Dashboard Management
Understand how Giant Swarm's dashboard management capabilities help you create, organize, and maintain custom visualizations for your observability data.
Introduction to dashboard management
Dashboard management in Giant Swarm’s observability platform is our comprehensive approach to creating, organizing, and maintaining visual representations of your data. It’s more than just building charts - it’s about creating meaningful, actionable insights that help your teams monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize your systems.
Think of dashboard management as the bridge between your raw observability data (metrics, logs, traces) and the insights your teams need to make informed decisions. Whether you’re a developer checking application performance, an operations engineer monitoring infrastructure health, or an executive tracking business Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), dashboard management ensures you have the right views at the right time.
Our approach to dashboard management
Giant Swarm’s dashboard management philosophy centers on three core principles:
Self-service with guardrails
You control your dashboards, but we provide the infrastructure, best practices, and automation to make it easy. Create what you need, when you need it, without waiting for centralized teams or complex approval processes.
GitOps-first, but flexible
We recommend treating dashboards as code - versioned, reviewed, and deployed like any other infrastructure component. But when you need to iterate quickly or explore data interactively, our platform supports direct UI creation too.
Multi-tenant by design
Your dashboards live in organized spaces that align with your team structure and security requirements. Share insights across teams while maintaining appropriate access controls and data isolation.
What dashboard management includes
Creation and deployment
- GitOps workflows for production dashboards
- Interactive creation for rapid prototyping
- Automated deployment across environments
- Version control and change tracking
Organization and governance
- Multi-tenant structure aligned with your teams
- Access control and permission management
- Shared resources for common patterns and templates
- Standardization across your organization
Lifecycle management
- Backup and recovery for dashboard configurations
- Performance optimization for large-scale deployments
Why dashboard management matters
Raw observability data is only valuable when it’s accessible and actionable. Effective dashboard management transforms your metrics, logs, and traces into:
- Operational awareness: Real-time visibility into system health and performance
- Troubleshooting efficiency: Targeted views that help you identify and resolve issues faster
- Strategic insights: Business-relevant metrics that inform decision-making
- Team alignment: Shared understanding of system behavior and performance expectations
Getting started
Ready to dive in? Our dashboard creation guide walks you through both GitOps and interactive approaches, helping you choose the right method for your use case.
For a deeper understanding of how dashboards fit into your overall observability strategy, explore our data management capabilities and multi-tenancy configuration.