Add new Elastic intro section

deploy-manage/deploy/cloud-on-k8s/kibana-instance-quickstart.md

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ products:
 
 # Deploy a {{kib}} instance [k8s-deploy-kibana]
 
-To deploy a simple [{{kib}}](/get-started/the-stack.md#stack-components-kibana) specification, with one {{kib}} instance:
+To deploy a simple {{kib}} specification, with one {{kib}} instance:
 
 1. Specify a {{kib}} instance and associate it with your {{es}} `quickstart` cluster created previously under [Deploying an {{es}} cluster](elasticsearch-deployment-quickstart.md):
 

extend/index.md

@@ -1,26 +1,58 @@
-# Extend and contribute
+# Extend the Elastic platform 
 
-This section contains information on how to extend or contribute to our various products.
+You can extend and build on the Elastic Platform in several ways. Whether you need to get data into Elasticsearch, add new functionality, edit the documentation, or build a custom application, here is an overview of the primary development paths to help you choose the right one for your project.
 
-## Contributing to Elastic documentation
+There are two main approaches to extending Elastic: creating standardized Integrations for data ingestion or building custom solutions by developing directly against our REST APIs.
+
+## Path 1: Create an Elastic Integration
+
+If your primary goal is to bring a new data source into the Elastic Stack in a standardized, reusable way, building an Elastic Integration is the best path. Integrations are pre-packaged assets that make it simple for users to collect and process data from a specific service or platform.
+
+This approach is ideal for shipping data, logs, metrics, and traces. By building an integration, you contribute to the ever-growing ecosystem that both you and the community can benefit from.
+
+* Integrations are built on a consistent framework, providing users with a turnkey experience, including dashboards, visualizations, and alerts.  
+* **`elastic-package`** is a command-line tool that is your primary interface for creating, testing, and packaging your integration. It scaffolds the entire project structure, letting you focus on the logic for data collection.  
+* Your integration will run on the Elastic Agent, our single, unified agent for data shipping.
+
+**When to choose this path**
 
-You can contribute to the Elastic documentation in several ways.
+* You want to ingest data from a new data source, like a database, API, or log file.  
+* You want to provide a standardized, out-of-the-box experience for other users.  
+* You need to process and structure data according to the Elastic Common Schema (ECS).
 
-Refer to [Contribute to Elastic documentation](./contribute/index.md) for an overview.
+**Ready to start?** Head over to the [Create an Integration](integrations://extend/index.md) guide.
 
-## Contributing to Elastic Projects
+## Path 2: Develop against the REST APIs
 
-You can contribute to various projects, including:
+For complete control and custom development, you can interact directly with Elastic's REST APIs. This path is perfect for building custom applications, automating complex workflows, and integrating Elastic into your existing infrastructure in a bespoke way. For example, you can programmatically manage your cluster, run complex queries, manage security settings, and interact with Kibana.
 
-- [Kibana](kibana://extend/index.md): Enhance our data visualization platform by contributing to Kibana.
-- [Logstash](logstash://extend/index.md): Help us improve the data processing pipeline with your contributions to Logstash.
-- [Beats](beats://extend/index.md): Add new features or beats to our lightweight data shippers.
+* The APIs provide direct access to the core capabilities of Elasticsearch and Kibana. If you can do it in the UI, you can automate it with the API.  
+* Elastic provides and supports official clients for popular languages like Java, Go, .NET, PHP, Python, Ruby, and JavaScript. These clients simplify interacting with the API, handling requests, and processing responses.  
+* The APIs are secured using role-based access control (RBAC). You can create API keys or use bearer tokens with fine-grained permissions to ensure your interactions are safe.
 
-## Creating Integrations
+### Elastic APIs at a glance
 
-Extend the capabilities of Elastic by creating integrations that connect Elastic products with other tools and systems. Visit our [Integrations Guide](integrations://extend/index.md) to get started.
+* Use the Elasticsearch APIs to:
 
-## Elasticsearch Plugins
+  * Create, read, update, and delete documents.  
+  * Perform everything from simple keyword searches to complex analytical aggregations.  
+  * Monitor cluster health, manage nodes, and configure settings.  
+  * Manage users, roles, and API keys.  
 
