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ELK Stack

What is ELK Stack?​

The ELK stack is a combination of three open-source tools commonly used for log analysis and searching large volumes of data:

  • Elasticsearch: A search and analytics engine.
  • Logstash: A data processing pipeline that ingests data from various sources and sends it to Elasticsearch.
  • Kibana: A visualization tool that lets you explore data stored in Elasticsearch.

ELK on Cloud Platforms​

While the ELK stack can be installed and run on your own on-premise servers, it’s often deployed on cloud platforms (like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud) because:

  • Cloud infrastructure offers scalability, reliability, and managed services.
  • AWS, for example, offers a managed ELK service called Amazon OpenSearch Service (which is based on Elasticsearch).

Key Point​

  • ELK stack is a data processing and analysis stack.
  • It can run on any infrastructure — on-premises, virtual machines, containers, or cloud platforms — but is not itself a cloud platform.