Logblog: Just What is Enterprise Class? Part V

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Just What is Enterprise Class? Part V

Here is the final enlightening post from Dimitri McKay, our super-brilliant network and systems engineer from the East Coast, where he continues to discuss the meaning of the phrase "enterprise-class," which is certainly MUCH more than a marketing buzzword! Part I is here, Part II is here, Part III is here. Part IV is here.

Dimitri McKay says: "This is the final piece in the five part series entitled “Enterprise Class”. The term “Enterprise Class” for most of us has appeared on Bullshit-Bingo cards for years, but when we actually explore WHAT “Enterprise Class” is and how it pertains to a certain product, you can learn quite a bit about that product, and how it stands up to both the competition and how it stacks up against what it is and what it should be.

As of this writing, LogLogic has set free it’s next code-base, LogLogic4 Release 2. With added features and fixes, LogLogic fits the Enterprise all the more with each release.

13. Usability: Because of the large number of customers using LogLogic, the mission critical nature of the business problems being addressed, and the system complexity that is introduced due to the previous topics, usability is a critical factor for LogLogic. Our goal is to strike an appropriate balance between ease of use and complex functionality. Let’s face it. Using LogLogic to handle forensics, or compliance, or general reporting and alerting is an easy solution to a very complex problem. We are taking the chaos of a massive amount of log-traffic and we are taming it via the use of log forensics tools, summary reports, and real-time alerts.

When I was on the support team one of the biggest questions customers would call and ask after purchasing the LogLogic appliance was “Now what? What should I be looking for?” - and the answer LogLogic came up with was the compliance suites. The compliance suites are a phenomenal way of helping the customer hit the ground running. It’s simple. “Install this suite of search filters, alerts and custom reports. Then tailor it to your network. Now you’ve solved your compliance problems and/or government mandates.”

14. Compatibility/Maintainability: To minimize downtime as part of providing high availability, LogLogic must provide compatibility from one release to the next. Backward compatibility means that the when a new version of LogLogic is installed, it continues to work with the previously installed customizations and other systems witch which it interacts such as source devices and remote authentication services.

Forward compatibility means that when systems around the LogLogic are upgraded, the LogLogic must continue to function as it did before, even though the new software may support new log formats. When fixes are provided for LogLogic, downtime for installing the fix must be minimized by providing support for incremented updates such as patches and hot-fixes. LogLogic must also offer several solutions to handle updates such as automatic update via the web, or manual file updates due to the appliances being offline.

Thank you for reading my five piece foray into the Enterprise. Please feel free to email me your thoughts, comments, or post them below. Stay tuned to LogLogic as we journey where no other LMI vendor has gone before."