Palantir and Grafana Labs’ Strategic Partnership
Introduction
In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, government agencies face the pressing challenge of managing increasingly complex IT infrastructures. Effective software observability and monitoring are critical for ensuring operational efficiency and security. Recognizing this need, Palantir and Grafana Labs have formed a strategic partnership through the FedStart program aimed at revolutionizing the technological capabilities of the federal sector. This collaboration brings together Grafana Labs’ leading observability platform and Palantir’s extensive experience in federal operations through the FedStart Program, offering government agencies enhanced tools for data visualization, monitoring, and observability.
The partnership between Palantir and Grafana Labs offers mutual advantages, including cost savings, improved operational efficiency, and enhanced support for federal agencies. This collaboration underscores the strategic importance of integrating cutting-edge observability solutions in the federal market. By combining our strengths, Palantir and Grafana Labs are poised to deliver innovative observability solutions that empower government agencies to better understand and manage their complex systems and infrastructure.
Grafana Labs’ Technology: Meeting Government Needs
At Palantir, we recognize that Grafana Labs’ technology stands apart in the realm of observability and monitoring, and are proud users of the company’s tooling internally. In 2023, Palantir transitioned to Grafana Labs’ observability tools to better support our work in highly regulated environments, consolidate our monitoring systems, and meet the ongoing needs of our rapidly scaling business and operations.
“Grafana Labs’ solutions have allowed us to unify our observability tools across all environments, significantly reduce costs, and improve our operational efficiency,” noted Greg DeArment, Palantir’s Head of Production Infrastructure. “Having experienced the power of Grafana Labs’ observability platform, we are excited to bring this technology to the government sector. Grafana Labs’ LGTM tech stack — comprising of Loki for logs, Grafana for visualization, Tempo for traces, and Mimir for metrics — provides real-time visibility into application and infrastructure performance.”
While the LGTM stack is robust and widely respected, Palantir’s firsthand experience with government programs, especially in the Defense sector, highlights the pressing need for these tools in the government sector. In hard to reach and air-gapped environments, first- class observability and monitoring tools are critical for maintaining operational availability of software, while procurement and deployment in these environments also pose significant challenges.
Palantir’s extensive experience with implementing government programs has helped identify the gaps and needs within federal IT infrastructure. It is evident that Grafana Labs’ observability tools are not just beneficial but necessary for managing and optimizing these complex systems. Bringing the LGTM stack to the government sector ensures government agencies will have access to best-in-class tools for visualization and observability.
“By combining Palantir’s extensive experience in the federal space with Grafana Labs’ leading observability platform, we’re creating a powerful solution that addresses the unique challenges faced by both government agencies and their commercial partners. This partnership represents a significant step forward in making enterprise-grade observability accessible to organizations operating in highly regulated environments.” — Ash Mazhari, Vice President of Corporate Development at Grafana Labs
Palantir FedStart + Grafana Labs
“We are particularly excited that Grafana Labs has chosen Palantir to be their partner in entering the federal space,” stated Palantir Senior Architect Ali Monfre, who leads Palantir’s FedStart program. “By becoming a Palantir FedStart partner, Grafana Labs will be able to quickly accredit their software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions — a requirement for selling SaaS to U.S. government agencies — by running their products within Palantir’s secure and accredited environment, significantly accelerating the timeline to bring this technology to the U.S. government. We are proud to be enabling the American technology base to support critical government needs and cannot wait for Grafana Lab’s’ technology to be available to our federal partners.”
FedStart leverages Palantir’s Apollo and Rubix platforms to streamline the accreditation process and ensure seamless integration of partner technologies. Apollo provides continuous delivery and application management, while Rubix offers a hardened Kubernetes platform for mission-critical programs across diverse form factors. These capabilities allow FedStart partners to rapidly deploy and manage their solutions within highly regulated environments.
Not only will this partnership make Grafana Labs’ technology available to U.S. government agencies, but it will also benefit all existing FedStart partners and other commercial entities requiring a FedRAMP or Impact Level compliant observability and monitoring solution as well. This initiative ensures that every partner within the FedStart program can leverage the advanced capabilities of Grafana Labs’ observability tools, enhancing their ability to monitor, visualize, and optimize their IT infrastructures.
By integrating Grafana Labs’ robust technology stack with Palantir’s, we are creating a powerful ecosystem that empowers FedStart and other commercial partners to achieve greater operational efficiency, cost savings, and system resilience. This collaboration not only strengthens the capabilities of individual FedStart partners but also enhances the overall effectiveness and security of federal IT initiatives.
Product Synergy
The same products and infrastructure — Apollo and Rubix — that power the FedStart program can also be deployed across numerous other environments, notably air-gapped, classified, and edge environments. This flexibility allows Grafana Labs’ software to be seamlessly integrated, even in non-SaaS environments, providing robust, self-managed observability tools wherever they are needed. This capability applies to both government and commercial software, ensuring comprehensive monitoring and management across various settings.
The seamless integration of Palantir and Grafana Labs’ products that results from this partnership ensures that federal agencies have access to best-in-class tools for visualization, storage, and querying of metrics, logs, and traces. This unified observability and monitoring solution is effective across various environments, including SaaS, on-premises, edge, and classified settings.
Successful joint deployments have demonstrated the effectiveness of this partnership, offering improved operational efficiency and cost savings. Our collaboration empowers federal agencies to better manage their IT infrastructures with enhanced tools for visualization and observability.
Looking Ahead: A Commitment to Innovation
Palantir and Grafana Labs are committed to deepening our partnership, focusing on long-term collaboration to bring innovative observability tools to the government sector. This partnership not only addresses the immediate needs of federal agencies but also sets the stage for future advancements in government technology. Both companies are dedicated to continuously improving their offerings and ensuring that federal agencies have access to the best tools available for managing their IT infrastructure.
The partnership between Palantir and Grafana Labs serves as a model for how private sector companies can work together to drive innovation in the public sector. By combining our expertise and resources, we are able to deliver solutions that are greater than the sum of their parts. This collaborative spirit is at the heart of our mission to support government agencies in their pursuit of excellence and enable the American industrial base. We invite federal agencies and other commercial partners to join us. Together, we can create a future where government operations are more transparent, efficient, and effective.
Learn more about Palantir FedStart.
To learn about becoming a Palantir FedStart partner, reach out to fedstart@palantir.com or visit our website.
Learn more about Grafana Labs.
To learn about Grafana Labs and its observability platform capabilities, reach out to info@grafana.com or visit https://grafana.com/.
Leading Federal IT Innovation was originally published in Palantir Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.