What is the difference between Thanos and Cortex/Mimir at a high level? [Intermediate]
Answer
At a high level, Thanos extends existing Prometheus deployments with global query, object-store retention, and replica deduplication, while Cortex and Mimir are distributed, multi-tenant remote-write backends. Thanos often fits Prometheus-first environments; Mimir/Cortex fit centralized SaaS-like metrics platforms.
Technical explanation
Thanos commonly uses sidecars that upload Prometheus blocks to object storage.
Cortex and Mimir ingest samples through remote write and split ingestion, storage, compaction, and query across microservices.
Mimir is Grafana Labs' production-hardened continuation of the Cortex lineage, with strong multi-tenant operational features.
Hands-on example
Decision example: if each cluster already runs Prometheus and you need global views and cheap long retention, choose Thanos. If you operate a central platform for many teams with tenant quotas and remote-write ingestion, choose Mimir or Cortex-style architecture.
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