Log management for cloud applications can be a difficult task for any server administrator. In case if you attempt to do it manually, then at first, there are multiple logs of different forms, which happens to generate for any minor activity.
Next, everything needs to be adequately maintained with an impeccable record. Now, if doing these two tasks didn’t invite any hassle, there’s one more to be done. You need to filter out essential things such as errors, security logs, maintenance logs, downtime, and other miscellaneous logs. It’s just too much data to process for any single individual and get insights out of it.
Basic log management tools don’t suffice for an enterprise-level scenario, nor they are reliable for small businesses. Additionally, as far as security of the product is concerned, Cloud logging can be your ultimate watchdog.
Generally, all the standard logging systems keep the records locally, so if something happens, then those logs can be erased easily. But, with cloud logging, every record is in safe hands, and it cannot be deleted without access to the service.
Logging is a part of the IT management and monitoring process, and you might want to keep it as extensive and as simple it can be. Your current infrastructure might have SYSLog server or SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) that generally requires a logging service to work alongside. Well, in this segment, we have a perfect solution for all your Cloud logging activities.
Best Cloud Logging Services
After testing different services for important features, logging management, support, and keeping reliability in mind, we bring you the best cloud logging services to keep track of all the internal advancements happening in your cloud infrastructure. Do check out the product pages for an extensive list of all the specifications and select the one that meets your current requirements.
1. InsightOps
InsightOps offers a centralized solution to analyze logs via keyword analytic functions by collecting it from any defined source. Furthermore, it can be in any desired format as per the requirements. You can get logs out of servers, applications, Active Directory, databases, firewalls, DNS, VPNs, AWS, or any other cloud service.
Here, in the live dashboard, there is a visual search option for you to extract the required information without typing any queries. For more custom filtering query option is also available. Report scheduling and generating on-demand logs is also available. Additionally, you can receive immediate alerts for the occurrence of any critical event.
Apart from log retention and analysis, it can also monitor your server performance. You can see CPU, Memory, and Disk usage for all the assets that are configured in your server. Furthermore, you can review all the network connections and monitor them individually. There are predefined thresholds, and if it exceeds, then you get an alert.
You can easily visualize the performance from the dashboard. It can also take care of PCI, HIPAA, and corporate compliances by auditing logs and generating timely reports. Advanced automation to take care of all the server functionalities is also present. To test all this, you get 30days of a free trial.
2. Solarwinds Papertrail
Papertail collects logs from devices, applications, servers, and every other IT infrastructure to a central location where you can perform further operations on it.
A varied range of products from Apache, MySQL, apps build on ruby on rails, tomcat, Heroku apps, routers, firewalls, and different cloud platforms are supported. Its intuitive user interface lets you search, view, and extract relevant information with much ease.
Further, it also scans incoming logs and alerts you if any anomalies are found. It can even monitor corn jobs and check if they are doing what they’re supposed to do. You can also set custom alerts to be sure of everything. Give access to a team or invite a third party for limited access; all can be done within the dashboard. Additionally, you can integrate it with popular team messaging platforms such as PaperDuty or Slack.
Papertrail is easy to set up and implement. They have pocket-friendly plans for everyone out there. The free plan allows you to lof for 100Mb/month, but you get 16GB for the first month as you signup, with 7days archive and 48 hours search duration.
It has limited functionality, and if you wish to upgrade, then the plan starts from 5$ for 1Gb/month. Analyze the log transfer and select the one that suits your current requirements.
3. LogDNA
LogDNA helps in the collection and monitoring of logs from on-premise, cloud, or multi-cloud environments. It’s easy to set up and can get logs from AWS, Docker, Heroku, Elastic, Kubernetes, and many other platforms. You can do different log analysis with real-time search, graphs, custom parsing, and other generic log analysis tools.
Role-based access can be assigned to anyone for managing the platform. It follows all compliance, such as SOC2, GDPR, PCI, and HIPAA. They have military-grade encryptions in place to secure your logs. LogDNA is also a privacy shield certified service. Furthermore, it assures you of infinite scalability, which guarantees performance with any amount of containers.
They provide Enterprise-grade solutions as an on-premise or the cloud-hosted setup. The free plan has quite limited functionality, and you need to pay for only the amount of data you use. All the plans have 14 days free trial for you to take a tour of the product and make yourself familiar with it.
4. DataDog
DataDog is a dev-ops centric cloud logging service. It provides them with 350+ built-in integrations that cover almost all primary services. This makes it seamless to set up. It helps the developer in keeping track of bugs and other software development issues.
Alongside this, it automatically collects logs from all the services, applications, and platforms. You can quickly search, filter, and analyze logs from the dashboard. Log data visualization is also available. You can also set alerts for different parameters.
The dashboard is highly customizable, and you can choose to keep different elements, graphs, and other things for quick visualization. You can also choose to have separate graphs for all the devices and services.
Furthermore, you can easily share the issues among colleagues and get feedback in time. Infrastructure monitoring is also available that alerts you whenever a certain threshold is reached for any of the set variables related to maintenance and performance.
Additionally, you can receive notifications via e-mail, PagerDuty, Slack, and other channels. A 30days of free trial is available, which you must totally checkout.
5. SumoLogic
SumoLogic covers analytics and log management. The best part about it is they use machine learning algorithms to identify flaws and alert the concerned authorities to avoid any mishap.
It got a muti cloud support and a lot of integrations to make the job easy. Plus, it eliminates any requirements for setting a predefined set of rules. It gives real-time visibility of metrics such as data logs and other performance analysis.
You can customize them on the dashboard in the format of any suitable chart form representation. Additionally, you can also generate on-demand reports.
SumoLogic offers a free trial of 30 days for you to test their services. In case if you’re working on a small project, they give you a completely free account where all the functionalities are available.
6. SemaText Logsene
Logsene by sematext is specially made to track and get rid of all your tech glitches. You can have a cloud or an on-premise service to monitor, manage logs, and get the analysis done on any application, server, or devices.
It also offers a built-in metric correlation to identify patterns in logs and alert authorities for any misconfigurations. You can receive alerts via webhooks, emails, or by the third party integrations for slack, PaperDuty, and HipChat.
Admins can also give role-based cloud access to any members of the team. Additionally, you can add an unlimited number of members for any particular service logs. Powerful log analytics via query operations is also available. Also, you can specify alerts for specific parameters. Furthermore, it comes with Syslog support.
Compliance standards such as SOC 1/SSAE, SOC 2, SOC 3,16/ISAE 3402 (formerly SAS 70 Type II), FISMA, DIACAP, FedRAMP, and HIPAA are followed thoroughly. Logsene gives you API access where you can transfer all your logs. You get a 30 days trial, and after that, prices go in the metered form. It even depends on the features you choose to have.
Conclusion
Cloud Logging service can profoundly affect your business. You get to identify the flaws before they ruin everything, security is maintained throughout the organization, less work for admins, and most importantly, you don’t have to worry about any technical problems as the services keep a close tap on performance.
Do check out any of the cloud logging tools and let us know about the one that made your life easy.