-Develop custom plugins to add new functionalities to Elasticsearch. Check out our [Elasticsearch Plugins Development Guide](elasticsearch://extend/index.md) for detailed instructions and best practices.
+* Use the Kibana APIs to programmatically control the Kibana front-end and its objects:
+
+  * Create and manage dashboards, visualizations, and saved searches.  
+  * Automate the organization of content within Kibana.  
+  * Create and manage rules for detecting conditions within your data.
+
+**When to choose this path**
+
+* You are building a custom application that uses Elasticsearch as its backend.  
+* You need to automate administrative tasks, such as creating users or managing index lifecycle policies.  
+* You are integrating Elastic's search and analytics capabilities into another platform.
+
+Ready to get started? Explore the [Elasticsearch API Reference](elasticsearch://reference/elasticsearch/rest-apis/index.md) and the [Kibana API Reference](https://www.elastic.co/docs/api/doc/kibana/).
+
+## Contributing to Elastic documentation
 
+You can contribute to the Elastic documentation in several ways. Refer to [Contribute to Elastic documentation](./contribute/index.md) for an overview.

get-started/deployment-options.md

@@ -1,17 +1,21 @@
 ---
+navigation_title: Deployment options
 mapped_pages:
   - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/elasticsearch-intro-deploy.html
 products:
   - id: elasticsearch
 ---
 
-# Deployment options [elasticsearch-intro-deploy]
+# Deployment options
 
-Use this page for a quick overview of your options for deploying Elastic.
+You can run Elastic on virtually any infrastructure, allowing you to choose the model that best fits your operational needs. 
 
-:::{include} /deploy-manage/_snippets/deployment-options-overview.md
-:::
+These are the most common deployment types and their main features:
 
-:::{tip}
-Refer to [](/deploy-manage/index.md) for detailed information and guidance on choosing the right deployment for your needs.
-:::
+* **{{serverless-full}}**: This fully managed SaaS offering abstracts away all underlying infrastructure, automatically and seamlessly scaling resources to meet your workload demands. It's designed for operational simplicity, with usage-based pricing that allows you to focus on your data without managing clusters.  
+* **{{ech}}**: This managed SaaS offering provides you with a dedicated cluster on your choice of cloud provider (AWS, GCP, or Azure). It offers a high degree of control over your cluster's configuration, allowing you to fine-tune nodes, hardware, and versions to meet specific performance and architectural requirements.  
+* **Self-managed**: This approach allows you to install, operate, and maintain the Elastic Stack on your own hardware, whether on-premises or in your private cloud. It provides maximum control over your environment.  
+* **{{eck}} (ECK)**: This extends Kubernetes by providing an official operator for deploying and managing Elastic products. It's ideal if you want to run and orchestrate Elastic on your own Kubernetes platform.  
+* **{{ece}} (ECE):** This Elastic self-managed offering allows you to provision, manage, and monitor Elasticsearch and Kibana at any scale, on any infrastructure, while managing everything from a single console. It's ideal if you want to use the full Elastic Stack while maintaining control over your data and infrastructure. 
+
+For more information on Deployment modes, refer to [Detailed deployment comparison](/deploy-manage/deploy/deployment-comparison.md).

get-started/index.md

@@ -7,45 +7,29 @@ mapped_pages:
 products:
   - id: elasticsearch
   - id: elastic-stack
+  - id: observability
+  - id: security
 ---
-# Get started
 
-## Overview [what-is-es]
+# Elastic fundamentals
 
-[{{es}}](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch) is a distributed search and analytics engine, scalable data store, and vector database built on Apache Lucene. It’s optimized for speed and relevance on production-scale workloads. Use {{es}} to search, index, store, and analyze data of all shapes and sizes in near real time. [{{kib}}](https://github.com/elastic/kibana) is the graphical user interface for {{es}}. It’s a powerful tool for visualizing and analyzing your data, and for managing and monitoring the Elastic Stack.
+Welcome to Elastic fundamentals! 
 
