Historically, log data has been viewed by IT professionals as a valuable asset in the areas of security information and event management. And while there is no denying the benefits of log data for security teams, I suggest that organizations also consider logs as an important source for managing the performance of their infrastructures.
By definition, logs are a record of all user transactions, customer and machine behavior, security threats, fraudulent activity and more. Applications, systems, and network devices produce enormous volumes of unstructured log data. And it's this unstructured data that presents a challenge to properly categorize and mine for intelligence. But when a performance-based log analytics platform can collect and analyze unstructured log data, that data becomes a valuable resource for you to better predict, detect, troubleshoot and resolve network and data center issues.
According to Jim Frey, Vice President of Research at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), organizations should ensure that log analytics is a key component of their overall performance monitoring strategy. To this point, research from EMA has found that there is strong and growing interest in leveraging log data across multiple infrastructure troubleshooting and operations management uses cases.
However, it's not if – but how – you incorporate log analytics into your performance monitoring process that produces the greatest results.
Many organizations today leverage log search solutions, but the reality is that it takes a lot of time, effort, and education on your part to get value from log data. For instance, you're required to manually search log data after an event takes place – this often requires knowledge of a complex and vendor-specific query language. Essentially, you have the tools to help put out the fires, but wouldn't you rather detect the smoke beforehand?
Another issue with log search solutions is that you must manually compile log reports and then correlate performance metrics to that log data – another time-intensive effort.
Based on the numerous challenges inherent with traditional log search solutions, I suggest organizations look for a performance-based log analytics platform that provides, with a single click, the ability to pivot from real-time performance metrics (such as SNMP or an IP SLA test) to the related log records, and without the time-consuming search and manual correlation typically associated with log tools. Your success with log analytics should be measured by the extent to which you can automate the extraction of actionable insight from logs at the point of ingestion. Your ability to guarantee the performance of your infrastructure depends on a more proactive approach than what we've seen from many log "analytics" tools on the market today.
Vess Bakalov is Senior Vice President, CTO and Co-Founder of SevOne.
The Latest
Developers need a tool that can be portable and vendor agnostic, given the advent of microservices. It may be clear an issue is occurring; what may not be clear is if it's part of a distributed system or the app itself. Enter OpenTelemetry, commonly referred to as OTel, an open-source framework that provides a standardized way of collecting and exporting telemetry data (logs, metrics, and traces) from cloud-native software ...
As SLOs grow in popularity their usage is becoming more mature. For example, 82% of respondents intend to increase their use of SLOs, and 96% have mapped SLOs directly to their business operations or already have a plan to, according to The State of Service Level Objectives 2023 from Nobl9 ...
Observability has matured beyond its early adopter position and is now foundational for modern enterprises to achieve full visibility into today's complex technology environments, according to The State of Observability 2023, a report released by Splunk in collaboration with Enterprise Strategy Group ...
Before network engineers even begin the automation process, they tend to start with preconceived notions that oftentimes, if acted upon, can hinder the process. To prevent that from happening, it's important to identify and dispel a few common misconceptions currently out there and how networking teams can overcome them. So, let's address the three most common network automation myths ...
Many IT organizations apply AI/ML and AIOps technology across domains, correlating insights from the various layers of IT infrastructure and operations. However, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) has observed significant interest in applying these AI technologies narrowly to network management, according to a new research report, titled AI-Driven Networks: Leveling Up Network Management with AI/ML and AIOps ...
When it comes to system outages, AIOps solutions with the right foundation can help reduce the blame game so the right teams can spend valuable time restoring the impacted services rather than improving their MTTI score (mean time to innocence). In fact, much of today's innovation around ChatGPT-style algorithms can be used to significantly improve the triage process and user experience ...
Gartner identified the top 10 data and analytics (D&A) trends for 2023 that can guide D&A leaders to create new sources of value by anticipating change and transforming extreme uncertainty into new business opportunities ...
The only way for companies to stay competitive is to modernize applications, yet there's no denying that bringing apps into the modern era can be challenging ... Let's look at a few ways to modernize applications and consider what new obstacles and opportunities 2023 presents ...
As online penetration grows, retailers' profits are shrinking — with the cost of serving customers anytime, anywhere, at any speed not bringing in enough topline growth to best monetize even existing investments in technology, systems, infrastructure, and people, let alone new investments, according to Digital-First Retail: Turning Profit Destruction into Customer and Shareholder Value, a new report from AlixPartners and World Retail Congress ...
