Distributed by intention

Elasticsearch is powerful because it's distributed, gaining speed and stability from each additional node. Distributed software doesn’t need to be developed by distributed teams, but honestly, why wouldn’t we want to emulate the strengths of the products we build?

Distributed systems, distributed teams

Elastic was born a distributed company, with founders in Israel, Germany, and The Netherlands. Knowing the strengths that come from distribution and diversity, our first hire wasn’t an engineer — it was a CFO that could help us establish corporate entities around the globe. Once we were able to navigate tax and labor laws around the world, our pool of potential employees grew considerably.

From our experience in open source projects, we knew that great code and amazing ideas can come from anyone, anywhere. So we had to make sure we had access to anyone, anywhere.

Strength in diversity

Distribution isn’t about removing latency or offering 24-hour support coverage. Either of those things can be achieved by overworking an office full of locals or hiring a handful of “remote” workers. Being a distributed company is about harnessing the inherent strengths of diversity. Different people approach problems differently. We need that.

Our minds are shaped every day by our culture — our families, our upbringing, our languages, our traditions, our interactions, our homes, our education. For Elastic to be successful, we need minds of every shape imaginable. Why? Because forming a consensus between similar minds is easy, but it’s also prone to bias and false conclusions. Forming a consensus between a wide variety of minds? Not nearly as easy, but when its reached, that’s a solution that will stand the test of time.

Supporting resiliency

Distributed systems are only powerful if they’re resilient. The same is true for our company. We are constantly improving the Elastic Stack to handle the challenges of distribution, just as we are improving how we support our employees no matter where they are. We don’t just want to enable, we want to empower.

Organizational resiliency also requires recognizing that it’s not the tools that make distribution work, it’s the people. Successful collaboration takes more than video calls and shared calendars. It takes warm welcomings to let new hires know all cultures are accepted. It takes flexible scheduling to help people work around time zone differences. It means always assuming the best intention of our peers.

Building camaraderie

We hire intentionally. We hire thoughtfully. Smart. Curious. Nice. Respectful. These are qualities we look for in every Elastician. We strive endlessly to hire folks that fit at Elastic just as much as Elastic fits them. We want every new employee to make Elastic even better. And we hope Elastic can return the favor.

Our goal isn’t to build a company of people that simply work well together; our goal is to build a company that creates well together, imagines well together, laughs well together, dances well together (ok, that last one is a stretch goal, but we’re working on it). We want to build a culture of camaraderie so that no matter where someone’s located, they feel connected.

Distributed us? Distributed you? Distributed we!

Elastic the company is just one piece of the Elastic community. Direct contact between our internal team and Elastic users (customers and tinkerers) is fundamental to our success. It’s this culture of communication that enables us to maintain our commitment to open source. We need you. We need your input. Without you, we can’t be us.

Since we can be everywhere, we can understand users from anywhere. This means we can genuinely deliver on our promise to be wherever you are — we aren’t held back by language barriers or cultural divides. Distributed isn’t always easy, and it isn’t for everyone, but we believe it's the foundation of our success.

We’re all over the map

In the best way possible. Our company is distributed with Elasticians spanning over 30 countries and counting.

It takes all of us

At Elastic our values reflect the open source community that got us started. Everybody counts: an engineer working on a CRUD UI in Kibana is as important as the facilities manager finding a new office space. A technical writer documenting Elasticsearch is as important as a sales rep closing multiple deals. No single person drives success at Elastic without the help of others.

Our teams are global

Some of your colleagues may be right next door, while others are halfway around the world. Whether you’re in Engineering or Legal, you’ll have teammates who have different perspectives and unique approaches for tackling challenges. We believe this makes us better at creating thoughtful, holistic solutions.

Winter is here. To celebrate the holiday season we held our inaugural Decemberfest.

Van life isn't always easy, unless you have a job that's distributed by design. Learn how Joe DeFever made work into an adventure by taking advantage of Elastic's distributed nature...

ElasticON Global is our biggest user conference yet — and it’s completely free. Get inspired by conversations with Elastic Founder and CEO Shay Banon, comedian and host of The Daily Show Trevor Noah, and soccer star and World Cup champion Megan Rapin..

How do you beat Zoom fatigue? By taking a break at Summer Camp. Learn how we built a bit of virtual fun time into our regularly scheduled programming.

Our Elasticians love to talk about our distributed culture. In this video series we hear thoughts from Tony Meehan, Security Team Lead, on working remote and communicating successfully within a distributed workforce...

A military background, a fondness for Savannah cats, and a career in security — we hear from Gayle Berkeley on all these topics and more in this edition of Someone Like Me...

How we created an engaging and impactful global all hands experience for our distributed company when we couldn’t meet in person — and why it mattered.

There’s no one good way to meet the challenge of working from home with kids for an extended period of time during a global pandemic. Here are a few strategies that might ease the days just a bit...

Learn the how and why behind Elastic’s distributed nature and what being distributed means to us as a business practice and mindset.

Working from home can be tough. As a company that’s distributed by design, we’ve got a few tips and tricks.

In this edition of Someone Like Me, Raya Fratkina shares her experience being a single mother and how distributed work helped her be there for her family.

Interested in how our leadership manages the teams making the Elastic Stack? In this edition: Kevin Kluge, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Elastic.

Powered By Ongig