It seems data center managers are more attuned today to overall systems management than they ever have been. At the recent AFCOM Data Center World conference in Las Vegas I attended last month, it seemed to be a more popular track than in past years. Facing audits with piles of papers and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets just isn’t cutting it anymore.

Part of it all is log management, which involves examining log files to see what actions and changes in your systems might affect how you run your business. Vendors include Splunk, LogRhythm and LogLogic, which just released a new version of its log management software yesterday.