--- title: Introduction to the InfluxData platform description: The InfluxData platform is the leading modern time-series platform built for metrics and events. aliases: - /platform/introduction menu: platform: name: Introduction weight: 1 --- **InfluxData platform** is the leading modern [time series](/platform/faq/#what-is-time-series-data) platform, built for metrics and events. Explore both versions of our platform below--[**InfluxDB 2.0**](#influxdb-2-0) and [**InfluxData 1.x**](#influxdata-1-x). ## InfluxDB 2.0 The **InfluxDB 2.0 platform** consolidates InfluxDB, Chronograf, and Kapacitor from the **InfluxData 1.x platform** into a single packaged solution, with added features and flexibility: - [InfluxDB OSS 2.0](/influxdb/v2/get-started/): open source platform solution in a single binary - [InfluxDB Cloud](/influxdb/cloud/get-started/) (**commercial offering**): hosted cloud solution - [Telegraf](#telegraf): collect data {{% note %}} #### Integrate InfluxDB 2.0 applications with InfluxDB Enterprise 1.8+ Use [InfluxDB 2.0 API compatibility endpoints](/enterprise_influxdb/v1/tools/api/#influxdb-20-api-compatibility-endpoints) to integrate applications built on InfluxDB 2.0 or InfluxDB Cloud with InfluxDB Enterprise 1.8+: - Query data in InfluxDB Enterprise using `api/v2/query` and Flux. - Write data to InfluxDB Enterprise using `api/v2/write` (compatible with InfluxDB 2.0 client libraries). {{% /note %}} ## InfluxData 1.x The **InfluxData 1.x platform** includes the following open source components ([TICK stack](#influxdata-1-x-tick-stack)): - [Telegraf](#telegraf): collect data - [InfluxDB](#influxdb): store data - [Chronograf](#chronograf): visualize data - [Kapacitor](#kapacitor): process data and alerts **InfluxData 1.x** also includes the following **commercial offerings**: - [InfluxDB Enterprise](#influxdb-enterprise) - [Kapacitor Enterprise](#kapacitor-enterprise) - [InfluxCloud 1.x](https://help.influxcloud.net) (hosted cloud solution) ## InfluxData 1.x TICK stack ### Telegraf Telegraf is a data collection agent that captures data from a growing list of sources and translates it into [InfluxDB line protocol format](/influxdb/v1/write_protocols/line_protocol_reference/) for storage in InfluxDB. Telegraf's extensible architecture makes it easy to create [plugins](/telegraf/v1/plugins/) that both pull data (input plugins) and push data (output plugins) to and from different sources and endpoints. ### InfluxDB InfluxDB stores data for any use case involving large amounts of timestamped data, including DevOps monitoring, log data, application metrics, IoT sensor data, and real-time analytics. It provides functionality that allows you to conserve space on your machine by keeping data for a defined length of time, then automatically downsampling or expiring and deleting unneeded data from the system. ### Chronograf Chronograf is the user interface for the TICK stack that provides customizable dashboards, data visualizations, and data exploration. It also allows you to view and manage [Kapacitor](#kapacitor) tasks. ### Kapacitor Kapacitor is a data processing framework that enables you to process and act on data as it is written to InfluxDB. This includes detecting anomalies, creating alerts based on user-defined logic, and running ETL jobs. ## InfluxData 1.x Enterprise versions InfluxDB Enterprise and Kapacitor Enterprise provide clustering, access control, and incremental backup functionality for production infrastructures at scale. You'll also receive direct support from the InfluxData support team. {{% note %}} InfluxDB Enterprise and Kapacitor Enterprise are compatible with open source versions of Telegraf and Chronograf. {{% /note %}} ### InfluxDB Enterprise InfluxDB Enterprise provides functionality necessary to run a high-availability (HA) InfluxDB cluster, providing clustering, horizontal scale out, and advanced access controls, including: - Hinted handoff - Anti-entropy - Fine-grained authorization - Cluster profiling - Incremental backups #### Hinted handoff Data is written across nodes using an eventually consistent write model. All writes are added to the [Hinted Handoff Queue (HHQ)](/enterprise_influxdb/v1/concepts/clustering/#hinted-handoff), then written to other nodes in the cluster. #### Anti-Entropy InfluxDB Enterprise's [Anti-Entropy (AE)](/enterprise_influxdb/v1/administration/anti-entropy/) process ensures data shards in the cluster are in sync. When "entropy" (out-of-sync data) is detected, AE will repair the affected shards, syncing the missing data. #### Fine-grained authorization In InfluxDB Enterprise, fine-grained authorization can be used to control access at the measurement or series levels rather than just the database level. #### Cluster profiling Enterprise meta nodes expose the `/debug/pprof` API endpoint that allows you to profile and potentially diagnose performance bottlenecks in your cluster. #### Incremental backups InfluxDB Enterprise allows for incremental backups that write only newly added data to existing backup files rather than backing up all data in a new backup. ### Kapacitor Enterprise Kapacitor Enterprise provides functionality necessary to run a high-availability Kapacitor cluster, including: - Kapacitor cluster management - Alert deduplication - Secure communication #### Kapacitor cluster management Kapacitor Enterprise is packaged with `kapactorctl`, a command line client for creating and managing Kapacitor clusters. #### Alert deduplication As alerts are triggered in a multi-node Kapacitor cluster, Kapacitor Enterprise deduplicates alert data to prevent duplicate alert notifications from being sent. #### Secure communication Data is passed between InfluxDB and Kapacitor via subscriptions. Kapacitor Enterprise includes configuration options that let you encrypt communication between your Kapacitor Enterprise and InfluxDB Enterprise clusters. Try InfluxData Platform Enterprise ## Get started To get started with the **InfluxData 1.x** platform, see [Installation and Configuration](/platform/install-and-deploy/) [Getting Started](/platform/introduction/getting-started) To get started with the **InfluxDB 2.0** platform, see [**InfluxDB Cloud**](/influxdb/cloud/get-started/) or [**InfluxDB OSS 2.0**](/influxdb/v2/get-started/).