Grafana Tempo 2.1 introduces enhancements to TraceQL, the query language for selecting traces, with new features such as the kind intrinsic, aggregate functions (min, max, sum), and support for arbitrary arithmetic in queries, which improve query readability and functionality. The release also brings performance improvements and an experimental vParquet2 feature for structural operators in TraceQL, along with several bug fixes addressing issues such as float/int comparisons and file handling. Additionally, the update includes breaking changes, notably the removal of search support on v2 blocks and modifications to metric naming conventions. The development team plans to continue enhancing TraceQL and reducing latency in future releases while also working on new features like streaming search APIs and metrics improvements. Users are encouraged to engage with the Grafana Labs community for updates and to explore opportunities with Grafana Labs. Grafana Cloud offers a free tier for users to start with Tempo, providing 50GB of traces, logs, and 10K series of metrics.