Rethinking log management – treat enterprise logs as a product

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Telemetry pipelines represent a paradigm shift in log management. Learn about the benefits of a Logs as a Product approach and how to unlock the full potential of log data.

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Dan Juengst Enterprise Solutions Marketing | Chronosphere

Dan Juengst serves as the lead for Enterprise Solutions Marketing at Chronosphere. Dan has 20+ years of high tech experience in areas such as streaming data, observability, data analytics, DevOps, cloud computing, grid computing, and high performance computing. Dan has held senior technical and marketing positions at Confluent, Red Hat, CloudBees, CA Technologies, Sun Microsystems, SGI, and Wily Technology. Dan’s roots in technology originated in the Aerospace industry where he leveraged high performance compute grids to design rockets.

6 MINS READ

Logs, the unsung heroes of DevOps

Logs, those humble records of events, activities, and errors, have been an integral part of IT operations since the dawn of computing. They’re the silent witnesses to every transaction, every interaction, and every anomaly within a system. Despite their ubiquity, logs have often been overlooked, relegated to the realm of troubleshooting and compliance.

However, as technology evolves and businesses become increasingly data-driven, the role of logs is undergoing a profound transformation.

The evolution of log management and utilization: From SIEM to oservability

Over the years, people have explored numerous use cases for logs, ranging from Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) to Business Process Management (BPM) and beyond. While SIEM focuses on detecting and responding to security threats, observability broadens the scope, encompassing the entire spectrum of system behavior, performance, and user interactions.

Observability goes beyond mere monitoring; it seeks to understand the “why” behind every event, empowering organizations to proactively optimize their systems and processes.

Storage for compliance: logs in the regulatory landscape

In an increasingly regulated environment, logs serve as a crucial tool for demonstrating compliance with industry standards and legal requirements. Whether it’s HIPAA in healthcare or GDPR in Europe, organizations must maintain comprehensive logs to ensure transparency, accountability, and data integrity.

However, the sheer volume and variety of logs can pose significant challenges, necessitating a more sophisticated approach to log management.

The pitfalls of traditional log consumption

In the past, log consumption often involved a fragmented and inefficient process, with each consumer across security, IT Operations, and engineering responsible for scraping logs from various sources. This approach not only led to duplication of effort but also raised concerns about security, consistency, and scalability. As the volume of log data continues to grow exponentially, it’s becoming increasingly clear that a more streamlined and centralized approach is needed.

Enter Telemetry Pipelines: Enabling a logs as a product approach

Telemetry pipelines represent a paradigm shift in log management, allowing organizations to treat logs as a valuable product rather than a mere byproduct of system operations. Similar to the concept of “Data as a Product” (DaaP), Telemetry Pipelines enable the treatment of Logs as a Product (LaaP) by converting raw log data into valuable information and presenting it to consumers in a secure, consistent, and readily accessible manner. 

“Data as a Product” (DaaP) is an approach where data is managed with the same diligence and strategic focus as a commercial product. This paradigm emphasizes high-quality, reliable, and user-friendly data assets that serve specific business needs, driving value for both internal and external users. It involves adopting product management principles for data, including defining clear ownership, ensuring robust governance, and fostering cross-functional collaboration.

The DaaP model enhances decision-making, operational efficiency, and customer experiences, positioning data as a vital, consumable asset within the organization, rather than a mere byproduct of operations. Here are a few examples of how organizations have implemented a DaaP approach:

  • Financial Services: Banks and financial institutions often provide market data feeds or risk analytics data as products to internal teams and external clients.
  • E-commerce: Retailers use customer purchase history data to create personalized recommendation engines.
  • Healthcare: Medical record data products help track patient outcomes and improve treatment protocols.

Implementing a Logs as a Product approach provides similar benefits by making system, network, and application logs available to all consumers in a consistent, controlled, and productized way. Telemetry pipelines make a Logs as a Product approach possible because they can consume logs from all sources before enriching, redacting, and masking them — telemetry pipelines can then be used to route these logs to any destination.

In particular, telemetry pipelines can trim, manipulate, aggregate and control the shape and size of logs as they are created and before they are sent to storage. This allows logs to be packaged up in a consistent manner for productization in flight.

With a telemetry pipeline, observability teams are able to apply product management principles to logs to serve the needs of destination consumers. By adhering to principles of Discoverability, Addressability, Trustworthiness, Self-Description, Interoperability, and Security (DATSIS), treating Logs as a Product with Telemetry Pipelines ensures that log data can be seamlessly integrated across the enterprise, scaling with evolving business requirements.

Benefits of a Logs as a Product approach

The benefits of treating Logs as a Product with a telemetry pipeline include:

  1. Actionable insights: By decorating logs with additional context or converting log data into metrics, Telemetry Pipelines help make log data more useful for problem-solving, decision-making, and action.
  2. Efficiency and cost savings: Centralized log management reduces duplication of effort and infrastructure costs associated with disparate log consumption methods.
  3. Security and compliance: Telemetry Pipelines ensure that log data is presented to consumers in a secure, consistent, and compliant manner, mitigating risks associated with unauthorized access and data breaches.
  4. Scalability and flexibility: By adhering to DATSIS principles, Telemetry Pipelines are inherently scalable and interoperable, accommodating evolving business needs and technological advancements.

Unlocking the potential of log data

In conclusion, logs have been around forever, and they’ll be with us forever. However, their true potential has often been overlooked or underestimated. By leveraging Telemetry Pipelines to treat Logs as a Product, organizations can unlock new opportunities for innovation, optimization, and revenue generation.

Whether it’s improving system performance, enhancing security posture, or demonstrating regulatory compliance, the benefits of adopting a product-oriented approach to log management are clear. So, why wait? Embrace the power of Telemetry Pipelines and transform your logs into a valuable asset today.

Learn more about how Telemetry Pipelines can revolutionize your log management strategy and unlock new opportunities for your business. Contact us now to schedule a consultation.

Additional resources

Logs: Love ’em, don’t leave ’em

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