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Making Log Analytics a Critical Component of Your Performance Monitoring Strategy

Vess Bakalov

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.

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Making Log Analytics a Critical Component of Your Performance Monitoring Strategy

Vess Bakalov

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.

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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