Elastic Agent 8.16 provides significant flexibility and efficiency in data collection and management, supporting a wide range of use cases in security and observability through a single platform. The latest version introduces features such as "output per integration," enabling users to direct data from various sources to specific destinations, including Elasticsearch clusters, Logstash, and Kafka, to optimize resource use and streamline workflows. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for enterprises needing to manage data across multiple regions or comply with data sovereignty and GDPR regulations, reducing costs like cloud egress fees. Additionally, Elastic Agent's enterprise policy management allows centralized control over thousands of agents, making it easier to manage ingest configurations while maintaining performance and reliability. The ability to add custom field-value pairs at the policy level further enhances data processing by embedding local context, facilitating efficient data routing and the creation of context-specific dashboards.