Log data management can be the key that helps you unlock the potential of your data and make decisions that matter. Huzaifa Dalal, head of product marketing, Humio, provides an interesting take on log data management and its importance by studying it through the lens of movies and television series that have been altered forever because of it.
How many times do you catch yourself watching a movie or TV show only to say: “If they had a [insert your no-brainer tool here] they could have avoided this situation.†In older films, it could be a mobile phone when the hero is simply stranded by the road. Or, it could be knowledge that you have about a topic – but no amount of yelling at the screen can implant that knowledge into the characters.Â
For those of us who are used to working with log data – the computer-generated data that documents when events occur in an application or across a system – we might catch other things. This data forms at the foundation for many of the decisions being made every day by IT and security staff around the blog. But for the vast majority of people, log data could be viewed as nothing more than debris from an active IT environment.Â
However, log data is more important than most of us realize. With this information, you can make decisions that could lead your company to either glory or disaster. It can tell you when a security event has occurred and where to find more information. It can help you understand how your applications are working and help you identify and resolve problems before they affect customers or employees.Â
And it might even change your favorite movie or TV show.Â
Movies and TV Series that Log Data Management Improved
To show you in a fun and playful way why log data is a foundational source of information that can have wide impacts on an organization, here’s a list of 10 popular movies and TV shows that would be forever changed if they had real-time access to log data:Â
1. Independence Day
In the first half of this 1996 blockbuster movie, Jeff Goldblum’s character was tasked to study what was causing TV network satellite disruption. Later, he discovered it was a hidden signal used by the aliens to communicate with each other. If he had log management, he would have quickly discovered the signal much earlier to warn the President of the aliens’ true intentions.
2. Dexter
Showtime’s hit series Dexter wouldn’t have survived one season — let alone eight — if the Miami-Metro Police Department used log management. From searching incriminating phrases on a police-owned computer to deleting footage of himself committing crimes, Dexter left a trail of evidence so obvious that the namesake protagonist would have been caught red-handed (pun intended) if anyone at MMPD was collecting and analyzing the log data.
3. Office Space
Mike Judge’s comedic masterpiece about workplace frustration culminates in a scam by Peter Gibbons and his friends to steal small amounts of money from financial transactions by planting a virus into Initech’s systems. While it worked (maybe too well) in the movie, the scheme would end immediately if Initech’s IT group had log management technology in place. IT and security teams would easily see the intrusion of a new piece of software, giving them the ability to shut down the scam, probably within minutes.Â
4. Jurassic Park
Poor Mr. Arnold, the chief engineer at Jurassic Park. He met his demise thanks to a pair of velociraptors while attempting to reboot the park’s computer system. If he were using a centralized logging solution, he would have easily found the weird activities of the greed-motivated Mr. Nedry earlier. And he could have taken steps to make sure all the systems were virus-free long before the events of the original Jurassic Park movie.
5. The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Iron Man’s AI butler, JARVIS (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System), normally puts the “super†in a supercomputer. However, in the Marvel series, he could have used log data to see that Ultron was up to no good and eliminate him altogether. With no Ultron, there would be no Vision and no Soul Stone. In fact, it would throw the entire Marvel universe upside down!
6. The Matrix
First, imagine the amount of data generated to create the virtual world Neo, Trinity and Morpheus live in. In this case, log data would be useful for the bad guy, Agent Smith. He and his fellow agents could use log data to track the activities of the movie’s hacker heroes and heroines – and close any vulnerabilities the hackers use to go in and out of the Matrix.Â
7. Halo
One of the main characters in this popular video game is Cortana, an artificial intelligence partner to the central hero, Master Chief. [Spoiler warning] Over the course of the game series, Cortana’s programming begins to “degrade†and eventually turns her insane and a game villain. If Master Chief could get insights from log data generated by Cortana’s software, he would have been able to see and shut down Cortana before she did any meaningful damage to the universe.
8. Mr. Robot
At one point in the first season of this technology-focused show, Ollie is given a CD outside his work site. When he puts the CD onto his laptop, it contains a program that offers an unauthorized user access to the company’s systems. By analyzing real-time feeds of log data, the IT and security teams would get instant alerts of this intrusion to shut it down. And possibly send Ollie an invitation for some extra IT security training.Â
9. Westworld
Like the Matrix, this is an example of a virtual world creating massive amounts of data. They would actually need their own little separate IT world to house all the data they are generating to give parkgoers an incredibly realistic Western experience. In this series, if the park operators were monitoring log data, they would have been able to see the irrational behaviors of their “Hosts†much earlier, stopping much of the chaos – and the fun – early in season 1.
10. Star Wars
Finally, what if the Rebel Alliance never received the plans to the Death Star? In Rogue One, resourceful Imperial technicians could have easily used log data to realize plans to the Empire’s “ultimate weapon†were stolen and quickly shut down any way for this data to be transmitted outside of the base. By preventing this data from reaching Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker, imagine now what the Star Wars universe would look like if the Death Star was not destroyed!
Log Data Saves The Day in Real Life
As organizations continue to use log data to improve their IT environment and secure their operations, log data will grow in importance and prestige. It’s being used as a critical component in a variety of cybersecurity and IT operations to help staff analyze systems – and keep them safe, secure and always available. The use of log data can save the day. Maybe not in Hollywood, but definitely in IT departments around the globe.Â
Can you add more TV shows and movies to the list? Share with us on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!