Log analytics software tools allow Engineering, DevOps, and SecOps teams to query and analyze log data from throughout the enterprise network. Generation and Aggregation Log data is automatically generated by applications, services, and infrastructure that compromise the enterprise network. Before the log data can be analyzed, it needs to be aggregated in a centralized log management platform. Log analytics software solutions allow teams to automate the process of aggregating log files from throughout the enterprise IT environment. Parsing and Normalization Log parsing is the process of transforming log data into a structured format for storage and downstream analysis. Data normalization is a process where log data from multiple sources is integrated into a single source with a single format. Normalization should remove redundancies and duplicate data while ensuring that related data is stored together. Parsing and normalization are necessary steps to preparing raw log data for analytics applications. Storage and Indexing Once log data has been aggregated and normalized, the next step is to index the data. Data indexing is a process of reorganizing the normalized log data into a representation that minimizes its storage footprint and increases the efficiency and speed with which it can be queried. LEARN How the Chaos Index Activates Your Data Lake for Search & Analytics at Scale Querying and Analysis Indexed log data can be queried and analyzed to drive insights into application performance, network security, or the operational status of cloud services. Modern log analytics software allows IT agents to query their log data by writing customized relational, text search, or machine learning queries. Querying and analyzing log data can help developers or SecOps teams diagnose and debug application performance issues, identify and remediate network security threats, or measure the health and functionality of cloud services. Visualization and Dashboarding Data visualizations make it easy for human users to consume, understand, and make business-decisions using their log data. Log analytics software includes the visualization and dashboarding capabilities that IT agents need to make sense of their log data.