Grafana Labs has shifted its focus from Cortex to Grafana Mimir, a scalable, open-source long-term storage for Prometheus, while continuing to share insights into optimizing Cortex for maximum performance. During a KubeCon session, engineer Goutham Veeramachaneni explained how to configure Cortex for scale, emphasizing its high configurability with over 1,000 lines of help documentation and numerous flags for fine-tuning components. Key strategies include using caching mechanisms, managing the write and read paths effectively, and setting appropriate limits and alerts to prevent overloads and ensure smooth operation. Veeramachaneni highlighted the importance of dashboards like the Cortex Writes and Reads Dashboards for monitoring system health and performance, offering a structured method to diagnose and address issues quickly. Grafana Labs also recommends setting strict limits on queries and memory usage to prevent disruptions, and they employ tools like Jaeger for distributed tracing to enhance system visibility. Despite challenges, Veeramachaneni noted that with proper configuration and alert management, operating Cortex has become more manageable, reducing unnecessary paging and improving overall system reliability.