Sumo Logic launched support across its container analytics tool for unified logs of root causes and performance issue metrics. The enhancements are designed to improve the customer experience for applications running on Kubernetes.

The product uses open source and native integrations as part of the data analytics process. This data is used to provide a single-pane view of operational insight into a Kubernetes-powered application that can be used to identify or troubleshoot issues.

The product also taps Sumo Logic’s machine data analytics for container and cloud platforms to supply visibility across the application stack. The product continues to support Docker deployments from a previous launch.

Specific to Kubernetes, the Sumo Logic product monitors services, namespaces, nodes, pods, and containers. It also provides data exploration and visualization capabilities tracking the real-time state of applications within Kubernetes.

The Kubernetes support is significant, given that Kubernetes is Linux-based. A recent Sumo Logic survey of its customers found a vast majority using Linux as their application operating system across their Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud deployments.

Sumo Logic in June closed on a $75 million funding round led by Sapphire Ventures. Other investors included Accel Partners, DFJ Growth, Greylock Partners, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), Sequoia Capital, and Sutter Hill Ventures. The company has raised $235 million in total funding over the past seven years.

Analysts have noted that while data analytics and monitoring are key to organizations taking greater advantage of their cloud infrastructure, the challenge for vendors has been in providing actionable insight.

“We see vendors taking different approaches to correlating metrics and logs and think that each has benefits, although we find that those that retain more data and make it available for analytics can deliver more insightful, granular feedback for users,” noted 451 Research analyst Nancy Gohring, in a report late last year. “The challenge for all of them … is demonstrating the benefits in ways that resonate with customers.”

Container monitoring is becoming more important as an increasing number of organizations are using containers to maximize their cloud investments. However, being able to monitor what is happening across thousands of often short-lived applications can be challenging.

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) recently launched an updated version of its in-house Prometheus project, which is targeted at container monitoring. Updates included a more efficient time-series database storage format; improved handling of stale data from containers; and the ability to support full database snapshot backups.

In a blog post, CoreOS’ Fabian Reinartz, who is also on the Prometheus team, said the increase in container usage has started to strangle previous Prometheus versions. He explained that at a scale of hundreds to thousands, “it’s not uncommon to see millions of time series being tracked across a cluster.”

Other firms in the analytics space include Splunk, BMC, CA Technologies, Cisco, Datadog, and Wavefront.