Migrate from Datadog to Elastic with Expert-Led Services
Why Transition from Datadog to Elastic
Datadog is popular for quick adoption, but many teams encounter issues as operations and environments grow.
Elastic offers open ingestion, flexible retention policies, and a unified search layer across logs, metrics, traces, and profiles.
Datadog Limitations
- High per-host pricing, rising with telemetry growth
- Proprietary query language and storage system
- Vendor lock-in with closed ecosystem
- Costly retention extensions
- Complexity in scaling and visibility
Elastic Solutions
- Horizontal scaling on commodity hardware or cloud-native infrastructure
- OpenTelemetry, Elastic Agents, and Beats for flexible ingestion
- Open platform with ES
- ILM and searchable snapshots for efficient lifecycle and tiered storage
- Unified dashboards in Kibana with AI/ML-based anomaly detection
Datadog Limitations
- High per-host pricing, rising with telemetry growth
- Proprietary query language and storage system
- Vendor lock-in with closed ecosystem
- Costly retention extensions
- Complexity in scaling and visibility
Elastic Solutions
- Horizontal scaling on commodity hardware or cloud-native infrastructure
- OpenTelemetry, Elastic Agents, and Beats for flexible ingestion
- Open platform with ES
- ILM and searchable snapshots for efficient lifecycle and tiered storage
- Unified dashboards in Kibana with AI/ML-based anomaly detection
Migrating from Datadog to Elastic unlocks flexibility, visibility, and control Datadog users often struggle to achieve. Observata ensures these capabilities translate into operational value through expert-led migration and ongoing lifecycle management.
Elastic Advantages for Growing Teams
Horizontal scaling
Queryable cold & frozen tiers
Open Telemetry-first ingestion
Native profiling
Elastic Common Schema (ECS)
Flexible separation of ingestion, storage, & compute
Embedded AI/ML capabilities
Centralized dashboards through Kibana
Embedded AI/ML capabilities
Centralized dashboards through Kibana
Get Ready for a Smooth Migration to Elastic
We use a readiness framework that assesses architecture, data mapping, security, and workload dependencies before cutover.
- Requirements & Inventory
- Data Migration Paths
- Pipeline & Schema Engineering
- Production Management
- Security & Governance
- Identify data sources and integrations feeding into Datadog
- Map application dependencies and ingestion points.
- Define critical dashboards, alerts, and service-level objectives to replicate in Elastic.
- Validate infrastructure readiness for Elastic’s resource-based model (clusters, nodes, indices).
- Real-time
migration Parallel ingestion into Datadog and Elastic for continuous parity.
- Batch migration
Historical log and metric data exported via APIs and re-indexed into Elastic.
- Hybrid migration
Combination of both for ongoing workloads and archived data.
- Schema normalization to Elastic Common Schema (ECS).
- Query translation from Datadog syntax to ES|QL.
- Pipeline design using Elastic Agents, Beats, or OpenTelemetry collectors.
- Performance tuning for ingestion throughput and indexing speed.
- Capacity planning and cluster scaling.
- Index lifecycle configuration (ILM) for cost-efficient retention.
- Dashboard optimization and alert tuning.
- Continuous ingestion monitoring and incident response workflows.
Our credit-based model ensures these operations remain flexible and can be reallocated from migration to ongoing optimization as your environment stabilizes.
- All telemetry is encrypted in transit and at rest, with automated redaction of sensitive fields such as credentials and identifiers.
- Access to data, dashboards, and APIs is protected through role-based access control and secure identity providers.
- Observata monitors pipelines and Elastic clusters under defined SLAs to maintain consistent data flow and system availability.
With Observata, you migrate from Datadog to Elastic confidently. Minimal downtime, no data loss, and complete operational control.
Before migration, Observata helps teams establish a full inventory of assets and dependencies:
- Identify data sources and integrations feeding into Datadog.
- Map application dependencies and ingestion points.
- Define critical dashboards, alerts, and service-level objectives to replicate in Elastic.
- Validate infrastructure readiness for Elastic’s resource-based model (clusters, nodes, indices).
Our team conducts this assessment collaboratively with your engineers to ensure no critical workflow is overlooked.
Observata supports multiple migration paths depending on data type and retention requirements. This provides our customers with three easy options to choose from, as is suited to their needs, and our experts guide you through every step of the migration process.
- Real-time migration
Parallel ingestion into Datadog and Elastic for continuous parity.
- Batch migration
Historical log and metric data exported via APIs and re-indexed into Elastic.
- Hybrid migration
Combination of both for ongoing workloads and archived data.
For complex environments, Observata implements custom solutions that ensure proper configurations, alignment, and minimal data loss.
Proper data structuring determines long-term observability performance. Observata experts handle:
- Schema normalization to Elastic Common Schema (ECS).
- Query translation from Datadog syntax to ES|QL.
- Pipeline design using Elastic Agents, Beats, or OpenTelemetry collectors.
