Cloudflare puts log analysis in-dashboard

Cloudflare, the CDN, has announced the general availability of Log Explorer, which lets organisations get access to security insights from their IT environment, reducing risks and overall costs, the company says.

Users can analyse, monitor, and examine their systems for potential cyberattacks and security threats via the Cloudflare dashboard. Security events, HTTP, and Zero Trust logs are searchable.

Users can access information from individual log without use external tools, a potential time-saver for security teams. The company uses the strapline, “no pipelines, shipping, or tuning required.”

Cloudflare Log Explorer stores logs on Cloudflare’s network using R2 object storage, and users can access and search data from the Cloudflare dashboard or with SQL queries via an API, using commands like SELECT, WHERE, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, and LIMIT. Results are limited to a default maximum of 10,000 rows per query, and the platform saves query history.

One potential benefit is that logs are stored in Cloudflare’s R2, separated from other Cloudflare customers’ data, similar to the way customers co-exist safely on Cloudflare D1. Customisable retention policies are possible, and the Cloudflare says regional storage options will be possible in the future.

The system means companies may be able to save fees on log storage and avoid having to use proprietary query languages to access data. Combining logs on a single storage platform means issues could be resolved more quickly, and a unified query library can be established using one language that acts on all logs from a range of devices.

According to CJ Desai, President of Product and Engineering at Cloudflare, “the log management market has been unnecessarily complex and expensive for far too long. Cloudflare already detects threats faster than any solution on the market. Now, combining our threat detection capabilities with native log management, we are one step closer to allowing customers to get rid of certain third party tools, like SIEMs.”

A senior systems security specialist at software company Ansarada is quoted in Cloudflare’s press release as saying, “Cloudflare’s Logpush and ready-made dashboards have allowed us to obtain complete end-to-end visibility of our network and [have] ensured that we can build a holistic threat intel view for our entire platform.”

Cloudflare says Log Explorer will let organisations save time, reduce costs, establish custom log retention policies, and meet compliance requirements.

See also: Alibaba Cloud expands in South Korea with second data centre

(Image source: Cloud Computing News)

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