Enable Accurate (Non-Bucket-Aligned) Data Retrieval Mode for Analytics and Custom Dashboards

We request the introduction of a configurable option in Instana to allow accurate data retrieval strictly aligned with user-defined time filters, without internal bucket alignment, rounding, or visualization-driven aggregation adjustments.

Currently, Instana aligns queries to fixed UTC time boundaries (up to 4-hour granularity), which leads to mathematical inconsistencies between short-range queries (1h/ 12h / 24h) and multi-day continuous queries. Instana’s backend aggregation logic is optimized for chart rendering rather than numerical accuracy, resulting in:

• Data being rounded into leading and trailing buckets
• Time filters being silently shifted to internal UTC-aligned intervals
• Aggregated values that do not match real event counts

This behavior impacts both End-User Monitoring (Website beacons): page loads, transitions, HTTP requests, Application Call Analytics: call counts and call volumes and affects both Analytics results and Custom Dashboards (including Big Number widgets, where chart optimization should not apply).

Critical Impact (Including Troubleshooting Failure):
A critical issue arises when small changes in time filters produce large data discrepancies:
Example: If bucket alignment occurs at 14:00 UTC and we query for: Last 4 days from 14:01 → now (13:59)

• Expected: Continuous 4-day dataset
• Actual: Data is shifted to: 18:00 (-4 days) → 10:00 (today)

This behavior also directly impacts incident analysis and troubleshooting. When filtering a specific time window to investigate errors or incidents, Instana may return zero results, even though errors actually occurred within the selected timeframe.

Requested Enhancement:

Introduce a toggle option (per query / dashboard / widget): “Exact Time Range Mode” (or similar)

When enabled:

• No bucket alignment
• No visualization-driven aggregation
• Data strictly matches the exact selected time filter
• Errors and events are always returned if they fall within the selected range

This feature is critical for:

• Precise business reporting
• SLA and KPI validation
• Volume-based metrics
• Accurate incident investigation and error analysis