Grafana 2.0 introduces significant backend and frontend enhancements designed to expand its capabilities, including supporting alerting and PNG rendering, while simplifying installation by eliminating the need for configuring nginx or dealing with CORS issues. The backend, written in Go, uses an embedded sqlite3 database, allowing users to import existing dashboards from InfluxDB or Elasticsearch. A user and account model has been introduced to accommodate SaaS and larger installations, with roles such as Admin, Editor, and Viewer, and integration options through GitHub and Google OAuth, while LDAP integration is planned. UI changes include a new sidebar and dashboard search dropdown, and a new panel displaying starred dashboards and searches. Although a standalone mode is currently non-functional, efforts are being made to maintain it, although long-term viability depends on user feedback. A beta release is anticipated by early or mid-March, and users are encouraged to test the develop branch and provide feedback.