Is Self-Hosted Error Tracking Right for You?
I spend a lot of time talking about our centralized logging software: Loupe Server. It’s a way to track errors across your applications running anywhere in the world. But what I don’t discuss often is how it’s hosted.
Often times for demoing, I’m using our cloud-hosted platform. A lot of it comes down to personal preference. I find myself working from the office and my home, and just sending logs to a browser is convenient.
But real logging scenarios are not always that easy. There are many reasons you wouldn’t want to throw your logs onto a cloud service, or have them internet-accessible period. Yet, you still need easily accessible error tracking software, which is why we made software that can do both. Loupe Server is unique in that you can not only subscribe to it as a SaaS; you can host it yourself.
The option to self-host a cloud service is not the standard expectation, but it’s a feature of Loupe important to our users.
Without the option, many couldn’t use it in the first place.
Here, I’ll review a few broad reasons our users self-host Loupe for their error tracking and log management.
Hopefully, seeing why they self-host their error tracking software can help you determine if it would help your organization.
Security and Data Management
One of the main reasons to self-host your error tracking is when you have particular security needs for your log data. For many users, it doesn’t matter how secure the cloud platform is; they want to own the data storage directly for auditing and management purposes.
This is the most common reason why our users self-host Loupe. If you have strict data retention needs or desire complete control, we are happy to let you host Loupe in whatever way makes you the most comfortable. For some, that means using the SaaS, and allowing our team to handle the hosting side of things. Other organizations have staff that can take data security into their own hands, and we’re happy to help them do just that.
Security and data management don’t have effective one-size-fits-all solutions. And that means we can’t sell an effective error tracking system that way. Offering multiple ways to host Loupe allows us to fit each user’s security requirements better.
Put the Cost of Storage in Your Control
Part of the appeal for many cloud services includes saving on infrastructure costs. It really is a way for organizations to save money, especially start-ups. But when you already have the infrastructure to host a service yourself, the value proposition is much worse.
Let’s say I already have the hardware to host an error tracking system, or I have a ton of Azure cloud space. In this scenario, it may cost less to host a service myself than to sign up for one over the long haul.
Most cloud services include a scaling cost for storage, including ours. For Loupe cloud, the pricing is between $5 to $15 for each GB over the individual plan’s allotted storage (now presented as message counts on the pricing page). An extra $15, $5 a month for a bit more storage is a reasonable exchange for many users. But if you require hundreds of GBs of data over the allotted storage, that will get pricey.
In high storage, lower user count scenarios, self-hosting Loupe is less expensive long-term. The upfront costs are higher, but don’t involve any storage pricing. You pay an initial price per server, per user license, but not for data. As long as your user count isn’t high, you may come out ahead.
If that sounds like your situation, and you are looking for a self-hosted log management system, I would look at our self-hosted plans and see if one would work for you.
Keeping Things Local
When I discuss centralized logging, I generally refer to situations where you want to track errors as they happen across the world. It’s the scenario where centralized logging is the best solution, but fails to show centralized logging’s utility in localized situations.
There are cases where you may not want to send your log data outbound (for security or logistical reasons), but still centralized locally to simplify error tracking across multiple devices. Sure, self-hosted error tracking is possibly overkill for a group of five computers in a small office. But when you increase the number of devices to dozens, maybe hundreds, tracking your log data becomes much harder to do without a dedicated tool.
This is the scenario that I think applies to many businesses. There is no rule about how many devices are required for centralized logging to become a reasonable expense, but I know I’ve worked in places that would benefit from it. When IT and Operations staff need hands-on time with problematic devices, it results in a lot of lost time for the other staff. If problems can be diagnosed and potentially solved from another machine, it means the problematic device can still be potentially used during the process.
That would have often meant we had two registers running instead of one, or that we could still print shipping labels while diagnosing a problem with an unrelated process. Uptime would have been better, orders processed more efficiently, and a lot less distractions for the warehouse staff as I wouldn’t have been commandeering their machines (or for me, less late nights spent in the warehouse during off hours).
Hosting an error tracking system on the local network is a good solution, as now you can manage the sheer number of devices, but still stay offline. This way, you can diagnose issues without needing physical access, and reduce the amount of hands on time required to solve a problem, potentially even reducing it to zero.
Deploy On-Premise Error Tracking it With Your Solution
Do you create a full system solution for your customers? Do you want to include an error tracking system as part of that solution without building your own? The self-hosted version of Loupe makes that possible.
We offer an OEM version of Loupe, which is undoubtedly a departure for a cloud service company. But what it allows our customers to include an error tracking system with their system solution. This helps their customers manage their own errors with their own deployment of Loupe while helping the system seller manage log data efficiently for all of their customers.
Overall, this is a niche scenario. But when it comes up, we’re glad we have an OEM version of Loupe to offer.
The Cloud is Not the Only Future
Cloud-hosted software as a service is a concept here to stay, and get more prominent as time moves on. But it’s not the only way software should be offered. There are just too many scenarios in which local software or self-hosted software makes more sense. That’s why we have that option for Loupe Server as well. So, if you feel that an error tracking solution would be better self-hosted rather than somewhere in the cloud, trust your gut and host it yourself.
If you want to give Loupe Server a try, you can learn more about our free trial in the link below. If you try and like Loupe, you can purchase a license for local hosting or use our cloud service. Either way, we just want to provide the best centralized logging solution we can.