Understand the Honeycomb Private Cloud technical architecture.
Note
This page provides a high-level overview of Private Cloud architecture.
Detailed deployment and networking guidance will be provided closer to deployment.
Honeycomb Private Cloud runs on the same architecture that powers Honeycomb’s SaaS platform, delivering high-speed query performance, AI-native intelligence, and scalable telemetry processing within your AWS environment.
Architecture Principles
Honeycomb Private Cloud uses a distributed, service-oriented architecture designed for performance, scalability, and reliability:
Horizontally scalable: Components scale by adding instances rather than increasing individual resource size
High availability: Resources distributed across multiple AWS Availability Zones (AZs) for resilience
Service separation: Distinct components for ingestion, query processing, storage, and user interface
Real-time processing: Event data available for query immediately upon ingestion
Core Components
Your Private Cloud deployment includes:
Ingestion pipeline: Receives and processes telemetry data from your applications
Query engine: Honeycomb’s custom column store for high-speed, high-cardinality queries
Storage layer: Durable persistence of telemetry events
Web application: Honeycomb UI for exploration, analysis, and visualization
AI services: Canvas and MCP for intelligent telemetry exploration
API services: Programmatic access for integrations and automation
Metadata services: User management, authentication, and configuration
High Availability: Multi-AZ, automatic failover, redundant caching
AI: Bedrock
Note
This list is not exhaustive.
Infrastructure Requirements
To ensure Honeycomb Private Cloud runs smoothly, you need infrastructure that matches your telemetry volume, query patterns, and availability needs.
Resource Sizing
Sizing depends on your telemetry volume and query patterns.
Honeycomb provides sizing recommendations based on:
Expected events per second: Peak and average telemetry ingestion rate
Concurrent users: Number of people actively using Honeycomb
Query patterns: Frequency and complexity of queries
Data retention: How long telemetry data is kept
Growth projections: Expected increase in telemetry volume
Work with your Honeycomb account team during planning to determine appropriate infrastructure sizing for your deployment.
Inbound Traffic
Your Honeycomb deployment receives:
Telemetry data from your applications and services
User traffic to the Honeycomb UI (web browser access)
API requests from integrations and automation
Outbound Traffic
Your Honeycomb deployment connects to:
Your authentication provider (SAML/Okta IdP)
Your email gateway (for notifications)
Your Slack workspace (if using Slack integration)
Integration Requirements
Honeycomb Private Cloud connects with your existing systems for secure access, alerts, and team collaboration.
Key integrations include:
Authentication: SAML 2.0, ADFS, other SAML 2.0-compliant IdPs
Email notifications: SMTP relay or email gateway
Slack (optional): Custom app installation and OAuth token
GitHub (optional): Custom GitHub app for deployment gates
Deployment-Specific Requirements
Detailed deployment and networking guidance will be provided closer to deployment.
To learn more about operational responsibilities, visit Deployment Models.
Limitations
To guide your deployment decisions, note these constraints:
AWS GovCloud regions: AI model access differs, which may affect how Canvas and MCP features work.
