Understanding The Elastic Stack

Elasticsearch, Kibana, Logstash, Beats, security, enterprise search, observability... The Elastic Stack is now much more than a document store.

I've been using Elasticsearch and other parts of the stack since 2015 and have needed to learn a lot myself due to a lack of relevant, up-to-date, actionable training.

I have begun building the training material I wish had existed when I first started using Elasticsearch, to help other people:

• Understand the nuances of running a distributed document store
• Learn APIs through clear explanation and challenging lab exercises with worked solutions
• Implement the stack in the real world, with tips for deployment, upgrades, and data ingest

I hope you'll join me on one of my courses so I can help you leave the 'Valley of Despair', climb the 'Slope of Enlightenment' and truly understand The Elastic Stack.

My courses are a bit different

For starters, I'm on camera. That can be a good or a bad thing, depending on your opinion of my face, but - for me - it was an important thing to do.

I feel that being on camera helps provide integrity, fosters trust, and builds rapport. Studies have also shown that seeing the instructor improves student engagement [citation needed].

You'll see me more in some courses than others. When the content is abstract, I'll be providing very hand-wavy on-camera explanations (for a real giggle, watch on mute at 3X while streaming some dance music). Lessons on more concrete topics like specific APIs, or working through lab solutions, means I turn the camera off and present my screen instead.

Just be glad that - at least for now - I'm only recording in 1080p and not 4K.

In addition, I focus on the fundamentals first. It's incredibly important to be aware of what's happening behind the scenes if you're going to be using Elasticsearch in an enterprise environment. Data can be the most important part of your organisation so knowing how it's stored is vital to success.

I know it's not always actionable and you've got work to do but I promise it'll save you work in the long-term.

Courses

My available courses are shown below. I am building more content on The Elastic Stack, initially concentrating on Elasticsearch. Sign up using the form at the bottom of the page if you would like to hear about course updates.