Three data approaches
Three ways Grafana Cloud works with your data
| Capability | What it means | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Collect and store (recommended) | Grafana Alloy or integrations gather and store your data | You want pre-built dashboards, alerts, and a supported pipeline |
| Send from external collectors | Your collectors send data to Grafana Cloud | You have existing Prometheus, InfluxDB, Graphite, etc. |
| Connect to data sources | Grafana queries external systems directly | Your data must stay where it is |
Focus of this course
This course focuses on sending data from external collectors to Grafana Cloud’s storage backends.
| Telemetry type | Grafana Cloud backend |
|---|---|
| Metrics | Mimir |
| Logs | Loki |
Script
Before diving into the methods, let’s understand the three ways Grafana Cloud can work with your data.
First, there’s collect and store using Grafana tools. This is the recommended approach. Grafana Alloy or integrations scrape metrics, tail logs, and gather traces from your infrastructure. You get pre-built dashboards, alerts, and a fully supported pipeline. If you’re starting fresh, this is the way to go.
Second, you can send data from external collectors. This is when you already have collection handled, whether you’re running Prometheus, InfluxDB, Graphite, or your apps emit OpenTelemetry. You don’t need Grafana to collect anything. You just need Grafana Cloud’s storage backends: Mimir for metrics and Loki for logs. This is what this course covers.
Third, you can connect to external data sources. This is when your data stays where it is, such as in an external Prometheus server, a database, or another monitoring system, and Grafana queries it directly without storing a copy.
This course focuses on the second approach: sending data from your existing collectors to Grafana Cloud.