Big Data is just getting started and if you think you’ve got a lot of data to manage now, the rapid growth in adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning and e-commerce will only bring more in the future. Big Data processing technology will need to stay ahead of acceleration in data generation and cloud infrastructure will be vital to this strategy.
The inherent scalability of the cloud has already helped to change attitudes towards data storage. Where previously a layer of “data triage” was applied and only the most important data was retained, the scalability of the cloud now allows organizations to store and retain more data.
The impact of this is two-fold. First, fewer resources are required to determine whether to keep or discard your data. Cloud storage means that it’s now often cheaper to retain data, than work out whether to keep or discard it. Second, with more data comes more potential for insight, data-driven competitive advantage, and systemic digital transformation.
The built-in scalability of the cloud also allows businesses to seamlessly manage data and processing capacity to match business demand. This not only represents huge cost savings
for organizations but also has no impact on the wider infrastructure’s performance, security, availability, and stability.
As a major cloud and big data infrastructure provider, Alibaba Cloud provides an expanding suite of cloud-based products to manage large-scale big data problems. In fact, the origin and development of Alibaba Cloud products typically start with solving specific internal needs from other Alibaba business units including the massive e-commerce sites Taobao and Tmall, payments platform Alipay and logistics giant Cainiao.
To cope with the massive scale of such systems and help other companies analyze internal data, one new product Alibaba Cloud offers is ElasticSearch. With a distributed system based on the open-source ElasticSearch engine, Alibaba Cloud ElasticSearch offers a RESTful search and analytics engine that centrally stores your data and helps you discover the expected and uncover the unexpected.
ElasticSearch enables organizations to perform quick indexing of data on their site, as well as quick indexing and precise searching of existing data. By analyzing the access logs and behavior logs of your online systems you can also quickly obtain relevant indicators and deliver this insight to users.
Like virtual servers and databases hosted on a distributed architecture, you can receive immediate access to Alibaba Cloud ElasticSearch and elastically scale-out clusters in seconds to react to business needs without disrupting service to users. Advanced access control to define multi-level and fine-grained access for enterprise scenarios, constant cluster and security monitoring, and automatic reporting are also available, as you would come to expect with an enterprise-level cloud service.
Alibaba Cloud provides high-performance SSD storage to boost search efficiency, offsite data recover to guarantee service availability, data redundancy, and data security, as well as default dual-shard and dual-replica systems to guarantee data indexing efficiency and stability with multiple shards and replicas.
In terms of product integration, there is a high level of customization available and a rich selection of Alibaba Cloud and open-source options to fit your organization’s needs. This includes built-in integrations with Alibaba Cloud VPC, CloudMonitor, and Resource Access Management (RAM). Alibaba Cloud Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) offers you the option to connect through an Intranet to avoid exposure to the Internet and ensure data security.
Linking with tools from the open-source community, the service is fully compatible with the ELK architecture, a wide range of RESTful APIs, X-Pack plug-ins, Logstash, and is equipped with Kibana visual interactive data search and analysis. Popular plug-ins for word segmentation and indexing are available too.
Alibaba Cloud ElasticSearch is accessible on a Pay-As-You-Go basis without any upfront investment and costs 30% less than self-built solutions. On top of the savings, you don’t have to worry about the hassle of maintaining and scaling your platform.
See the Alibaba Cloud ElasticSearch product page to learn more about its features and its seven instance specifications available to meet all your business requirements.
