(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The past few months have been very eventful for log management solution provider Log Logic (www.loglogic.com), not only because of major improvements to its software and hardware products, but because the case for enhanced logging solutions makes even more sense now perhaps than ever before.
“There’s a truth in the log files,” says LogLogic product manager Andy Morris. “If you’ve just been attacked, data has been taken from your business or servers have been compromised in some way, then the path into your network – through your organization and to your database – is all meticulously recorded and the logs are the probably the only and the fastest way of finding out what happened.”
The importance of log management, while always crucial to any business, is perhaps on an upturn, driven by regulatory requirements for businesses, industries and governments.
Morris says LogLogic is essentially a log management platform the company and others use to build applications for security and compliance enforcement.
“We find that most people use our technology for security – so alerting and monitoring of suspicious activity, and after-the-fact forensics – but that compliance is currently driving all of our sales.
“People are buying our solution so that they can become PCI or HIPAA compliant. And obviously we’ve got applications on top of our log management infrastructure that help facilitate that. And we have workflow applications that make sure that if you’re trying to become compliant, either by monitoring system logs or by monitoring database activity, you can assure that the correct compliance officers have reviewed the appropriate documents.”
LogLogic’s log and security management products help more than 1,000 customers achieve regulatory compliance, protect customer information, and improve IT operations efficiency. Also, all solutions are integrated with one another, providing for easy integration with your existing infrastructure and third party products.
Product management director Chima Njaka says one of the key distinctions of LogLogic is its appliance-based approach, which offers massive scalability. “If you go beyond the capabilities of one appliance you can easily just extend that by adding another appliance.”
Late last year, the company unveiled LogLogic 4.9, adding dozens of new features such as direct support for SAN archiving, more log sources and heightened security, as well as enhanced mobile capabilities. Release 4.9 will be rolled out for the company’s family of LX, ST and MX products, including the new LogLogic ST2020 SAN, a high-performance logging appliance solution that connects directly to enterprise-class fiber channel SAN environments. Large and mid-sized companies can now better capture, search and store their log data to improve business operations, monitor user activity and meet industry standards for security and compliance.
In February, LogLogic introduced its next-generation open log management appliances, which pair LogLogic 4.9 software with faster, more resilient hardware to deliver massive increases in log message processing, log message storage, connectivity and resiliency. The new LogLogic products incorporate advanced software, faster processors, faster disks, more storage space and enhanced networking capabilities in the same footprints as before, or in some cases smaller.
LogLogic’s top-of-the-line LX appliances have gone from processing 4,000 log records per second, to an average of 10,000, and peaking at 130,000 in certain circumstances. Likewise, the ST range has jumped from 75,000 log records per second, to an average of 150,000, and peaking at 250,000.
Starting at $60,000, the LX range of log capture, reporting and alerting appliances includes the LX1020 and the LX4020, which features Intel Quad-Core technology and delivers four times the hard disk capacity of its predecessor.
The ST1020, the ST2020-SAN and the ST4020 comprise the ST range of log capture, archiving and forensics appliances, which start at $50,000. All are built on the same Quad-Core Intel chassis as the LX range with similar improvements in performance, memory, disk and connectivity. The ST2020-SAN includes a Qlogic FC SAN card for connection to world class-storage from the likes of Brocade and EMC.
And finally, LogLogic has added the MX3020 appliance to the MX range for combined collection, reporting, alerting, archival and forensics, starting at $35,000.
“More and more enterprises are seeing the value of having an open log management platform and centralized log data warehouse as a key infrastructure component of their IT environment,” says LogLogic chief executive officer Guy Churchward. “Powered by our latest LogLogic 4.9 software, this new line of appliances has raised the bar for LMI performance and features. With higher message throughput, faster data retrieval, search and reporting, and longer-term archival of log information, this latest platform offers an unmatched enterprise-grade log management solution.”
