If faster vector search, reduced storage requirements, and more powerful observability are on your list, OpenSearch 3.9 is worth a look. Key updates include: • Neural sparse ANN search with 39% higher throughput, 3.3x faster index builds, and an 8x smaller JVM heap in testing • Native half_float vectors that can reduce vector memory and storage by roughly 50% • New 2-bit and 4-bit scalar quantization options for tuning compression vs. recall • A unified view for alerts, anomalies, and forecasts • Adaptive per-action concurrency limits for protecting clusters under load • Index-level search pruning that reduced tail latency by more than 80% and can_match requests by nearly 98% in local benchmarks Read the blog for the full breakdown of what’s new in OpenSearch 3.9: opensearch.org/blog/get-to-k…

How do you ingest over 3TB of data daily while reporting zero Severity 1 escalations since 2024? @Akamai migrated to OpenSearch to reduce licensing costs and gain greater control over its analytics infrastructure. With proactive monitoring through NeverBlink AI and expert support from OpenSearch Software Foundation member @BigDataBoutique, its seven-person SRE team can identify issues early and resolve potential bottlenecks in minutes rather than hours. Read the case study to see how they did it: bit.ly/4sdjjYm

At All Things Open, OpenSearch Ambassador @Horovits took the stage to explore how OpenSearch, Prometheus, and OpenTelemetry are joining forces for better observability, while fellow Ambassador Eric Pugh kept the community conversations going at the booth. Join the community: bit.ly/4uvW77w

Your first PR could be your maintainer origin story. OpenSearch's Contribution Ladder makes it easier to go from first-time contributor to community leader, with a clear path to grow your impact. Ready to level up? See how to climb the ladder: bit.ly/4yAGddU

At OpenSearchCon NA 2026, we caught up with Emma Gauthier from IBM to discuss how contributors are improving OpenSearch efficiency at scale. As a member of the OpenSearch Software Foundation and Gold Sponsor of this year's event, IBM continues to contribute to the technology behind OpenSearch.

Building an AI agent is one thing. Getting it to remember past interactions and tasks without adding more infrastructure is another. At Open Source Summit Europe, OpenSearch leaders discussed how storing agent memory alongside retrieval helps developers simplify context management. But as AI moves from experimentation to production, can organizations scale without adding complexity, cost, and vendor lock-in? Read ECI Research’s take on OpenSearch and the AI maturity gap: bit.ly/4jl15Sr

Ranking #1 doesn't mean a result is relevant, accurate, or safe to act on. And when agents make decisions autonomously, one bad retrieval can trigger a chain of costly mistakes. Chanpreet Singh and Shatakshi Pandey explore how to build search-confidence guardrails with OpenSearch using confidence scoring, adaptive thresholds, and a critical capability: knowing when not to act. Because better search results aren't enough if your agent doesn't know when to say, "I don't know." Read the deep dive: bit.ly/4ilzhMG

Your metrics tell you something broke, but finding out why shouldn't mean jumping between dashboards. The new OpenSearch data source plugin for Perses brings logs, metrics, and traces into one view. Available in Perses 0.54.0, it supports PPL queries, automatic time filtering, and server-side credential handling. Read the blog to see how SAP Cloud Infrastructure is using the plugin to simplify incident investigations: bit.ly/4jjxbOt By Akshay Iyyadurai Balasundaram, Kelechi Oliver Azorji

Her AI agents told her to enter a hackathon. She ended up winning it. At OpenSearchCon North America 2026, Grand Prize winner Ciki Zeng shared the story behind unclosed, an OpenSearch agent skill built around one question: What if AI had to prove its conclusions before calling an investigation complete? From building with agents to rethinking how we verify their work, Ciki's experience is a reminder of what independent builders bring to open source. Read her story: bit.ly/4hJyZix

“Search is having a moment.” Now, it’s becoming foundational to AI infrastructure. From hybrid search and vector retrieval to the context AI agents need, OpenSearch is evolving beyond traditional search to support increasingly complex AI workloads. 451 Research | S&P Global analyst James Curtis returned to OpenSearchCon NA 2026 to discuss what’s changed in the past year and where OpenSearch fits in the future of AI infrastructure.

Last week at Open Source Summit Europe, OpenSearch sponsored the event, connected with the community at our booth, and explored agentic search on stage with OpenSearch Ambassadors @Horovits and Aswath N Srinivasan. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and made it a great week!

Alert rules multiplying faster than your services? See how OpenSearch uses PPL + Unified Alerting to correlate logs, metrics, and traces, centralize routing, and cut false-positive noise without sacrificing coverage. Watch the live technical demo on demand → bit.ly/4y6mPVZ @TheNewStack @LinuxFoundation

Already in Prague for Open Source Summit Europe? 👀 Keep the week going at OpenSearch Prague Meetup #1 tomorrow, October 8. Search, observability, lightning talks + food and drinks with the community. 📍 Novotel Praha Wenceslas Square 🕕 18:00 Register: bit.ly/4doxow3

Stephanie Walter, Practice Leader – AI Stack at HyperFRAME Research, breaks down how OpenSearch is becoming a retrieval and context layer for enterprise AI. Because better AI starts with better retrieval. Read her take → bit.ly/4hB5G0g

Nine keynotes. One very clear signal: OpenSearch is leveling up for the agentic AI era. @Aiven_io, Amazon Web Services (@AWS), @CERN, @IBM, @Intel, the OpenSearch Software Foundation, Portal26, @SAP, and @Uber covered retrieval, memory, observability, security, scale, and what it takes to make AI trustworthy in production. Catch the full recap → bit.ly/4APmXvu

Add resource-level access controls without coupling your plugin to Security. In OpenSearch 3.9, plugin pages can expose sharing controls for detectors, monitors, model groups, workflows, and more through a simple placeholder element. No import. No plugin dependency. No manifest entry. Blog: bit.ly/4hVuG3A

We’re grateful to see OpenSearch featured as the Analytics & Data Intelligence Solutions winner in the 2026–2027 SiliconANGLE TechForward Buyer’s Guide! Thank you to the @thecubetv & @theCUBE team and this year’s judging panel for the recognition. bit.ly/3TwW0M7.

What would you build with 2,000+ engineering hours back? Your Store Wizards moved Search Magic to OpenSearch in under 12 hours, with @Instaclustr managing the infrastructure behind it. Now they’re handling millions of queries a week across hundreds of stores. Fast search. Less cluster babysitting. More time to build. bit.ly/3Tp3Szu

OpenSearch Kubernetes Operator 3.0 is now GA, rebuilt to make upgrades, scaling, certificate rotation, and recovery safer in real-world environments. Nearly 60 test playbooks. Close to 50 bugs caught between alpha and GA. And a much stronger foundation for running OpenSearch on Kubernetes in production. Still on 2.x? It’s time for a 3.0 upgrade: bit.ly/4ygn95f

Ready to validate your OpenSearch skills? The OpenSearch Certified Associate (OSCA) certification is coming in Q3 2026. Designed for beginners, OSCA validates foundational OpenSearch knowledge through an online, proctored multiple-choice exam. Be among the first to know when registration opens. Sign up for OSCA updates today.