In my last blog, “Data is Cheap, Information is Expensive — Part 2”, I describe the philosophy and potential of the CHAOSSEARCH technology and architecture core principles, with a link to our technical white paper. The goal of this blog is to highlight the benefits of these principles from a customer perspective, in how the CHAOSSEARCH service reduces the complexity and cost of log management when compared to alternative solutions.
Reduced Complexity
One of the unique benefits of CHAOSSEARCH is its ability to transform “your” S3 storage into a search and analytic database. Over the last 10 years, S3 has become the cornerstone of storing the tsunami of log and event data generated. However, data is “ETL-ed” into external database solutions or paid for log management services for any kind of analysis. Standing up a database such as ELK may reduce some costs, but will increase complexity. Offloading management to a 3rd party solution might address complexity, but will break the bank at scale. And here is where CHAOSSEARCH benefits shine.
With CHAOSSEARCH there is no data movement, transformation, or schema management. If one has ever built or used a log management system, the process of ETL-ing and/or mapping indexing to log/event schema, one knows this quickly becomes the bane of their existence. With the CHAOSSEARCH service, data management is streamlined and automated. In other words, the process of converting raw data into actionable analytical insights is completely done for you. And since CHAOSSEARCH is a managed service, all the complexity of rolling your own stack or ETL-ing to a paid service is removed.
Reduced Cost
CHAOSSEARCH has taken a new approach to log and event management. Making storage a first-class citizen has changed the game with respect to removing complexity. But starting with object storage as the “only” backing store (zero HDDs or SSDs) has allowed a great reduction in costs to run the service. And with CHAOSSEARCH patent-pending technology and architecture, it's a one-two punch. Our ability to transform S3 into a search and analytic database with built-in data management features removes all the external scaffolding required to extract, transform, and load data. If you have ever seen an AWS architecture diagram to do any data analysis, you know what I mean.
This idea of offering a holistic solution is nothing new. The difference with CHAOSSEARCH is that we actually achieved it. The ability to streamline and automate DevOps and engineering headaches and provide cost savings beyond the obvious data under management pricing should not be lost. CHAOSSEARCH pricing is disruptive, but the platform and philosophy are so much more disruptive.
Conclusion
Up until now, we analyzed why data is cheap and information is expensive. We discussed first principles of CHAOSSEARCH and how innovation can disrupt complexity and cost problems. Through our journey of building the technology, architecture, and service, we have discovered that when information is less expensive, customers view their businesses completely differently. In other words, if one unlocks the value of mountains of data (particularly stored in S3), one gets a competitive advantage in operational efficiency as well as enabling new thinking/offerings when information is cheap.
