If you run any kind of application, logging its events is one of the most important aspects to ensure proper functioning. It’s natural, as they are powerful sources of information when it comes to troubleshooting and system diagnostics for real-time monitoring, as well as checking log archives. The latter is beneficial when you need to check long-term trends.
Logs can come from various sources in the system, and it becomes harder to use them, as it takes additional effort to bring all the pieces together. That’s why when your application gets more mature, it’s high time to consider the centralized environment to bring all the logs in one place.
Depending on the application architecture, there are different logs. Thus there are various tools to help with centralized management. For instance, for Java applications, you may consider a GC logs analysis tool. Also, it’s worth checking the possibility of customization of log management software and data visualization support before making the final choice.
The centralized management is not an overnight process, and it requires thorough planning and budget allocation, but the benefits are worth it. Let’s check them out:
Better visibility of the events
Sometimes checking separate logs will not give you a complete picture of the system performance. This issue gets solved with centralized management, where you can filter, sort, and flag certain events and turns chaotic raw data into actionable items. Having the possibility to navigate logs coming from different places quickly can help you notice something is wrong and quickly fix it before it gets critical and application users face errors.
Security enhancements
With centralized log management, it gets easier to spot and respond to cyber security threats. Thus, it will be possible to identify abusive activity by comparing the data on failed logins, unusual traffic coming from a user, and find suspicious patterns in this data and act on them. This way, you will prevent system exploits, brute force attacks, and data leakage. Considering that the logs are gathered on a separate server, it will not be possible for villains to disguise their presence, so you will easily track and mitigate all the potential threats.
Saving time
Usually, you will neeа to have quick access to all the logs when something gets wrong, not when everything is working as expected. Here’s where the time is sensitive, and going through here and there in attempts to find something that can give you a hint about the issue is not helpful. With centralized logging, you can save a lot of time when it’s critical to know where to search for. Modern tools also allow you to set up automatic actions based on matching some parameters. For instance, if there are warnings or some process is stuck, it will trigger an automatic restart.
With all these benefits coming from centralized logging, your business will be able to free up additional resources to grow its capacities. Apart from helping with operational activity and minimizing the number of incidents inside the application, it will be possible to utilize gathered log stats to receive insights about customer behavior to leverage business intelligence, plan future development, and power marketing campaigns. And last but not least, with a centralized log management system, you get the ability to bring more value to the users of your application. Namely, offering them reliable service and quick solutions to the issues they may experience that further on translates into a positive user experience and more loyal customers of your product.
