Collecting logs from multiple sources and centralizing them in one place for analysis and monitoring. Like gathering all security camera feeds into a single control room.
A company uses log aggregation to collect logs from 100 servers into Elasticsearch, making it easy to search for errors across all systems.
All four services ingest logs from many sources, centralize them, and support search, filtering, retention, alerts, and integrations with dashboards/SIEM tools. They differ mainly in query language, pricing model, and ecosystem integrations.