Elastic announced a shift in its support model for Elastic Cloud Standard customers from a public forum to a ticket-based system, effective May 1, 2017, to improve service quality and customer experience. This change was driven by the need for ease of use, secure information sharing, and consistent, personalized support, allowing customers to receive dedicated assistance from a team of engineers via email. The new system also offers a better way to track customer history, aiding in more effective troubleshooting. Elastic expressed gratitude to its customers for their feedback, which informed this decision, and emphasized its commitment to continually improving services. Additionally, Elastic launched its cloud service on the AWS SaaS Marketplace, allowing for simplified billing through AWS.