Elastic Cloud Enterprise (ECE) 2.5 introduces several enhancements aimed at improving deployment management and scalability, including the addition of a dedicated coordinating layer for better performance and support for snapshot lifecycle management (SLM). This release allows users to configure independently scalable coordinating nodes to handle ingest pipelines and search queries, thereby optimizing resource utilization and maintaining data accessibility even in case of coordination layer issues. Additionally, ECE 2.5 integrates SLM for automated snapshot management and a more robust restore process, transitioning from the previous snapshot mechanism. The update also facilitates migrating from index curation to index lifecycle management (ILM) through a new wizard, simplifying the process and encouraging users to adopt ILM due to the deprecation of index curation. Additionally, ECE supports custom Kibana plugins, enabling users to extend functionalities with their own or existing plugins, with detailed guidance provided for implementation. The release also includes various improvements and bug fixes, with a free 30-day trial available for those not using ECE.