A decade ago, the idea of using machine learning (ML)-based technology in IT operations or IT security seemed a little like science fiction. Today, however, it is one of the most common buzzwords used by software vendors. Clearly, there has been a major shift in both the perception of the need for the technology and the capabilities that the state-of-the-art implementations of the technology can bring to bear. This evolution is important to understand to fully appreciate how Elastic's ML came to be and what problems it was designed to solve.

This chapter is dedicated to reviewing the history and concepts behind how Elastic's ML works. If you are uninterested and want to jump right into the installation and usage of the product, feel free to skip to Chapter 2, Installing the Elastic Stack with ML.