Loggly announced Loggly Derived Fields, a new capability within Loggly Pro and Enterprise that allows users to specify custom parsing rules that generate derived fields as metadata during the ingestion process.

The derived fields provide intelligence and structure that is then used by Loggly Dynamic Field Explorer; to automatically catalog and summarize logs for one-click navigation and analysis. With derived fields and Field Explorer, development and DevOps teams can troubleshoot problems faster, more effectively monitor their log data for emerging issues, and do sanity checks after code releases without relying on cumbersome, manual queries.

A significant proportion of logs in organizations today are unstructured; the data is not separated into discrete data elements that allow for focused searching or aggregate metrics. Unstructured logs create considerable manual effort for DevOps professionals who traditionally have had to create one-off regular expressions and custom analyses. Many log management solutions require users to develop queries from scratch for each analysis, which is time consuming and inhibits sharing with less technical team members. Derived fields are different because once users create their rules, Loggly automatically applies those rules to all log data it receives, for all users of the account. Any user is then able to use Field Explorer to navigate by field names and values and to create sophisticated analyses without doing any additional work.

Derived fields expand the functionality of the flagship interface of Loggly, Loggly Dynamic Field Explorer. While most traditional log management solutions are designed with the search box as the primary interface, Field Explorer generates navigable lists and summaries to deliver a guided search experience. With Field Explorer, users get a bird’s-eye view of what’s happening, can quickly spot anomalies, understand the magnitude of issues, and search their logs with greater precision. Loggly Derived Fields extend the capabilities of Field Explorer to virtually any log type, structured or unstructured.

Derived fields are metadata, allowing for the original log data to stay intact so that logs can be analyzed in multiple ways. A user may create as many derived fields as needed from the same log events. Derived fields and Dynamic Field Explorer together help DevOps and IT professionals identify and resolve systems issues faster through more flexible and efficient log analytics.

“Unstructured logs are a reality for most cloud-centric companies, yet being able to efficiently mine those logs is critical for troubleshooting and delivering high application responsiveness to the business and end customers,” says Hector Angulo, Head of Product at Loggly. “Derived fields are another step in our unique ‘summarize first’ strategy. Customers can now gain insight even faster and spend more of their time solving or preventing IT issues rather than finding them.”

Loggly Derived Fields are currently in beta and will be generally available by the end of June 2015. Derived fields are a feature of the Loggly Pro and Enterprise subscription plans.