Coleman, a lifelong golfer, understands the dedication it takes to improve. This often involves drawing lines on swing videos, frantic FaceTime calls with coaches, and, crucially, using gadgets to analyze performance. The star gadget? A launch monitor. These devices are vital for fitting clubs, understanding swing metrics, and analyzing ball flight. ...

May 14, 2026 · 4 min