What is correlation log analysis good for?
- Do you want your IT supported business processes to work at maximum availability?
- Would you like to overcome unexpected system downtime and IT crashes?
- Do you want to measure the performance of IT, the return on IT investments and the adequacy of IT services?
- Would you like to have the malicious programs that have breached your system discovered as soon as possible?
- Do you want to be able to respond immediately to all illegal attempts? Probably every manager would say yes to these questions. However, all of them should know where to find a solution.
Log and event analysis monitors the processes and events in the IT system, analyzes the correlations and then generates reports on the results and makes suggestions for solutions. The problem with classical log analysis is that events not entered into the logs are not recorded and thus not processed, leaving many incidents undetected due to lack of information. Log and event analysis is carried out on the basis of information from log files, intrusion detection systems (IDS/IPS), databases and application audit systems, queried via system monitoring tools, enabling a more accurate and comprehensive analysis and incident management.
We monitor the series of events generated by these systems and compare them in the same time window. If we find an especially significant incident during the comparison of events, we analyze, evaluate and then report the result.
Effective, centralized debugging and exploration
For complex applications, network, system and application management and development routines often make decisions based on incomplete information, a fact that affects the operation of all other areas. Centralized, real-time log and event collection not only facilitates debugging, but also speeds up exploration and troubleshooting. Operation costs can be substantially reduced through centrally processed and readily accessible events.
Legal and industry compliance
Continuous external and internal control is characteristic of the banking, financial, health and industrial sectors. Transparent IT operation is not only a condition for meeting periodic external and internal audits, but also a basic requirement for long-term effective business operations. As legislative and legal requirements are wide-ranging, compliance may take several forms. Personalized log analysis enables continuous monitoring of IT operations, while broad support for standards such as SOX, PCI DSS, HIPAA, FISMA or NERC CIP makes it possible to meet the conditions required for compliance and mitigate risks.
Comprehensive system monitoring
Using various data, alerts, and information gathered from heterogeneous sources and information systems, we detect and control both minor and major changes in the system, promoting accurate and effective change management.
Visualization
Processing visually displayed data is considerably easier for the human brain as well. By representing incoming raw information on a graph, we can significantly accelerate and facilitate understanding, leading to quicker responses to the issue.
Supervision of administrators
The area most difficult to control is the administrators’ activity since they have unlimited privileges and are entitled to access almost anything, without adequate control. Supervising and auditing their activities is of paramount importance for most organizations, but its implementation requires serious technological skills and often meets strong resistance.
Supervision of priority users
Key users of companies have access to critical files, reports and resources. The detailed monitoring of access to these resources and their modifications as well as tracing back the sequence of events is not possible without proper control and technology.
Increasing security
During the exploration and investigation of an incident, it is essential to collect as much information as possible in the shortest time possible. In many cases, it is already too late when it turns out that relevant information is missing or incomplete, making it impossible to detect and explore the incident.
Detecting and exploration of unexpected events
Most events in our network do not serve normal operation – sometimes even explicitly hinders it. Thinking that by not taking care the issue will somehow avert the danger is an unfortunate mistake. Without the implementation of centralized monitoring functions, viral activity, unwanted user traffic, intentional attacks targeting our website or our critical business applications may easily stay hidden and cause serious damage.
Almost all business decision makers will have to face these problems at some point or another. Unexpected downtime, prolonged troubleshooting, an audit or a change in staff may occur any time. With the introduction of the central log management system, many similar problems can be prevented or remedied – this is how it has become one of the indispensable sources of modern IT systems.
