Elastic Observability has a variety of valuable features according to users. The solution is stable and has a good design, with great support and documentation. Machine learning is highly valued as an open, easy-to-use feature. The Elastic User Interface framework allows for custom development, and the solution is easy to deploy and flexible. Elastic APM has many comprehensive features for logging and tracking performance metrics. While still evolving, it is an interesting and cost-effective alternative to other similar tools.
The price is seen as an issue, and users have noted that it can be difficult to use and customize. There is a steep learning curve and a shortage of skills in the market, making it expensive to deploy and manage. Users would like to see more predictive analytics and detailed pre-defined dashboards. Additionally, the visualization is not as good as other tools, and there is a lack of metrics and control over backend calls and prepared statements. Users suggest that more AI and automation would be helpful. The auto-discovery feature is also seen as cumbersome.
Elastic Observability provided various benefits to the organization, including reducing incidents and improving visibility for quicker problem-solving. The ability to automate fixes using runbooks and manage data with hot and cold retention policies also contributed to a positive ROI.
Elastic Observability has a variable pricing system based on data ingestion, ingest rate, hard retention, and warm retention. Users may need to pay for some features that are unavailable in different source versions, such as alerts on different channels. The price is generally considered expensive, but licensing costs are reasonable and provide value for money. The more one uses Elastic Observability, the more one pays, but it can be inexpensive if used properly. There are two types of licenses: cloud and SaaS, with self-managed options available.
Elastic Observability is being used for various purposes such as system monitoring, server monitoring, application monitoring, capacity planning, and central logging. It is integrated with Kibana for visualization and has modules for security and SIEM. It is used extensively for reporting, pulling metrics, logs, traces, events, and data from different systems. It is used in both technical and business decisions. Elastic APM is primarily used for monitoring application performance and development, metrics analysis, and identifying latency issues.
Customers have had positive experiences with Elastic Observability's technical support. Some customers have not needed to use support, while others have found the documentation and online community helpful. However, those who have used technical support have given high ratings for their responsiveness and ability to provide dedicated resources who understand the customer's environment well.
Elastic Observability's initial setup varied depending on the complexity of the environment. For those with a simpler environment, the setup was straightforward and simple. However, for those with more complex environments, such as enterprise companies or banks, the setup was more difficult and could take up to a month to complete. The implementation of Elastic APM was highly complex, while the setup for the Docker installation or containers was straightforward.
Elastic Observability seems to be a scalable solution that can handle different numbers of users and data sizes. It is simple to attach additional nodes as the data size grows, and the solution seems stable. Some users are expanding horizontally by deploying the same data capture point in different instances of the same solution, while others are expanding vertically by creating new data capture points. Some reviewers mention that Elastic APM is more appropriate for smaller businesses, while others have hundreds of app developers currently using the solution.
Elastic Observability is a highly stable solution, with no major incidents reported and good performance even under load testing. It is an AWS platform as a service, ensuring its stability. Proper configuration is emphasized for Elastic APM's stability. While lacking in some insights features, it is overall a stable solution with no reported issues.