-{{es}} is the heart of the [Elastic Stack](the-stack.md). Combined with {{kib}}, it powers these Elastic solutions and use cases:
+In this section, we'll walk you through the basics of what our products offer, what they do, how they can help your business, and the different ways you can set them up. You'll get a quick look at the core features and concepts, real-world use cases, and deployment options so you can get a clear sense of how everything fits together. 
 
-* **[Elasticsearch](/solutions/search.md)**: Build powerful search and RAG applications using Elasticsearch's vector database, AI toolkit, and advanced retrieval capabilities.
-* **[Observability](/solutions/observability.md)**: Resolve problems with open, flexible, and unified observability powered by advanced machine learning and analytics.
-* **[Security](/solutions/security.md)**: Detect, investigate, and respond to threats with AI-driven security analytics to protect your organization at scale.
+You'll also find other useful information, such as how to use our docs, training resources, and a link to our glossary so you can familiarize yourself with our terminology. Whether you're exercising your options and are curious about what Elastic can offer, are just getting started, or are looking to dive deeper, this is a great place to begin.
 
-:::{tip}
-Refer to our [customer success stories](https://www.elastic.co/customers/success-stories) for concrete examples of how Elastic is used in real-world scenarios.
-:::
-
-## Choose your deployment type
+## What is Elastic? [what-is-es]
 
-:::{include} /deploy-manage/_snippets/deployment-options-overview.md
+:::{image} /get-started/images/elastic-platform.png
+:alt: The Elastic platform
 :::
 
-## Explore the solutions
-
-Elasticsearch supports diverse use cases. Select a solution and follow its dedicated getting-started guide:
-
-|     |     |
-| :---: | --- |
-| ![elasticsearch](images/64x64_Color_elasticsearch-logo-color-64px.png "elasticsearch =50%") | **Elasticsearch**<br> Create seamless search experiences for apps, websites, or workplaces.<br><br>[**Get started →**](../solutions/search/get-started.md)<br> |
-| ![observability](images/64x64_Color_observability-logo-color-64px.png "observability =50%") | **Observability**<br> Monitor logs, metrics, and traces to gain insight into your systems.<br><br>[**Get started →**](../solutions/observability/get-started.md)<br> |
-| ![security](images/64x64_Color_security-logo-color-64px.png "security =50%") | **Security**<br> Monitor logs, metrics, and traces to gain insight into your systems.<br><br>[**Get started →**](../solutions/security/get-started.md)<br> |
-
-## Next steps
+Elastic provides an open source search, analytics, and AI platform, and out-of-the-box solutions for observability and security. The Search AI platform combines the power of search and generative AI to provide near real-time search and analysis with relevance to reduce your time to value. 
 
-To learn more about our products and solutions, check out:
+Elastic offers three main solutions or types ofprojects: 
 
-- [{{es}} and {{kib}}](introduction.md), the core components of the {{stack}}.
-  - [The stack](/get-started/the-stack.md) to understand the relationship between core and optional components of an Elastic deployment.
-- [The out-of-the-box solutions and use cases](/solutions/index.md) that Elastic supports.
-- [Deploying Elastic](./deployment-options.md) for your use case.
-- [Versioning and availability](./versioning-availability.md) in Elastic deployments.
+* [{{es}}](/solutions/search.md): Build powerful search and RAG applications using Elasticsearch's vector database, AI toolkit, and advanced retrieval capabilities.  
+* [Elastic {{observability}}](/solutions/observability.md): Gain comprehensive visibility into applications, infrastructure, and user experience through logs, metrics, traces, and other telemetry data, all in a single interface.    
+* [{{elastic-sec}}](/solutions/security.md): Combine SIEM, endpoint security, and cloud security to provide comprehensive tools for threat detection and prevention, investigation, and response.