Log management turns the huge volume of raw information created as logs into something usable for an organization's DevOps, IT and security teams. When log management is done correctly, its benefits include:
Useful data that can be turned into analytics and insights to make decisions
Better communication throughout different teams
Fewer security breaches
Easier meeting of compliance regulations
Reduction in technical monitoring time for staff
Let’s take a closer look at some of the benefits of log management and how they apply to specific areas.
What are the benefits of logs?
Logs create a trail of what happens throughout companies’ complex applications, systems and infrastructure. Logs are digital records of what has happened anywhere within the IT infrastructure of a business. They are essentially breadcrumbs that show every step that took place in a software stack after it happened. In addition to any custom notes that developers leave for themselves, standard notes will contain information like:
Application
Process type
Action
Log type
Timestamp
Host name
Transmission Control Protocol socket status
So why does this matter? What is the importance of logging in software? When something goes wrong, anything from a program slowdown to a data hack, your team can retrace the path that led to the issue by following the logs.
This makes logs incredibly useful, but logging has its challenges as well. Because they are created by every program and system for every digital event, the volume of log data is immense. Without proper log management, the raw data on its own is very difficult if not impossible to manually search or use effectively.
What is log management in cybersecurity?
Log management is the process of gathering, sorting, analyzing and storing logs to make them usable. The purpose of logging and monitoring in security is to allow a company’s DevOps and security teams to know exactly what is happening within their IT stack. This allows them to continually improve security and identify breaches effectively.
For example, if a security alert is received flagging a login attempt as a potential hacking event, effective log management allows the security team to go back and look at what caused the alert. When the logs show 50 unique login attempts from this user happening within minutes of each other, from multiple different locations with different IP addresses, the probable hacking activity is confirmed.
What is log management in cloud operations?
Log management and analytics is also important in facilitating smooth cloud based operations. Utilizing log data effectively can identify a starved resource—like a lack of database connections or insufficient memory—that may be disrupting normal operations. Finding and improving these issues can result in improved overall performance.
For example, the Ulta Beauty e-commerce platform grew exponentially and was experiencing issues during the holidays caused by huge user spikes. They were able to overcome this and scale effectively by migrating to the Google Cloud Platform, using Sumo Logic’s log monitoring features to track user behavior and experience. This log management allowed them to maintain a high level of security and reliability during fluctuating busy periods.
What are the key benefits of log management monitoring?
The importance of logging and monitoring is evident with the many benefits it can provide, including:
Improved detection of problems
Reduced response times for repairing issues
More transparency throughout the system
Better customer experience
Increased security
When log management effectively gathers, sorts and analyzes incoming logs across an entire organization's IT landscape, it can detect patterns and monitor activity for issues in real time.
Why is auditing log management important?
Audit logs are a specific subset of logs that are unalterable and required for documenting activity specifically for compliance or policy enforcement. These types of audit logs can come from any part of the tech stack, as long as they are used for auditing purposes.
An important feature of these audit logs is that they are designed and produced to be unchangeable, so they can be used to show the true historical record of business activities. They are usually retained long-term so they can prove this history when required.
May be legally required for compliance regulations
Can make a distinction between user and system problems
Helps reconstruct fraudulent activity
Shows weaknesses in security for future improvement
Provides proof of actions in legal proceedings
Learn how Sumo Logic helps you centrally collect and analyze data to quickly troubleshoot performance issues, investigate security threats and improve business operations in this short intro video:
Sumo Logic: Bringing you all the benefits of log management and more
The modern tech landscape requires your company to provide a reliable digital environment for customers that’s protected against performance issues and constantly evolving security threats. Your customers expect reliable software, compliance agencies expect accurate audit data and your team expects analytics and insights to be able to keep backend systems running smoothly and troubleshoot problems when they arise. Sumo Logic is the all-in-one cloud-native, scalable platform to deliver the functionality needed to make life easier for all your teams.
Mike Baldani is a senior product marketing manager for Observability at Sumo Logic. He has spent the last 20 years marketing software and SaaS solutions that help developers and SREs overcome the challenges they face in their daily roles.
