Going Elastic: Why federal agencies are making the switch

For federal agencies, search analytics platforms aren’t merely about staying on the cutting edge — they’re vital to cyber resilience. By combining full-stack observability and security in one solution, platforms like LogRhythm, Datadog, and Splunk have helped the public sector mitigate risks and activate operational intelligence. 

But, as the threat landscape evolves, many are beginning to look for new technologies that can better meet their changing needs. As the dust settles, Elastic emerges as the ideal solution. With a suite of tools designed to support federal customers in various capacities, the Elastic ecosystem offers one comprehensive and feature-rich environment to strengthen resilience at scale. 

Searching for the right solution

There’s no doubt the public sector is under attack. 

According to a recent report, 2023 was a difficult year for state and local governments. Malware attacks increased by 148%, while ransomware was 51% more prominent during the first eight months of 2023 than during the same period a year earlier. The study also documented a 313% leap in endpoint security incidents. And, at the federal level, hackers are constantly targeting government agencies. 

Fighting these threats requires vast intelligence — and with intel, comes speedy detection and response. That’s why search analytics platforms are vital to government data security. 

Agencies handle vast amounts of data from many sources, including logs, network traffic, and security events. The ability to integrate and analyze this diverse data helps create a comprehensive security posture, enabling agencies to detect patterns and anomalies that could indicate potential threats.

However, many existing platforms simply cannot maintain pace with today’s complex landscape. They lack the requisite security capabilities agencies need to succeed: machine learning (ML), endpoint protection, geospatial analysis — the list goes on. Even worse, these solutions are needlessly expensive with licensing policies far too complex to manage effectively. 

Why switch to Elastic? 

With Elastic, agencies mitigate these challenges and can uplift and enhance data security, operational efficiency, and more. In fact, the platform is 10X faster at half the price of other observability solutions. Also, it can lead to a 62% reduction in overall risk to stop ransomware and advanced threats.

What does the Elastic suite look like? Let’s take a look:

• Elasticsearch allows users to quickly retrieve, analyze, and visualize large volumes of data in real-time. It’s designed to handle diverse data types in a distributed environment, which is crucial for federal agencies managing large-scale datasets. Plus, with agencies ramping up their use of artificial intelligence (AI), it can help them leverage intelligence for over 1,000 potential AI use cases.
  
  
  
• Elastic Observability combines logs and metrics in one platform, helping federal agencies monitor their applications and infrastructure efficiently. This integrated approach allows for a unified view of IT environments, which is essential for troubleshooting and ensuring system performance and reliability.
  
  
  
• Elastic Security offers integrated Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and endpoint security, providing real-time insight into threats and anomalies. For federal agencies, this means enhanced capabilities to detect, investigate, and respond to cybersecurity threats across their digital estates. Also, compared to other solutions, Elastic offers tons of out-of-the-box detection rules and machine learning jobs. This can be a significant advantage for agencies looking to quickly deploy or scale their threat detection capabilities without extensive customization.

Notably, customers can also leverage the Elastic Common Schema (ECS). ECS standardizes data formats across different sources, which enhances interoperability and simplifies the analysis process. Combined with Cross Cluster Search (CCS), users can access data distributed in different locations or systems. 

Migration made simple: Harnessing the power of Elastic

It’s reasonable for federal agencies to be wary of migration. If they’ve had a solution for multiple years, they may have accumulated technical debt, such as:

• Old, untouched queries.
• Outdated detection rules.
• Limited ML jobs. 

Despite these challenges, switching to Elastic is easy. With simple licensing, it takes just one key to access all functionalities. But what about ongoing customer support? That’s where Federal Resources Corporation (FRC) comes into play.

At FRC, our experts simplify the process and help you deploy Elastic as quickly and effectively as possible. And afterward, when questions arise, you can trust our team to have answers. Altogether, between FRC and Elastic, you gain:

• 1 architecture.
• 1 common schema.
• 1 license key for all use cases.
• 1 platform that does it all.
• 1 reliable source of customer support. 

Ready to start your migration? Contact our team for more information about how FRC can help you harness Elastic to its fullest potential.