Elastic Cloud - Overview of Defence Cyber Marvel 2026
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Basically, Elastic helped the UK military practice defending against cyber attacks in a big exercise.
Elastic Security powered the UK's Defence Cyber Marvel 2026 exercise, enhancing cyber readiness with advanced AI infrastructure. Over 2,500 personnel participated, showcasing international cooperation. This exercise is crucial for developing effective defense strategies against cyber threats.
What Happened
In April 2026, Elastic provided a comprehensive technical overview of its security and AI infrastructure used during the UK Ministry of Defence's Defence Cyber Marvel 2026 (DCM26) exercise. This annual event is a large-scale military cyber exercise aimed at enhancing the cybersecurity capabilities of the UK and its allies. DCM26 featured over 2,500 personnel from 29 countries, focusing on defending IT networks and industrial control systems in high-pressure scenarios.
The Scale of DCM26
DCM26 was the most ambitious iteration yet, involving 70 organizations and coordinated from Singapore. The exercise spanned five days, with teams defending military systems during an escalating regional crisis. Participants included representatives from various UK government departments and international partners, all connecting through a hybrid compute environment that hosted over 5,000 virtual systems.
The Deployments: Elastic Infrastructure
Elastic's contribution this year involved a significant architectural evolution. Instead of deploying individual Elastic Cloud clusters for each team, a single multi-tenanted Elastic Cloud deployment was used. This deployment allowed for isolated workspaces for each of the 40 defending Blue Teams, ensuring data security and operational efficiency.
Multi-Tenancy in Action
Each Blue Team operated in its own Kibana Space, equipped with tailored dashboards, agents, and detection rules. The infrastructure was designed to handle high data ingestion rates, with the cluster comfortably managing up to 800,000 events per second across all teams. This setup allowed for effective monitoring and response during the exercise, showcasing the capabilities of Elastic's technology in a real-world scenario.
Security Features
Elastic's infrastructure included advanced security features such as Elastic Defend for endpoint detection, integrated logging for various operating systems, and strict access controls to prevent cross-team data leakage. The architecture was designed to be robust, with automated scaling and efficient data lifecycle management to minimize storage costs while meeting operational requirements.
What You Should Know
The Defence Cyber Marvel 2026 exercise demonstrated the importance of collaboration in cybersecurity. By leveraging Elastic's technology, the UK Ministry of Defence enhanced its readiness and resilience against cyber threats. This exercise not only tested the capabilities of the participants but also provided valuable insights into the effectiveness of multi-tenanted cloud deployments in high-stakes environments. As global cybersecurity challenges continue to evolve, exercises like DCM26 play a crucial role in preparing military and government organizations to respond effectively.
🔒 Pro insight: The shift to a multi-tenanted Elastic Cloud deployment highlights the growing need for scalable cybersecurity solutions in military exercises.