Start TrialStart Free TrialStart Free TrialBook Your DemoSign In

Resources

4 min read

There are many advantages to using dashboards that are powered by open-source technology that make them a compelling choice for many organizations. Below we will discuss some of the major benefits of using dashboards that are built with the help of open-source technology, along with examples of some of the leading use cases for which open-source technology has been utilized.

Contents

Cost-effective

Typically, open-source software is free to use and distribute, which greatly reduces the cost of implementing and maintaining a dashboard, as using these solutions reduces the number of resources required to do so. Instead of paying expensive licensing fees, organizations can allocate their budgets to customizations, support and other essential areas.

Customizability

Dashboards based on open-source software offer a great deal of flexibility and can be customized to meet the needs of the user. The source code for the application can be accessed by developers, modified, and new features can be added according to their requirements. A dashboard can be customized at this level of customization in order to align with the unique business processes and workflows that an organization employs.

Community-driven development

In many open-source projects, there are vibrant communities of developers and contributors. It is through this community involvement that continuous development, bug fixes, and improvements can be achieved. As a result, organizations using open-source dashboards will be able to take advantage of a wide range of features and enhancements that have been added by the community, which will ensure that the software remains up-to-date and relevant for as long as possible.

Security and transparency

It is important to consider that open-source technologies allow the community to transparently examine the source code, making it easier to identify and patch security vulnerabilities as soon as they arise. As a result of having many eyes on the code, better security practices can be ensured. In addition, organizations can perform their own security audits or hire a third-party expert to assess the code, providing an additional layer of assurance.

Integration and extensibility

It is common for open-source dashboards to provide APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and to support a number of integration options. As a result, it is easier to connect with other systems, databases, or tools that are part of an organization's infrastructure, thus allowing better integration. By integrating data from a variety of sources seamlessly, a comprehensive dashboard can be created, which includes a variety of data from different sources and allows data to be visualized in one place. Wide adoption and ecosystem

As a result of the widespread adoption of open-source dashboard software, most of these tools have fostered active ecosystems to support them. This means that there is an extensive amount of documentation, tutorials, forums, and community-led support available across many tools.

1. Monitor OpenStack Instances

graphite dashboard example thumbnail

This dashboard makes use of Graphite, which is a monitoring and graphing tool which can be used to track and visualize the performance of computers in the cloud. OpenStack performance tracking provides insight into the performance of OpenStack instances and ensures that the application and service run smoothly on the cloud infrastructure as well as the OpenStack infrastructure as a whole.

2. Monitoring Use Container Engine for Kubernetes (OKE)

oke monitoring

This dashboard uses Prometheus, which is an open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit developed initially for SoundCloud and is now used for a wide range of metrics projects. Among the most popular uses of this tool is for monitoring systems and applications in environments using cloud-native technologies. By monitoring OKE with Prometheus, users will be able to get a better understanding of the health and performance of their Use Container Engines for Kubernetes.

3. Visualise Log Data

visualize-log-data (3)

In order to create this dashboard, OpenSearch is used. OpenSearch is an open-source search engine, created by Amazon, that’s used to search different sources of information, such as websites, databases, and other data repositories. By visualizing log data, we can learn a lot about the performance of systems and applications, and dashboards can prove extremely useful when it comes to identifying any issues or problems. A dashboard like this can be used to monitor error logs and to track errors over time, making it easier for you to determine when an error started and how it has progressed as a result of the error.

4. SIEM Dashboard

open source dashboard

A dashboard such as this one makes use of Kibana, an open-source tool for data visualization and exploration, which is part of the Elastic Stack. In order to improve their organisation's observability, security analysts can use this dashboard to get started with implementing SIEM in order to protect their wider security. Furthermore, this dashboard can also be configured so that it shows what processes are currently running by name, as well as the top processes based on how many event logs are being generated.

5. System Monitoring

Screenshot 2023-05-12 at 16.44.43

The backend of this dashboard relies on InfluxDB, an open-source time series database that was designed to handle high write and query loads for time-stamped data. In addition to being optimized for time-series data, InfluxDB also provides fast query response times, regardless of how large your dataset is. To be able to track and analyze the performance of the system in real-time, this is crucial in order to monitor and analyze its performance. As a supplement to InfluxDB, Grafana, another open-source visualization tool, is also used in this dashboard in order to display system monitoring metrics.

If you want to get started with using OpenSearch, Grafana, Prometheus, InfluxDB or Kibana then why not sign up for a free 14-day trial of the Logit.io platform? You can experience all of these tools and more fully hosted in a centralised location that provides a single source of truth across all of your key infrastructure.

If you found this article informative then why not read about game analytics or see our InfluxDB dashboards next?

Get the latest elastic Stack & logging resources when you subscribe

© 2023 Logit.io Ltd, All rights reserved.