Graylog

Splunk has long been the log management tool of choice for businesses operating on the enterprise level, but Graylog is ready to give that legacy software platform a run for its money. The big selling point here is the open source structure of Graylog. While Splunk has proven an impressive platform that's been touted as the "Google for visual analytics", the open source nature of Graylog allows users a lot more flexibility in how they operate and offers these services at a far more affordable price, especially as you start to scale up to the demands of enterprise businesses. Graylog is all about data management and analysis, but a product like this isn't worth much to you if you don't have data to analyze. The larger the data set the better, and Graylog offers a number of options for capturing information. You can sort through and enhance data from events, wires, and logs from any source, and filter the results across a wide range of metrics. This makes it easier to zero in on the information that matters to you and deftly separate the signal from the white noise. You'll also get configuration management options for third party collectors. Graylog makes use of a REST API, supports audit log capabilities, and lets you archive any logs from over a month ago offline, allowing you to have a comprehensive paper trail that won't clutter up your log data. Once you have your data gathered, Graylog provides you with a wealth of tools you can use to analyze and research it, and its high speeds allow you to sift effectively through terabytes of data at a time. With the powerful engine Graylog operates on, you can discover errors or infiltrations in less time and search across your entire network in search of patterns in your log errors. The larger your business is, the more effective these tools become. Reading the information is easy as well, since Graylog provides a number of data visualization options for your logs. Piles of data can be conveyed into graphs and charts that can be digested with a quick scan. The user interface is simply designed, making it easy for even the most inexperienced users to get a good understanding of the metrics, but you have a lot of customization options in how your dashboard is laid out and what is presented. The number of visualizations put much of the competition to shame, and the open source nature means that the community is likely on hand to help you with any complex options that aren't available right out of the box. Graylog may be a young up-and-comer when compared to Splunk, but there's a lot of promise in the software. Between its reasonable pricing and open source nature, it can be a feasible option to a number of businesses, and its value is likely to only expand as the community grows.