Data is the most valuable substance in the world today, seemingly everywhere, providing businesses of all sizes with incredible insights into their customers, industries, and more. One increasingly popular form of data management that has begun to capture the attention of companies worldwide, is log management such as Papertrail. Essentially, this is a term that refers to the collective policies that are used to manage the generation, analysis, and storage of large volumes of log data.
Even if you have a background in the tech industry, or you know your way around the basics of data analytics, log-based software can be hard to get your head around at first. That's why we've written this guide to introduce you to the basics of log management, in a more accessible manner.
What are Logs? Defining Your Data
To understand the nature of log management, monitoring, and analytics tools, the first thing you need to do is figure out what a log is. In the computing world, log is a term used to refer to a time-stamped and automatically produced document of events in a specific system. For instance, in the healthcare industry, regulations like HIPAA require doctors' offices to use tools that allow them to keep audit logs on patient data and information.
Industries from all environments have their own unique logs to track. The more accurate and comprehensive your logs are, the easier it is to do things like finding the routes of common problems, predicting software trends, and more. While managing your business data manually is often an exhausting and time-consuming experience, analysis and monitoring tools help businesses to overcome many of the most common challenges. With the right software, you can automate repetitive processes for analyzing information, and track changes in your IT infrastructure remotely.
Who Needs Log Management?
So, who needs to invest in a tool for managing and monitoring data in the digital world? The simple answer is just about everyone. If your company has systems in place that collect data, from CRM software that tracks your interactions with customers, to software that tells you about the health and performance of your industry machinery, then you need a log monitoring tool. As companies of all sizes continue to gather more data than ever, it's becoming increasingly difficult for us to maintain accurate audit information and records on our own. Advanced monitoring, analytics and aggregation tools are how companies can make sure that they always have the right information at hand when it comes to evaluating things like workplace performance, output, and even revenue projections.
Of course, just because most organizations could benefit from a management and monitoring tool, doesn't mean that every piece of software on the market is built the same way. You'll need to assess your company carefully and determine which parts of your business need to be properly monitored to improve your productivity, efficiency and output levels. From there, you can start to track down a tool that's specifically designed to suit your use cases.
