A framework for choosing between building, buying, or using open source for AI-powered observability. The three options are framed as lanes: building in-house offers maximum control but requires significant ongoing investment; open source provides a flexible foundation but leaves teams responsible for AI orchestration, prompt design, and evaluation; and managed solutions like Grafana Cloud offer out-of-the-box AI capabilities including Grafana Assistant and Assistant Investigations. The post argues these aren't mutually exclusive—Grafana's ecosystem allows teams to combine approaches, shift strategies over time, and extend managed AI with custom agents and internal knowledge sources via open APIs.
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Lane 1. Build: Maximum control, maximum overheadLane 2. Open source: Flexible and powerful, but not a complete AI solutionLane 3. Buy: Out-of-the-box intelligence, tuned to your contextMore on open source and AI in observabilitySort: