4 Years of Innovation at Volkov Labs: Redefining Grafana with the Business Suite
As we celebrate four incredible years at Volkov Labs, we are filled with pride and gratitude. Founded in 2021 in Tampa, Florida, our mission was clear from the start: to transform Grafana’s robust observability platform into a tool that meets the practical needs of business users. What began as a small team experimenting with data visualization has grown into a vibrant open-source ecosystem, boasting over 40 million plugin downloads and a passionate global community.
At the heart of this journey is our flagship Business Suite for Grafana—a curated set of 9 open-source plugins that elevate Grafana dashboards into dynamic, interactive web applications.
As we approach our fifth year, join us on a journey through the milestones that have shaped the Business Suite and redefined business intelligence in Grafana.
The Beginning: Joining the Grafana Ecosystem (2021)
Our story began four years ago with a bold dive into the Grafana community. Our first challenge? Building an AI-driven image recognition system to count cars on a highway in real-time. To visualize Base64-encoded images directly in Grafana, we developed the Business Media Panel—a pioneering plugin supporting formats like PNG, JPG, GIF, MP4, and PDFs. This wasn’t just a technical fix; it was a breakthrough in blending observability with multimedia.
Buoyed by this success, we expanded quickly. The Business News Data Source, with nearly 800,000 downloads, brought real-time RSS and Atom feeds to dashboards, proving Grafana could double as a live news hub. By the end of 2021, we’d laid the foundation for the Business Suite: plugins built for usability, compatibility, and real-world business value.
Rapid Growth: Enhancing Features and Compatibility (2022)
In 2022, we hit our stride as the Grafana community embraced our work. With Grafana 9 launching at GrafanaCONline in June, we ensured compatibility by testing against beta versions well in advance. The Business Charts Panel, powered by Apache ECharts, received a major update to version 5.3.3, introducing the Monaco Code Editor and support for SVG and Canvas rendering. This allowed users to create stunning, interactive charts rivaling standalone tools.
We also launched the Business Input Data Source, initially for manual data frame testing. It soon evolved into a versatile tool for JavaScript emulation and AI integration with Grafana’s LLM App, showcasing our iterative, feedback-driven approach. Downloads soared past 10 million, as businesses recognized the Suite’s power to simplify dashboard creation.
| Year | Key Milestones | Downloads Milestone |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Founded; Launched Business Media | ~1M (early adopters) |
| 2022 | Grafana 9 compatibility; ECharts upgrades | 10M+ cumulative |
Unifying the Suite: Open-Source Expansion (2023)
By 2023, the Business Suite had evolved into a cohesive ecosystem. We open-sourced additional plugins, refining their names and capabilities for maximum impact. The Business Calendar Panel surpassed 3 million downloads, offering seamless event visualization with Grafana variable support. Meanwhile, the Business Text Panel became a “Swiss Army knife,” enabling custom JavaScript, external libraries, and creative visualizations—all inspired by user feedback.
Community input shaped every update. Features like header parameters and secure password inputs in Business Forms made data entry effortless and safe. We supported users with in-depth tutorials, code snippets, and YouTube crash courses on topics like variable synchronization and API data manipulation.
Total downloads crossed 24 million, cementing the Suite as a cornerstone for building enterprise-grade Grafana applications.
Establishing Leadership: Recognition and Innovation (2024)
2024 marked our ascent as Grafana influencers. New plugins like Business Variable and Business Links streamlined dashboard navigation with dynamic filters and dropdowns, enhancing team workflows. We also introduced Business Table, our tenth plugin, delivering intuitive data layouts ideal for business reporting.
At GrafanaCON 2024, our plugins powered Golden Grot Award-winning dashboards, demonstrating how the Suite bridges observability and business applications with stunning results.
Looking Forward: Grafana Certified and Beyond (2025)
Stepping into 2025, we’re thrilled to announce a historic milestone: Volkov Labs is the first Grafana Certified Plugin Partner. Our team has grown, and we’ve reached 100 YouTube videos, each designed to help you master Grafana. At GrafanaCON 2025, our plugins once again supported Golden Grot winners.
What’s next? We’re exploring deeper AI integrations with full compatibility for Grafana 12 already secured. The Business Suite is ready to empower millions more users in the years ahead.
A Heartfelt Thank You
Four years of innovation wouldn’t have been possible without you—our incredible community. Your GitHub issues, YouTube comments, and shared dashboards have shaped every feature and line of code. From 1 million downloads in our first year to over 40 million today, you’ve helped turn our vision into an industry standard.
Ready to transform your Grafana experience? Explore the Business Suite, dive into our GitHub organization, or check out our latest tutorials on YouTube. Together, let’s keep pushing the boundaries of what Grafana can do.
Volkov Labs Is Now Closed
Following our acquisition, Volkov Labs has officially ceased operations as of September 26, 2025. We are no longer accepting feedback, support requests, or partnership inquiries. The Business Suite for Grafana repositories have been archived on our GitHub organization, and no further development or support will be provided.
We are deeply grateful for the incredible support from our community and partners over the past four years.
