The Observability Dilemma
In today’s cloud-native landscape, observability isn’t optional—it’s essential. Every hour, your applications generate millions of metrics: CPU usage spikes, API response times, database query performance, user activity patterns. But here's the problem that keeps engineering teams up at night:
1.Collecting this data is only half the battle.
The real challenge? Storing it affordably for the long term AND transforming it into actionable insights that actually drive better decisions. This is where most monitoring
2.solutions force you into an impossible choice:
Traditional Prometheus setups hit retention limits after weeks, forcing you to delete historical data Managed visualization tools can’t access your complete historical dataset
You are forced to choose: store everything (expensive) or visualize everything It’s a compromise that shouldn’t exist in 2026.
Aiven for Metrics—Your Infinite Metrics Warehouse
What It Actually Does:
Aiven for Metrics is a fully managed, Prometheus-compatible metrics storage platform powered by Thanos. Remember that time you wanted to compare last December’s traffic patterns to this December, but your Prometheus only retained 30 days of data?
That problem disappears with Aiven for Metrics. Store your metrics for years, not weeks. Query across your entire history. Never delete data because you ran out of space.
Core Capabilities
1. Unlimited Retention with Smart Cost Management
Store metrics indefinitely. Aiven automatically moves older data to cost-efficient object storage, so you never have to choose between retention and budget. Recent data stays hot and fast; historical data stays accessible and affordable.
2. Prometheus Compatibility (Your Tools Keep Working)
Already using Prometheus? Perfect. Aiven for Metrics speaks fluent PromQL and supports remote write out of the box. Your existing exporters, service monitors, and recording rules all continue working—just point them at Aiven.
3. Enterprise-Grade Architecture (Without the Enterprise Headaches)
Built on Thanos (the industry-standard Prometheus scaling solution), Aiven handles all the complexity: distributed storage, data compaction, deduplication, and high availability. You get enterprise capabilities without hiring a team to manage them.
When we need Aiven for Metrics
This service shines in specific scenarios:
✅ Long-Term Trend Analysis
✅ Multi-Cluster, Multi-Region Deployments
✅ Compliance and Audit Requirements
✅ Cost Optimization
Aiven for Grafana—Your Visual Command Center
What It Actually Does
Aiven for Grafana is a fully managed Grafana service that transforms your metrics into actionable intelligence. Raw numbers become insights. Data becomes decisions.
Core Capabilities
1. Beautiful, Information-Dense Dashboards
Create dashboards that tell a story. 60+ visualization types mean you can show trends, distributions, correlations, and anomalies in ways that actually make sense to stakeholders—not just engineers.
2. Pre-Built Dashboards for Aiven Services
Running PostgreSQL, Kafka, or ClickHouse on Aiven? Get production-ready dashboards automatically. Connection rates, query performance, replication lag—all visualized out of the box.
3. Intelligent Alerting That Actually Helps
Set up alerts that fire when things go wrong, not constantly. Route notifications to Slack, PagerDuty, email, or webhooks. Include context in alerts so your on-call engineer knows exactly what’s broken.
How They Work Together
Here’s where the magic happens. When you connect Aiven for Metrics with Aiven for Grafana, you get something more powerful than either service alone:
| Aspect | Aiven for metrics | Aiven for Grafana |
| Primary role | Metrics storage and aggregation (backend database) | Data visualization and dashboarding (frontend) |
| Technology | Prometheus + Thanos (time-series database) | Grafana (visualization platform) |
| Data Storage | Stores actual metrics data (long-term) | Stores dashboard configs and queries only |
| Best For | Long term retention,compliance historical analysis | Real-time monitoring, team collaboration,alerts |
Real-World Scenarios:
1.A high-traffic e-commerce application
- Scenario: A high-traffic e-commerce site notices slow product searches.
- Aiven/Grafana Use: Monitor PostgreSQL/ClickHouse metrics (query latency, connection usage, buffer hits) in Grafana to pinpoint slow queries or inefficient configurations, potentially using Aiven’s built-in dashboards or custom panels.
- Outcome: Identify and optimize a specific query or adjust database settings (e.g., memory, connections) to improve search speed.
2. Application Observability (Frontend & Backend)
- Scenario: A food delivery app experiences a drop in successful order completions.
- Aiven/Grafana Use: Correlate frontend metrics (user session duration, ANR errors, UI freezes) with backend service metrics (API response times, error
Common Issues & Solutions
Metrics not appearing in Grafana?
- Check that your integration is properly enabled in both services. Verify the data source configuration in Grafana’s Settings. Allow 1-2 minutes for metrics to start flowing after enabling integration.
Slow dashboard loading?
- Reduce the time range or increase the query interval. Use recording rules for complex aggregations. Consider using dashboard variables to limit query scope.
Integration errors?
- Ensure both services are in the same Aiven project. Check service status—both must be running. Verify network connectivity if using VPC peering or private link.
Conclusion:
1.Aiven for Metrics: is your metrics library—storing every data point with perfect organization and unlimited shelf space. Think infinite retention, intelligent cost tiering, and lightning-fast queries across years of data.
2.Aiven for Grafana: is your reading room—where you analyze, visualize, and share those insights with your team through beautiful dashboards, intelligent alerts, and collaborative workspaces.
The best part? Both are fully managed. No Kubernetes clusters to maintain. No Thanos components to configure. No Grafana upgrades to coordinate. Just metrics storage and visualization that works.
Ready to Get Started?
Aiven offers $300 in free credits for new users. That’s enough to run both services for weeks and see the difference for yourself.
Next Steps:
- Sign up for Aiven athttps://console.aiven.io/signup
- Reach out to OSDB page for further more Information https://opensource-db.com/