Observability should be simple, not an infrastructure project.
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Elastic Observability is built on Elasticsearch, one of the most powerful search engines ever created. But that power comes with operational weight: cluster management, node sizing, shard allocation, index lifecycle policies, hot-warm-cold-frozen tier configuration. Before you investigate your first production issue, you are running an infrastructure project. Engineering teams should spend their time understanding their systems, not managing the platform that monitors them.
Observe your system. Not your observability platform.
The Infrastructure Project Problem
A search engine adapted for observability, not built for it.
- Cluster management: node sizing, shard allocation, index lifecycle policies, hot-warm-cold-frozen tier configuration.
- Operational overhead before you investigate your first production issue. You are running an infrastructure project.
- Observability should be a tool you use, not a system you operate.
No clusters. No shards. Just your system.
What If Observability Just Worked?
No clusters. No shards. No ILM policies. Just your system.
- Managed platform: Point your OpenTelemetry Collector at our OTLP endpoint and your system appears as a spatial topology.
- Services, dependencies, and telemetry in a single 3D environment. No infrastructure to manage.
- Your engineers focus on their systems. We handle the observability platform.
Zero clusters. Zero shards. Full observability.
Architecture: How We Differ
OpenTelemetry exclusive vs Elastic Agent.
IAPM is built exclusively for observability. No cluster management, no shard allocation, no ILM policies to configure. Your engineers spend time understanding their systems, not operating the platform that monitors them.
Elastic has 450+ integrations, unmatched search and query capabilities for log analysis, and a flexible data platform that spans observability, security, and enterprise search. ES|QL and Elasticsearch's full-text, semantic, and vector search are genuinely world-class for ad hoc log investigation. For teams deeply invested in the Elastic ecosystem, the breadth of the platform is a genuine advantage.
| Aspect | IAPM | Elastic Observability |
|---|---|---|
| Instrumentation | Standard OpenTelemetry SDKs only | Elastic Agent (proprietary) + OTel support |
| Data Ingestion | Direct OTLP (gRPC + HTTP) | Elastic Agent, APM Server, or OTLP |
| Visualization | 3D spatial topology + web dashboards | Kibana dashboards, charts, maps |
| Operational Overhead | Fully managed SaaS | Cluster management, shard allocation, ILM policies |
| Integrations | OTel ecosystem (community-driven) | 450+ out-of-the-box integrations |
| Search / Query | Structured queries + spatial navigation | ES|QL, KQL, full-text, vector, semantic search |
Tessa fixes code. You review it. You own it.
| Capability | Tessa (IAPM) | Elastic AI Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Codebase Access | Full workspace: read, search, rename, modify | No codebase access |
| Spatial Context | 3D topology + traces + metrics | Kibana dashboards + ES|QL queries |
| Code Fixes | Fixes code in your workspace. You review, you own it. | Generates queries, explains data, no code changes |
| Availability | Included in every paid tier | Enterprise tier only ($184+/month base, verified as of March 2026, source) |
| Focus | Diagnosis + code fix with spatial context | Query generation + natural language search |
| Accountability Model | Human on the loop: Tessa does the work, you own the outcome | Query assistance for human investigation |
AI: Tessa vs Elastic AI Assistant
Human on the loop.
Tessa connects your production telemetry to your codebase. Add your repositories as workspaces, and Tessa can trace a production issue from your 3D topology straight to the source file. Tessa accesses your codebase workspace, diagnoses from 3D topology, makes the fix. You review, you own it. Human on the loop.
Elastic's AI Assistant is query-focused: it helps you write ES|QL queries, explains anomalies, and summarizes data. Valuable capabilities, but gated to the Enterprise tier ($184+/month base). And when the investigation is done, you still context-switch to your IDE to make the fix. Tessa closes that gap.
One price. Everything included. No tier gates.
Pricing: The Full Picture
Scenario: 40 nodes, 10 engineers.
Elastic's pricing model combines resource-based cloud pricing with tier-gated features. Here is what a realistic deployment looks like when you need AI and full observability:
- No tier-gated features: IAPM includes AI (Tessa), anomaly detection, and all capabilities in every paid tier. Elastic gates ML to Platinum ($131+) and AI Assistant to Enterprise ($184+).
- No multi-dimensional billing: IAPM charges per node. Elastic charges across ingest VCUs, search VCUs, ML VCUs, storage, egress, and LLM tokens.
- No support tier tax: Elastic charges up to 15% of monthly spend for premium support. IAPM support is included.
- Predictable math: Nodes x tier price = monthly cost. No resource calculators needed.
| Line Item | IAPM | Elastic Observability |
|---|---|---|
| Platform (Cloud Hosted) | Included | $184+/month base (Enterprise tier for AI) |
| Compute (Ingest + Search) | Included | VCU-based, scales with workload |
| Storage + Retention | Included | $0.047+/GB/month (tiered) |
| AI Assistant | Included (Tessa) | Enterprise tier required ($184+/month base) |
| ML (Anomaly Detection) | Included | Platinum+ required ($131+/month base) |
| Estimated Monthly Total | $1,575 (Analyze) | $184+ base + consumption (varies widely) |
Elastic pricing based on published rates from elastic.co/pricing, verified as of March 2026. Actual costs vary by resource consumption, tier, and deployment model. IAPM pricing from immersivefusion.com/pricing. All prices USD.
You don't have to rip and replace
Run Both. Migrate Gradually.
Same telemetry, two destinations, zero re-instrumentation.
- Dual-destination: Your OTel Collector fans out telemetry to both IAPM and Elastic simultaneously.
- No code changes: If you already use OTel SDKs, your instrumentation does not change.
- If you use Elastic Agent: Keep Elastic Agent for legacy services. New services start with OTel + IAPM. Migrate at your own pace.
- Keep Elastic for logs: Elasticsearch is excellent for log analysis. Use IAPM for APM and spatial visualization while keeping Elastic for deep log search.
- Exit guarantee: If IAPM is not right for you, change one endpoint URL. Your instrumentation stays exactly the same.
Dual-Destination Collector Config
exporters:
otlp/iapm:
endpoint: "https://otlp.iapm.app"
headers:
API-Key: "YOUR-API-KEY"
otlp/elastic:
endpoint: "your-elastic-apm-server:4317"
service:
pipelines:
traces:
exporters: [otlp/iapm, otlp/elastic]
metrics:
exporters: [otlp/iapm, otlp/elastic]Standard OTel Collector config. Same telemetry, two destinations. No code changes required.
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