Databases & Data Storage
Elasticsearch
Definition
Elasticsearch is a distributed, free and open-source search and analytics engine for all types of data, including textual, numerical, geospatial, structured, and unstructured. It is built on top of the Apache Lucene library.
Why It Matters
Elasticsearch has become the de facto standard for full-text search and log analytics. It is highly scalable and provides fast, sophisticated search capabilities that power countless applications.
Contextual Example
A company uses the "ELK Stack" (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) for log management. Application logs are shipped to Elasticsearch, which indexes them, allowing developers to quickly search and analyze terabytes of log data to troubleshoot issues.
Common Misunderstandings
- Elasticsearch is more than just a full-text search engine; it is a powerful analytics database.
- OpenSearch is a community-driven, open-source fork of Elasticsearch.