At the Elastic{ON} 2018 conference, a session on getting started with Elastic APM (Application Performance Monitoring) highlighted its capabilities in monitoring application performance, tracking user requests, and diagnosing errors. The demonstration by Elastic APM Tech Lead Ron Cohen explained the straightforward setup process involving downloading the APM server, installing the APM agent into applications, and redeploying them to stream data into the APM UI in Kibana. This interface allows users to visualize performance metrics, analyze response times, and troubleshoot issues using detailed insights into application processes, SQL queries, and cache calls. The APM module provides comprehensive error data, including stack traces and error frequency, aiding in performance optimization and debugging. The session also introduced real user monitoring, which was in beta, and discussed the integration of APM data with machine learning for anomaly detection, offering advanced functionalities for enhancing application performance. Other topics from the conference included security analytics with Kibana, machine learning forecasting, and various Elastic Stack features.