Building dashboards is no longer a task reserved for data analysts. With the rise of distributed systems and the growing need for real-time insights, solutions like Elasticsearch and Kibana have become central to how organizations monitor operations, detect anomalies, and drive decisions across departments.
In this article, we’ll explore how to start building dashboards with Elasticsearch and Kibana, from ingesting and structuring data to creating powerful visualizations and alerts.
Elasticsearch, a powerful distributed search and analytics engine, indexes large volumes of data with speed and precision. Kibana, its companion UI, brings that data to life through rich, interactive visualizations.
This combination is at the heart of the Elastic Stack (formerly ELK Stack), and it's used by engineering, operations, security, and business teams alike for:
Monitoring applications and infrastructure
Detecting anomalies and threats
Tracking KPIs and business metrics
Enabling observability and compliance
Together, they form a scalable, open-source alternative to traditional BI and APM platforms.
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Dashboards are only as good as the data behind them. That’s why designing an effective pipeline to ingest and structure data is critical.
Data ingestion options:
Beats: Lightweight data shippers for logs (Filebeat), metrics (Metricbeat), network traffic (Packetbeat), etc.
Logstash: Customizable ETL tool that transforms and routes data into Elasticsearch
Elastic Agent: Unified solution for logs, metrics, and security data
Ingest Nodes: Elasticsearch-native processing pipelines for parsing, enrichment, and routing
Best practices for data modeling:
Use consistent field names and types
Flatten deeply nested structures when possible
Add @timestamp fields for time-based analysis
Normalize key fields like status codes, hostnames, and log levels
Once your data is indexed and structured, Kibana makes it easy to build dashboards that are both informative and visually compelling.
Lens: Drag-and-drop builder for charts and graphs
TSVB (Time Series Visual Builder): Time-series visualizations with math and pipeline aggregations
Maps: Geographic visualization for IPs, geo data, etc.
Canvas: Custom visual storytelling with flexible layout and branding
Markdown & Controls: Add interactivity and documentation to your dashboards
Define your use case (e.g., system health, sales KPIs, threat monitoring)
Select relevant index patterns and time filters
Choose visualizations (bar, pie, line, gauge, etc.)
Arrange components in a clean, readable layout
Save, share, and schedule reports or snapshots
Kibana supports dashboard filtering, cross-panel interactivity, and integration with Spaces to organize content by team or department.
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Whether you're building a Security Operations Center (SOC) dashboard or monitoring application latency, Kibana adapts to your needs.
Popular use cases include:
Security monitoring (SIEM): Visualize threat detection rules, login anomalies, failed authentications
Infrastructure monitoring: CPU usage, disk I/O, memory pressure across systems
Application performance: Latency, error rates, response times, user behavior
Business dashboards: Sales per region, marketing campaign performance, product churn rates
Dashboards are even more valuable when paired with automated alerts and third-party integrations.
Alerting features in Kibana:
Rule-based triggers (threshold, anomaly detection, metric conditions)
Native integrations with Slack, email, webhook, Jira, and ServiceNow
Action connectors for chaining events across tools
You can also export dashboard data to external systems (via APIs) or embed visualizations into portals, reporting systems, or custom apps.
Kibana supports Spaces, RBAC, and encryption, making it secure and team-friendly even in complex enterprise environments.
Related article: How IT Managers Waste Resources By Not Automating Operations
As an Elastic certified partner and Open Source Competence Center, Syone helps organizations design, implement and scale their Elasticsearch + Kibana environments.
We offer:
End-to-end observability solutions using Elastic Stack
Custom dashboard development tailored to your business goals
Performance tuning and data modelling best practices
Alert configuration and cross-tool integration
Managed services, monitoring, and support
Whether you're modernizing your monitoring stack or implementing dashboards from scratch, Syone delivers the expertise to help you succeed securely and at scale.
Learn more about our Elastic-based solutions or contact us and speak with one of our observability experts.