# Elastic Cloud Interoperability

Adopting ROR instead of paying for the platinum tier of Elastic cloud is cheaper, permits more advanced integrations, but most importantly: offers multi-tenancy over a single cluster.

ROR Team  May 30, 2023

## ReadonlyREST in a nutshell 🥜

Need a refresher about ReadonlyREST?

ReadonlyREST is a battle-tested **plugin for Elasticsearch and Kibana** that provides **advanced security and access control** features. It includes basic features, as well as enterprise-level features like multi-tenancy, advanced [LDAP](https://docs.readonlyrest.com/elasticsearch#ldap-connector) authentication, [SAML](https://docs.readonlyrest.com/examples/saml-sso/azure_ad) SSO, [OIDC](https://docs.readonlyrest.com/examples/oidc-sso) authentication, and offsite auditing log shipping.

🤓 From the [most basic use cases](https://docs.readonlyrest.com/elasticsearch#rules):

- Making Elasticsearch read-only
- Basic authentication
- IP/Network filtering

🏦 To battle-tested, enterprise use cases:

- [Multi-tenancy](https://docs.readonlyrest.com/examples/multitenancy_guide)
- Advanced [LDAP](https://docs.readonlyrest.com/elasticsearch#ldap-connector) auth
- [SAML SSO](https://docs.readonlyrest.com/examples/saml-sso/azure_ad), [OIDC](https://docs.readonlyrest.com/examples/oidc-sso) auth
- [Offsite auditing log shipping](https://docs.readonlyrest.com/elasticsearch/audit#custom-audit-cluster)

After **5 years** at the service of Elasticsearch and Kibana security, the product is a reference in the industry and ready to take on new challenges.

## ROR + Elastic Cloud: Why?

Elastic cloud in its basic tier is reasonably cheap, offers high performance and stability. Updates are seamless, and data is free to grow indefinitely. [Unfortunately adding enterprise-grade security sky-rockets the running costs](https://docs.readonlyrest.com/elasticsearch/audit#custom-audit-cluster)

Adopting ROR instead of paying for the platinum tier of Elastic cloud is cheaper, permits more advanced integrations, but most importantly: **offers multi-tenancy over a single cluster.**

|     |     |     |     |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | **Maintenance & scaling** | **Flexible access control** | **Pricing** |
| **Elastic Cloud** | 😃 | 😐 | 😭 |
| **Self hosted + ROR** | 🤯 | 😍 | 😍 |

**What if we could have the best of both worlds?**

It’s finally possible!

- 🏦 Keep all your data in Elastic Cloud basic tier (no expensive platinum tier required!)
- 👀 Access the data as cross-cluster-search using a tiny Kibana+ROR instance with advanced authentication

## How does it work?

All your data is safely kept in Elastic Cloud basic tier, but your users will access it through a minimal ReadonlyREST instance, where you can configure the usual advanced authentication, multi-tenancy, and access control.

## Is this integration secure and robust?

Yes, very much so. No hacks involved. Thanks to two amazing features of Elastic Cloud.

- 🤝  **Trusted deployments**: self-hosted clusters (i.e. with ROR installed) can securely connect to your fully managed Elastic Cloud
- 🫰 **Cross Cluster Search (CCS)**: Users are authorized in the data-less ROR-secured cluster and access the data in the remote Elastic Cloud cluster.

Take a look at the [Elastic Cloud interoperability guide in our documentation website](https://docs.readonlyrest.com/examples/elastic-cloud-cluster-integration).