LogDNA announced major product updates to its popular log management solution and VMblog had an opportunity to catch up with Peter Cho today, VP of Product Management, to discuss what this means for users and how Kubernetes is involved. 

VMblog:  To kick things off, can you first tell us a little about LogDNA?

Peter Cho:  Modern development is complex, requiring a scalable solution that can keep up with demand. Data is spread across multiple clouds, data centers, IoT devices and PoS systems. Simply storing data is not enough. The only way to get full value from data is to ensure it is reliable and accessible. LogDNA provides detailed insights for engineering and DevOps professionals to easily and quickly gather all systems and application logs into one intuitive platform.

VMblog:  What makes LogDNA different from other log management tools?

Cho:  LogDNA offers an innovative approach for users through natural language and time search using Google-like search syntax, adding speed and efficiency to log searches. The solution searches logs at incredible speeds from megabytes to petabytes. Its fast search combined with auto- and custom-parsing and smart alerting helps users quickly uncover the logs they want. LogDNA allows its users to set exclusion rules, so only the logs that matter to them are stored, putting the customer in control of all logs from the beginning. Usage alerts also enable them to stay on top of their spend, allowing users to get notified when they approach certain thresholds.

VMblog:  How does LogDNA support Kubernetes?

Cho:  LogDNA is a consumer of Kubernetes itself so it made sense for us to decide several years ago to focus our product on Kubernetes. The LogDNA agent is written in the Rust programming language and is tailored specific to highly scalable environments, allowing users to collect application logs from all containers running in their Kubernetes cluster in minutes. LogDNA is developed for users running 1,000 or 100,000 containers, helping them quickly aggregate, parse, search and monitor logs across all nodes and pods in a single centralized location.

VMblog:  And what are you announcing today that is new to the product?

Cho:  We announced significant performance and usability updates that enable developers to more easily query, filter and gain insight from their log data. The new features help developers identify and resolve issues to reduce downtime and quickly fix performance issues. Specifically we announced V2 of our agent which was rewritten in Rust for high throughput performance and leverages the Linux kernel, hourly archiving, new extract and aggregate fields that allow users to extract and aggregate and export fields from log lines that have already been indexed, and new custom webhooks enabling customers to easily integrate LogDNA alerts with additional 3rd-party services of their choice, such as JIRA or Microsoft Teams.

VMblog:  Finally, what's next for LogDNA?

Cho:  We are looking deeper into infrastructure as code and are always looking for ways to improve the customer experience. The problem customers face today is not about gaining intelligence, but it is dealing with the chaos from their legacy systems while running Kubernetes. It has become too complex for developers. Our future will be to continue to deliver a pragmatic solution for developer pain points.

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