Grafana vs OpenTracing vs Thanos: What are the differences?

Introduction:
Grafana, OpenTracing, and Thanos are popular monitoring tools used in the field of observability. Here, we will delve into the key differences between Grafana, OpenTracing, and Thanos.

1. **Data Visualization**:
Grafana primarily focuses on data visualization through customizable dashboards, allowing users to create and visualize metrics in various formats such as graphs, charts, and tables. In contrast, OpenTracing and Thanos are more geared towards tracing and monitoring distributed systems rather than visualization features.

2. **Tracing Capabilities**:
OpenTracing is specifically designed for distributed tracing, providing APIs that standardize the instrumentation of code for collecting traces across services. Thanos, on the other hand, has limited tracing capabilities compared to OpenTracing, as it primarily focuses on scalable metrics storage and querying.

3. **Metrics Storage**:
Thanos excels in metrics storage by offering long-term retention and global querying of Prometheus metrics data, making it an ideal solution for monitoring large-scale infrastructures. Grafana, while it can connect to data sources like Prometheus and Graphite, relies on these external systems for metrics storage and retrieval.

4. **Scalability**:
Thanos is known for its scalability, as it can handle large amounts of data by implementing a global view of metrics across multiple Prometheus instances. In contrast, Grafana's scalability is largely dependent on the performance and resources of the underlying data sources it connects to.

5. **Alerting Capabilities**:
Grafana offers robust alerting capabilities that allow users to set up alerts based on predefined conditions and thresholds, providing proactive monitoring and notification mechanisms. OpenTracing and Thanos, being more focused on tracing and metrics storage respectively, have limited built-in alerting functionalities compared to Grafana.

6. **Community Support and Ecosystem**:
Grafana boasts a strong community support and a rich ecosystem of plugins and integrations, making it a versatile tool for various monitoring and visualization needs. While OpenTracing and Thanos also have their respective communities, they may not be as extensive as Grafana's ecosystem in terms of available resources and community-driven development.

In Summary, Grafana is ideal for data visualization, OpenTracing for distributed tracing, and Thanos for scalable metrics storage and querying in monitoring large-scale infrastructures.