Syslog servers act as centralized repositories to aggregate, analyze and store log data from across IT infrastructure. With exponential growth in data volumes, these platforms are now essential for monitoring systems, improving security, meeting compliance, and optimizing performance.
This comprehensive guide explores the top syslog servers for effectively managing enterprise network environments.
An Introduction to Syslog Servers
First, let‘s quickly recap what syslog servers are and their key capabilities:
What They Do
Syslog servers collect and consolidate system, application, network device and security logs in one centralized location. This includes aggregated data like:
- Operating system and software logs
- Network device data (routers, switches, firewalls)
- Security tool alerts (IDS/IPS, SIEMs, scanners)
- System health/performance metrics
- User activity tracking
Key Functions
Robust enterprise syslog servers then provide important functionality like:
- Secure log data warehousing
- Powerful search for quick analyses
- Custom parsing and formatting of log data
- Intelligent filtering to isolate critical events
- Real-time monitoring dashboards
- Configurable alerts and reporting
- Long-term archiving for compliance
The Bottom Line
By leveraging syslog servers, organizations gain greater visibility and control across their infrastructure to address critical challenges:
- Optimizing system and application performance
- Resolving issues faster (e.g cut troubleshooting time by 60%)
- Improving security threat detection
- Demonstrating adherence to regulatory compliance
- Reducing workload for IT administrators through automation
Now let‘s explore top enterprise-grade syslog management platforms on the market today.
1. SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server
SolarWinds delivers a powerful centralized syslog server for log management across on-premises and cloud environments.
Let‘s view some key capabilities:
Broad Data Collection
Kiwi Syslog Server aggregates log data from all infrastructure including:
- Linux and Windows systems
- Network devices – routers, switches, firewalls
- Virtualization platforms
- Cloud applications and services
- Custom log types
With over 2000 compatible data sources, it consolidates monitoring for infrastructure of any scale or complexity.
Log Storage and Security
This solution enables efficient indexed log storage for rapid future analysis. It also provides:
- Custom parameter-based log filtering
- Advanced search tools for simple or complex log investigations
- Protection for confidential log data via encryption
- Access controls and permissions management
By centralizing data analysis while keeping it secure, Kiwi Syslog Server empowers administrators to optimize security and compliance.
Infrastructure Optimization
This platform facilitates a proactive, insightful approach to systems management. Capabilities like intelligent log grouping, correlation, and powerful analytics help admins:
- Quickly identify performance issues or degradation
- Determine misconfigured devices causing problems
- Detect overwritten logs or missing log data
- Validate that backups are operating properly
By leveraging the full logs context, teams can fine-tune infrastructure health even within complex environments.
And Much More
Further benefits provided by SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server include:
- Real-time monitoring dashboards
- Customizable alerts (email, SMS, etc)
- Over 150 out-of-the-box compliance reports
- Seamless integration with SolarWinds monitoring stack
- Affordable pricing starting under $2,000
With its robust feature set, SolarWinds emerges as a premier choice for enterprise-scale log management implementations.
Ideal For Large Enterprises
With advanced analytics capabilities for massive data volumes, SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server easily handles the complex needs of large enterprises. This includes global financial institutions, healthcare providers, government agencies and Fortune 500 companies.
2. ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer
EventLog Analyzer from ManageEngine provides a unified syslog and Windows event log management platform with powerful analytics.
Let‘s view some if its key features:
Unified Log Collection
This solution consolidates monitoring, analysis and archiving for both syslog data and Windows event logs within a single interface.
It collects syslog data from networking devices like:
- Routers
- Switches
- Firewalls
- IDS/IPS
- Load balancers
- Linux servers
While also gathering event logs from Windows servers and Microsoft infrastructure:
- AD audit records
- Exchange & Office 365
- Azure & hybrid cloud
- Docker & Kubernetes
With support for over 1000 log data sources, it delivers a centralized view across infrastructure.
Threat Management
EventLog Analyzer enables organizations to leverage syslog and event log data for combating threats. It provides security teams:
- Alerts for indicators of compromise
- Powerful log search for forensic investigations
- Correlation to pinpoint attack progression
- Reports quantifying incident metrics
These capabilities help enterprises improve response times to security incidents by over 30%, reducing breach impacts.
Compliance Automation
This solution also simplifies compliance processes for standards like PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX and GDPR. It enables:
- Prebuilt reports for various regulations
- Log archiving as per defined retention policies
- Audit trails showing user activity
- Alerts when log data is overwritten or compromised
By automating compliance evidence gathering, EventLog Analyzer helps organizations maintain adherence without burdensome overheads.
Ideal For Mid-Sized Enterprises
With its integrated view across hybrid infrastructure, ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer suits mid-sized enterprises with both Windows and non-Windows systems. It helps security and ops teams optimize monitoring and threat response efforts.
Pricing starts at $945 for the premium edition. Free trial available.
3. PRTG Syslog Server
PRTG’s freeware syslog server makes collecting and monitoring syslog data simple.
Let‘s explore some key capabilities:
Bi-directional Infrastructure Monitoring
This solution consolidates device status data from across infrastructure to provide holistic monitoring. PRTG’s auto-discovery feature maps systems and relationships for administrators.
It then enriches this ecosystem view with incoming syslog messages to expose performance issues, misconfigurations, or failures. This bi-directional monitoring enables proactive optimization.
Unified Alerting and Reporting
The platform leverages syslog insights in conjunction with other metrics for unified alerting and reporting. For instance, correlation alerts can trigger if abnormal syslog errors occur simultaneously with high network latency.
Unusual syslog data can also be incorporated into graphical reports documenting overall infrastructure health. This helps demonstrate compliance during audits or executive reviews.
Free-to-Use
PRTG Syslog Server is freely available without any license as a convenient value-add utility for administrators. It can manage unlimited syslog messages across infrastructure of any scale.
The solution interoperates seamlessly with Paessler’s commercial PRTG Network Monitor for those seeking advanced integrations. But newcomers to logging can obtain it as a standalone tool from their syslog server downloads page.
Ideal for SMBs and Internal IT Teams
For lean IT shops supporting SMBs or enterprise departments, PRTG Syslog Server strikes the right balance of ease-of-use and functionality. It adds log visibility for basic monitoring setups without significant investments.
Conclusion
As modern digitized enterprises generate exponentially more activity data acrosshybrid infrastructure, specialized syslog management platforms provide indispensable capabilities.
Robust syslog server solutions empower IT administrators to cost-effectively aggregate, process, secure, analyze and store log data from across the ecosystem for numerous use cases.
Capabilities like efficient centralized analysis can help enterprises resolve performance issues 60% faster or detect breaches 30% quicker. And integrated support in meeting data compliance requirements saves security and operations teams countless hours.
The solutions highlighted in this guide represent premier options for syslog workloads meeting the needs of demanding enterprise IT environments. Forward-looking organizations are investing in these technologies as foundational data hubs supporting broader infrastructure monitoring, management and security initiatives now and in the future.
