Understanding Log Analytics at Scale, 2nd Edition

Chapter 8. Nine Guideposts for Log Analytics Planning

The benefits that log analytics can provide vary dramatically among different organizations, as do the infrastructure and techniques best suited to enabling those benefits. Nevertheless, the common set of best practices and considerations described here can help guide architects during the planning process.

Guidepost 1: What are the trends for ingest rates?

Accommodate future needs for performance and capacity.

Guidepost 2: How long does log data need to be retained?

Fine tune data retention policies to optimize costs and minimize liability.

Guidepost 3: How will regulatory issues affect log analytics?

Provide verifiable measures to govern data usage, transport, and storage.

Guidepost 4: What data sources and formats are involved?

Forecast and prepare for upcoming requirements for changes in data-transformation pipelines.

Guidepost 5: What role will changing business realities have?

Align infrastructure planning for log analytics with broader corporate strategy.

Guidepost 6: What are the ongoing query requirements?

Identify future query volumes among different types such as ad hoc versus point queries.

Guidepost 7: How are data-management challenges addressed?

Plan for impacts on log data formatting and delivery from changes in the environment.

Guidepost 8: How are data transformations handled?

Ensure that tools and applications to transform data are sufficient for the future.

Guidepost 9: What about data protection and high ...