You’re sending logs to Datadog because you need visibility. But the Datadog log ingestion cost keeps creeping up — or worse, spiking. Why?

Because logs aren’t just about volume — they’re often noisy, duplicated, and full of high-cardinality fields. And Datadog charges to ingest, store, and index all of it through its pricing model for Datadog logs and indexed log data. It’s difficult to fix Datadog log inefficiency once your logs have landed in Datadog.

To make matters worse, different teams (like security) may be duplicating that data into separate pipelines like Splunk or your SIEM. Same logs. Double the cost. So now you’re stuck between two bad options:

• Keep everything and pay too much…
• …Or start dropping logs and lose critical insight

When teams start cutting logs to reduce Datadog costs, visibility takes a hit. Troubleshooting slows down. Security loses context. And trust in observability tools starts to erode. Meanwhile:

• Dashboards get noisier, not clearer
• Engineers waste time searching for signal in a sea of noise
• Security is chasing blind spots
• And your finance team keeps asking why last month’s Datadog bill looks like a cloud bill

Logs are valuable. But you’re not getting the value you’re paying for. Especially when uncontrolled tagging and log indexing increases Datadog pricing without increasing insight.

ControlTheory gives you control over your telemetry pipeline and Datadog log inefficiency, waste, and unnecessary spend. We drop in between your existing Datadog agents and the backend, giving you a centralized place to analyze, filter, and route logs based on value. Here’s what that looks like:

• High-signal logs stay in Datadog, where they power your dashboards and alerts
• Low-value or noisy logs get routed to low-cost S3, where they’re archived and queryable via Athena, OpenSearch, DuckDB, or Apache Iceberg
• Security-relevant logs are routed to your SIEM without duplicate ingestion
• All of this is driven by clear, auditable policies, so nothing gets lost and nothing is accidental

You still use Datadog — just smarter. No waste. No surprises. No guesswork. This is Datadog log management with cost optimization built-in.

With ControlTheory in place, your log architecture becomes a strength — not a liability. You get:

• A unified log pipeline that serves SRE, security, platform, and compliance
• Centralized policies for enrichment, filtering, and routing
• Full visibility into what’s flowing where — and why
• A scalable, cost-optimized log ingestion strategy that grows with your business
• Flexible architecture that avoids vendor lock-in for Datadog logs and indexed data

Most importantly, you avoid unexpected Datadog billing spikes while keeping critical observability intact.

With ControlTheory and Datadog working together, you get:

• Datadog gets better — and more affordable
• Your teams get the logs they need, without drowning in noise
• Your security posture improves with more context, not less
• Long-term audit trails stay accessible — without blowing your budget
• Your finance team finally breathes a sigh of relief

This is what ControlTheory delivers: Clarity, control, and a telemetry strategy that actually makes sense.