Log aggregation is the practice of centralising log files so that they can be processed into structured data, enriched, searched and eventually visualised in a concise reporting dashboard for easy cross-team collaboration.
Log aggregation is often used by software engineers when debugging as retaining log files for inspection greatly assists in reducing the time spent on root cause analysis.
Log aggregation is also vital for those across the wider IT department as engineers often review disparate log files from separate applications as a way of monitoring application status.
By centralising logs into a single dashboard that has built-in data visualisation capabilities you can greatly reduce your mean time to resolution (MTTR).
Log aggregation can collect a wide range of different logs including event and activity logs, system logs, server logs, and firewall logs so that you can correlate meaningful insights for further improvement of your system and software processes.