ElasticSearch Features

Easy to Scale (Distributed) 

• Elasticsearch allows you to start small, but scale horizontally out of the box. As you need more capacity, just add more nodes, and let the cluster reorganize itself to take advantage of the extra hardware.
• One server can hold one or more parts of one or more indexes, and whenever new nodes are introduced to the cluster they are just being added to the party. Every such index, or part of it, is called a shard, and Elasticsearch shards can be moved around the cluster very easily.

• Elasticsearch is API driven. Almost any action can be performed using a simple RESTful API using JSON over HTTP. An API already exists in the language of your choice.
• Responses are always in JSON, which is both machine and human-readable.

 RESTful API

Build on top of Apache Lucene

• Apache Lucene is a high performance, full-featured Information Retrieval library, written in Java. Elasticsearch uses Lucene internally to build its state of the art distributed search and analytics capabilities.
  
• Since Lucene is a stable, proven technology, and continuously being added with more features and best practices, having Lucene as the underlying engine that powers Elasticsearch.

• The REST API exposes a very complex and capable query DSL, that is very easy to use. Every query is just a JSON object that can practically contain any type of query, or even several of them combined. 
  
• Using filtered queries, with some queries expressed as Lucene filters, helps leverage caching and thus speed up common queries, or complex queries with parts that can be reused.
  
• Faceting, another very common search feature, is just something that upon request is accompanied to search results, and then is ready for you to use.

Excellent Query DSL

Multi-Tenancy

• You can host multiple indexes on one Elasticsearch installation node or cluster. Each index can have multiple "types", which are essentially completely different indexes. 
  
• The nice thing is you can query multiple types and multiple indexes with one simple query. This opens quite a lot of options.

• Elasticsearch uses Lucene under the covers to provide the most powerful full-text search capabilities available in any open-source product. 
  
• The search comes with multi-language support, a powerful query language, support for geolocation, context-aware did-you-mean suggestions, autocomplete, and search snippets.
  
• Script support in filters and scorers

Support for Advanced Search Features

Configurable and Extensible

• Many of Elasticsearch configurations can be changed while Elasticsearch is running, but some will require a restart (and in some cases reindexing). Most configurations can be changed using the REST API too. 
  
• Elasticsearch has several extension points - namely site plugins (let you serve static content from ES - like monitoring javascript apps), rivers (for feeding data into Elasticsearch), and plugins that let you add modules or components within Elasticsearch itself.
• This allows you to switch almost every part of Elasticsearch if so you choose, fairly easily.
  
• Easily create additional REST endpoints to your Elasticsearch cluster.

• Store complex real-world entities in Elasticsearch as structured JSON documents.
• All fields are indexed by default, and all the indices can be used in a single query, to return results at breathtaking speed.  

Document Oriented

Per Operation Persistence

• Elasticsearch puts your data safety first. Document changes are recorded in transaction logs on multiple nodes in the cluster to minimize the chance of any data loss. 

• Elasticsearch allows you to get started easily. Toss it a JSON document and it will try to detect the data structure, index the data, and make it searchable. Later, apply your domain-specific knowledge of your data to customize how your data is indexed.

Schema Free

Conflict Management

• Optimistic version control can be used where needed to ensure that data is never lost due to conflicting changes from multiple processes.

• The community, other than creating nice tools and plugins, is very helpful and supporting. The overall vibe is really great, and this is an important metric of any OSS project.
  
• There are also some books currently being written by community members, and many blog posts around the net sharing experiences and knowledge

Active Community

Knute Weicke

Security Head, IT

Fellowes Inc, USA

Altnix was an instrumental partner in two phases of our Security ISO needs. The first being a comprehensive developed Service/Ticketing system for our global offices. The second being that of an Asset Management tool that ties all assets into our Ticketing systems to close a gap that we had in that category. They are strong partners in working towards a viable solution for our needs

The Altnix team was very easy to work with and resolved our needs in a timely manner.  Working with Altnix, allowed us to focus on our core business while they handled the technical components to help streamline our business tools.  We have found a strategic partner in Altnix

Johnnie Rucker

General Manager

Encore Global Solutions, USA