Alibaba Cloud Managed Service for Grafana is a fully managed observability visualization service built on Grafana. It removes the operational overhead of self-hosting while adding enterprise capabilities: SLA guarantees, native Alibaba Cloud integrations, and centralized access management.
Use this comparison to decide between Managed Service for Grafana and a self-hosted open source Grafana deployment.
Why use Managed Service for Grafana
Self-hosting Grafana requires provisioning servers, maintaining the runtime environment, patching vulnerabilities, and managing version upgrades. Managed Service for Grafana handles all of this, so you can focus on building dashboards and analyzing metrics.
No infrastructure to manage -- Deploy a ready-to-use Grafana workspace without purchasing servers, configuring networks, or handling Internet Content Provider (ICP) filing.
Built-in Alibaba Cloud integrations -- Connect to Prometheus Service, Log Service, and CloudMonitor through pre-installed plug-ins. Import ARMS Prometheus Service dashboard templates with a few clicks.
Enterprise-grade reliability -- SLA-backed availability with multiple replicas, dedicated high-performance databases, and dedicated bandwidths.
Centralized security -- Sign in with single sign-on (SSO) using your Alibaba Cloud account. Control network access with whitelists and isolate data using dedicated databases.
Zero-effort maintenance -- Automatic version updates, vulnerability patching, and restarts after parameter changes.
Detailed comparison
Setup and deployment
| Capability | Managed Service for Grafana | Self-hosted open source Grafana |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Ready to use. No server provisioning, environment setup, or installation required. | Requires multiple steps: purchase servers, configure the network environment and service collaboration policies, download the Grafana image, create the runtime environment, install and deploy Grafana, prepare a public IP address, and complete ICP filing. Example setup: an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance running 64-bit CentOS 7.3, with at least 1 vCPU, 2 GB memory, and 10 GB free disk space, connected over a virtual private cloud (VPC). |
| Internet access | Enabled by default. Independent public IP addresses are supported. | Manually specify a public IP address for the ECS instance, add a security group rule, and open port 3000. |
| VPC data source access | Supported. | Manually configure VPC access and add the ECS instance address to the whitelist. |
Operations and maintenance
| Capability | Managed Service for Grafana | Self-hosted open source Grafana |
|---|---|---|
| Day-to-day O&M | Manage everything from the Grafana console. | Run commands to query and install plug-ins, modify configuration parameters (restart required), reset forgotten database passwords by editing connection information, and manually migrate data. |
| Plug-in management | Pre-integrated with Alibaba Cloud services. Install plug-ins for reports, graphs, and data sources from the Grafana console. | Run commands to install plug-ins. Restart Grafana after each installation. |
| Parameter management | Modify parameters in the console. Grafana restarts automatically. | Modify parameters manually. Restart Grafana manually for changes to take effect. |
| Version updates | Automatic updates to the latest official Grafana version. | Manual updates required. |
Security and access control
| Capability | Managed Service for Grafana | Self-hosted open source Grafana |
|---|---|---|
| Vulnerability management | Vulnerabilities are patched automatically. | Patch vulnerabilities manually. |
| Network access control | Configure whitelists to restrict access. | Not supported. |
| Data isolation | Dedicated databases isolate your data. | Not supported. |
| Authentication | SSO through your Alibaba Cloud account. No separate Grafana credentials needed. | Create and manage a separate Grafana account. |
Alibaba Cloud integrations
| Capability | Managed Service for Grafana | Self-hosted open source Grafana |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in data source plug-ins | Prometheus Service in Application Real-Time Monitoring Service (ARMS), Log Service, and CloudMonitor. | Not supported. |
| Alerting dashboards | Integrated with ARMS alerting dashboards. | Not supported. |
| Dashboard templates | Import ARMS Prometheus Service dashboard templates with a few clicks. Additional monitoring dashboards are planned. | Not supported. |
Enterprise-grade features
| Capability | Managed Service for Grafana | Self-hosted open source Grafana |
|---|---|---|
| SLA guarantee | Backed by a service level agreement (SLA) with multiple replicas, dedicated high-performance databases, dedicated bandwidths, and an independent domain. | Not supported. |
| Reporting and audit | Automatically generates dashboards with reports and audit results. | Not supported. |
| Team collaboration | Invite users and enable unified logon across Alibaba Cloud accounts. | Not supported. |
| Custom domains | Configure custom domain names and resolve Grafana workspace URLs to a specific domain. | Not supported. |
| Data management | Back up, restore, and migrate data. | Not supported. |
| Dedicated instances | Supported. | Manually configure instance specifications to isolate resources. |
| Access portals | Separate portals for different environments, such as staging and production. | Supported. |
Data migration
| Capability | Managed Service for Grafana | Self-hosted open source Grafana |
|---|---|---|
| From self-hosted Grafana | Easily migrate data sources and dashboards. | Manually import data sources and dashboards. |
| From Prometheus instances of Shared Edition | Supported. | Not applicable. |