SOLUTION BRIEF. How to Centralize Your Logs with Logging as a Service: Solving Logging Challenges in the Face of Big Data

Transcription

1 How to Centralize Your Logs with Logging as a Service: Solving Logging Challenges in the Face of Big Data

2 Table of Contents 3 What is Logging? 3 Logging Challenges in the Face of Big Data 4 What is Logging-as-a-Service, and Why Do I Need It? 4 Why TIBCO LogLogic? 5 Conclusion

3 How to Centralize Your Logs with Logging as a Service: Solving Logging Challenges in the Face of Big Data Technologies currently being provided as a service are growing in variety and popularity. By using a third party for your services, IT is relieved of the costs and technical burden associated with maintenance. This also makes it easier to bolster, alter, or ditch a technology altogether. You get the ability to scale easily, and without interruption. Adding users or bandwidth is as simple as paying the service provider a bit more. Problems with your tech are no longer your problem. That being said, the as a service model doesn t always mean you are trusting your computing to a third party. There is a middle ground. If you re in a security-sensitive industry you might be wary of trusting your data to a third party. By using as-a-service technologies, but hosting them on your own servers, you get the flexibility of a web service, but with the security and reliability of something on-premise. Your users probably won t be able to tell the difference. It does mean you re on the hook for maintaining your servers, but you re mostly free of the task of building and maintaining the service itself. With this in mind, TIBCO introduces logging as a service, or LaaS. What is Logging? All of your applications, networks, servers, and devices are constantly generating logging data. This data serves as a record of events, keeping track of what happens within your technology portfolio. In many industries, logs must be kept for compliance reasons. In an industry like healthcare, for example, companies keep log data to prove their computing is all above board, and no one s data is vulnerable to theft. Logs are also used to prevent or fix tech problems. If a server were to crash, one could look to the log data to see what went wrong. Logs provide a digital paper trail of everything that is going on in your network. Logging Challenges in the Face of Big Data When you think about how many more devices the modern worker relies on, be it the tablet in front of them, or the server the tablet is accessing, it starts to add up. Add to that the software, web services, and big data tools they re using, and their log data can start to get out of control. Making things more complicated is the fact that logs are typically managed and stored within their own siloed environments, which makes it very difficult to reconcile information and get a clear picture of what s actually going on. Even with all of your logs accounted for, the sheer volume of logs you re generating will begin to turn into noise. Only some logs will ever be relevant to compliance or maintenance, and most logs will only be relevant for a certain amount of time. So the challenge is to account for a growing number of logs coming from a growing number of sources, each with their own context and basis of relevance. Next you ll need to decide which logs to keep, and for how long. When that s done, and it actually comes time to use your logs for compliance or troubleshooting, you ll need to make sense of it all. This model of logging is often good enough to keep you covered, legally speaking, but it s costly, wildly inefficient, and can prevent you from extracting any value from log data. 3

4 Last year at this time we were processing about 20 billion logs per day. Today that number is 54 billion. Leading MSSP What is Logging-as-a-Service, and Why Do I Need It? Logging-as-a-service, or LaaS, consolidates all of your logs into a single place. This makes it easier, cheaper, and more efficient to store, manage, and analyze all of your log data. With LaaS, your IT datacenter becomes the hub, uniting all of your log sources. From here, logs are identified and filtered for relevance. Next, logs are stored based on business needs or compliance mandates, while others are discarded. Log data can then be normalized and forwarded to appropriate applications and stakeholders for consumption. Unlike most services, logging-as-a-service is best implemented as an on-premise solution. This is due to the nature of compliance. Using a third party for your logs, adds extra steps and hassles to satisfying compliance regulations. That being said, LaaS can be implemented on the ISP side. When the typical enterprise can have 30 or more log management and event solutions working at once, issues are inevitable. In a larger organization, compliance issues and outages alone can cost over three million dollars a year. Furthermore, new regulations are practically inevitable, meaning you ll end up paying big to implement changes that may be minor. LaaS enables best in class solutions for security, compliance, and IT ops while providing flexibility for the future. With all of your logging centrally managed, you can eliminate redundant systems, make IT more efficient, and easily implement new compliance standards. LogLogic puts terabytes of log data into perspective by pulling it all into a central repository and enabling us to pull out the answers we want. Gareth Davis, network and telecom manager, Astrium Satellites Why TIBCO LogLogic? With TIBCO LogLogic, you can solve your logging issues once and for all. Designed to be simple, intuitive, and reusable, LogLogic provides a foundation for all of your logging needs, and it can adapt to satisfy new business requirements and regulations. Its easy to use desktop client helps you visualize complex log data and extract actionable insights into your IT. With all of your logs centrally processed and stored, it s also possible to deliver real-time, in-memory alerts if something goes wrong, helping you to prevent outages. Firewall and VPN issues can be discovered before they become security problems. Prior to implementing LogLogic we were responding to incidents two to three times per week. Today that figure has fallen to just three times per year. Gwénaël Rouillec, IT operations security manager, Eiffage LogLogic products also come with pre-built templates that will help you easily implement compliance best practices for standards like PCI, SOX, FISMA, HIPAA, ISO, ITIL, and NERC. Of course, the big challenge with any new technology is implementation. LogLogic makes this easy with plug and play functionality, shortening implementation times and eliminating the tailoring process. 4

5 For more information on Logging as a Service, visit: event-processing/ log-management/logmanagement-intelligence Conclusion Log data isn t the sexiest part of your IT, but it may be the most important to the health of your organization. When security, compliance, and efficiency are on the line, there s no reason to stick to the devil you know, especially when the alternative can save you money. Logging-as-a-service simplifies an aspect of your IT that you may not think about, and turns it into something you won t have to think about. A centralized, all-knowing platform that logs it all, properly stores it, and delivers useful knowledge that can stop a crisis before it happens. Our IT department is now more efficient and responsive and can identify issues immediately and fix them much more quickly all thanks to LogLogic. Darren Mullin, IT Manager, The Lowry TIBCO Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TIBX) is a global leader in infrastructure and business intelligence software. Whether it s optimizing inventory, cross-selling products, or averting crisis before it happens, TIBCO uniquely delivers the Two-Second Advantage the ability to capture the right information at the right time and act on it preemptively for a competitive advantage. With a broad mix of innovative products and services, customers around the world trust TIBCO as their strategic technology partner. Learn more about TIBCO at Global Headquarters 3307 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto, CA Tel: Fax: , TIBCO Software Inc. All rights reserved. TIBCO, the TIBCO logo, and TIBCO LogLogic are trademarks or registered trademarks of TIBCO Software Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other product and company names and marks in this document are the property of their respective owners and mentioned for identification purposes only. 5 exported18dec2013