Elastic Stack 8.12: Enhanced vector search with improvements to ES|QL and more

Elastic Stack 8.12, built on Apache Lucene 9.9, introduces significant enhancements to vector and hybrid search capabilities, notably with scalar quantization and search concurrency features that reduce costs and query latency. This release optimizes query parallelization in Elasticsearch, improves ES|QL query editing directly on Dashboards, and provides faster vector search through the introduction of kNN vector search as a query. Additionally, it enhances geo search capabilities, allows for more flexible ingest pipeline simulations, and improves access to remote search status. The updates aim to provide a more efficient and user-friendly experience, encouraging users to upgrade for better performance and ease of use. Existing Elastic Cloud customers can access these features immediately, with options for a self-managed experience available through Elastic Cloud Enterprise and Elastic Cloud for Kubernetes.