- Performance tuning for ingestion throughput and indexing speed.
This process ensures all datasets maintain context and traceability across logs, metrics, and traces once migrated.
After migration, Observata provides production-grade operational management and ongoing support:
- Capacity planning and cluster scaling.
- Index lifecycle configuration (ILM) for cost-efficient retention.
- Dashboard optimization and alert tuning.
- Continuous ingestion monitoring and incident response workflows.
Our credit-based model ensures these operations remain flexible and can be reallocated from migration to ongoing optimization as your environment stabilizes.
Security is integral to every stage of migration. Our experts enforce unified governance across both Datadog and Elastic during the transition. Each stage is designed to protect data integrity, maintain uptime, and enforce access control.
- All telemetry is encrypted in transit and at rest, with automated redaction of sensitive fields such as credentials and identifiers.
- Access to data, dashboards, and APIs is protected through role-based access control and secure identity providers.
- Observata monitors pipelines and Elastic clusters under defined SLAs to maintain consistent data flow and system availability.
Specialized Workflows
Cost Segmentation
Phased Migration
Running both platforms can be effective when guided by a structured migration strategy. For a deeper dive into hybrid strategies, explore our dedicated blog here.
Scenarios where Datadog and Elastic work together
When to Run Both Platforms
Observata enables hybrid Datadog-Elastic architectures with integrated pipelines and lifecycle management.
When to Run Both Platforms
Not every migration involves a complete cutover. Some teams choose to run Datadog alongside Elastic, either as part of a phased migration or to meet specific use cases.
Cost Segmentation
Scenarios where Datadog and Elastic work together
Specialized Workflows
Cost Segmentation
Phased Migration
Use Datadog’s application-centric monitoring in parallel with Elastic’s broader observability and enterprise search.
Keep high-frequency metrics in Datadog while storing long-term logs and traces in Elastic for compliance and analytics.
Teams gradually shift workloads to Elastic while continuing to monitor critical services
in Datadog.
Scenarios where Datadog and Elastic work together
Observata enables hybrid Datadog-Elastic architectures with integrated pipelines and lifecycle management.
Our Unique Observata Credit Model
Service Credits
Freely Utilize Credits
Clear Reporting
Our Unique Observata Credit Model
Service Credits
GB of RAM is the most accurate representation of observability resource consumption and is managed by Observata to ensure predictable usage and cost.
Service Credits
Freely Utilize Credits
Clear Reporting
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Many organizations adopt a hybrid observability approach during transition. Datadog continues to serve application-level metrics and existing workflows, while Elastic manages long-term logs, traces, and analytics.
Observata designs and manages these dual-ingestion pipelines through OpenTelemetry, Elastic Agents, or Datadog Observability Pipelines, ensuring data parity and schema consistency. You can read more about hybrid configurations in our detailed blog: <Using Datadog and Elastic Together>
Elastic APM offers full distributed tracing, code-level performance visibility, and native OpenTelemetry support, without the per-agent or per-trace licensing that increases Datadog costs.
Observata’s observability-as-a-service, HYPR Vision, configures Elastic APM to integrate directly with your existing services, unifying logs, metrics, and traces under one schema. This delivers a single-pane view of system health while maintaining cost predictability.
Historical Datadog data can be exported, transformed, and ingested into Elastic using Observant-managed pipelines. We support:
- API-based extraction of logs and metrics.
- Schema mapping into Elastic Common Schema (ECS).
- Controlled re-indexing to maintain timestamp accuracy for analytics and compliance.
These processes are handled under the same credit allocation model, ensuring no downtime or data loss. To learn more about our service and delivery models, visit here or talk to our experts.
Post-migration, Observata HYPR Vision takes over full operational management of your Elastic environment. This includes:
- Continuous pipeline optimization and scaling.
- Query performance tuning and ILM policy management.
- Security, governance, and lifecycle oversight.
- Proactive anomaly detection through HYPR Vision’s Observability-as-a-Service model.
Our ongoing management ensures that Elastic continues to deliver measurable efficiency, reliability, and long-term visibility. You can learn more about the process here (Elastic Partnership page).
Yes. Observata uses a query translation and dashboard recreation process that converts Datadog visualizations into Kibana dashboards using ES|QL and the Elastic Common Schema (ECS).
This ensures you retain operational visibility without redesigning dashboards from scratch. Alerts are validated in a dual-run phase to confirm threshold alignment and behavior parity before Datadog alerts are retired. Learn more about our HYPR Vision service and how it maintains dashboard consistency during migration.
Observata embeds data security, governance, and compliance throughout the migration process. Our team ensures all ingestion pipelines and storage configurations adhere to SOC 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR principles, depending on customer region and data classification.
We apply consistent data filtering, redaction, and role-based access controls across both Datadog and Elastic during hybrid operations, ensuring sensitive information remains protected. You can read more about our security and governance practices on the Cybersecurity + Observability page.