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Grafana Tempo 2.8 release: memory improvements, new TraceQL features, and more

Grafana Tempo 2.8 is officially here, delivering new TraceQL features, performance improvements, and bug fixes, as well as some breaking changes. Watch the video below to learn more about the TraceQL features, or continue reading to get a quick overview of these and other updates. If you’re looking for something more in-depth for all of the changes that happened in this release, head over to the Grafana Tempo 2.8 release notes or the changelog.

The 1st Successful Commercial Moon Landing | Firefly's Blue Ghost Mission 1 | Grafana Everywhere

Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission One successfully landed on the moon with the help of Grafana. In this behind-the-scenes talk, learn how real-time dashboards powered critical decisions during descent, tracked payloads, and helped operators visualize everything from footpad sensors to lunar gravity. Footage and photos courtesy of Firefly Aerospace.

Data points per minute in Grafana Cloud: What you need to know about DPM

If you’re working with metrics in Grafana Cloud, chances are you’ve come across DPM (data points per minute). It shows up in usage dashboards, invoice breakdowns, and occasionally pops up in Slack when your ingestion numbers start looking suspicious. DPM can also be seen in the Grafana Cloud billing and usage dashboard, which is available by default in every Grafana Cloud account. It helps you understand how much data you’re sending—and whether it’s more than you need.

Implementing Grafana Play privacy policies with Grafana k6: A behind-the-scenes look

Grafana Play is a free and publicly accessible sandbox environment that allows users to explore and learn Grafana without setting up their own instance. Grafana Play comes preloaded with ready-made sample dashboards, and showcases how to work with different data sources, create visualizations, and use advanced Grafana features.

Lunar-level observability: How Firefly Aerospace used Grafana to monitor its historic moon landing

On March 2, 2025, Firefly Aerospace made history. The company — a space services firm that offers safe, reliable, and economical access to space — completed the first fully successful lunar landing by a commercial provider with its Blue Ghost Mission 1. But behind the headlines and highlight reels was a team of dedicated engineers, years of preparation, and a mission control center outfitted with Grafana dashboards.