Evaluating Your SIEM: 4 Ways Your Legacy On-Prem Solution Might Be Cramping Your Style

As a CISO or security leader, you juggle many responsibilities—crafting a cybersecurity strategy, managing the security budget, and overseeing your organization’s information systems. But can you remember the last time you took a moment to step back and prioritize evaluating your SIEM? Like your trusty tech from 20 years ago, your on-prem SIEM wasn’t designed for today’s cloud-first, IoT-enabled environments. Here are four ways your legacy solution is holding you back.

1. Scalability? More Like Scale-a-Bit-y

Have you ever had to shove everything you need for a long trip into a tiny suitcase? The night before you leave, you can’t zip your bag and have to make tough decisions about what to bring and what to leave at home. Legacy on-prem SIEMs often force you into the same situation due to hardware constraints when scaling up. This can lead to data collection compromises where you have to choose which data is crucial and which can be discarded. This limits their ability to search and analyze historical data effectively.

Modern SIEMs, on the other hand, employ a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model that takes full advantage of the scalability and elasticity of the cloud. This allows organizations to collect and retain all the data they need without compromising on performance or storage limitations. Cloud-native SIEMs offer greater visibility into more data sources, leading to an increased security posture.

2. Puzzling Pricing Models

Predicting and managing your security budget should be easy. Unfortunately, legacy SIEM vendors often adopt modular pricing models that charge additional fees for specific features or add-ons. This complexity creates planning challenges and increases the administrative overhead associated with maintaining the SIEM infrastructure and licenses.

Most next-gen SIEMs offer a more transparent and inclusive pricing structure so that organizations can easily understand the costs involved and plan their security budgets accordingly. Cloud-native SaaS SIEMs eliminate hidden costs and surprise charges, ensuring that organizations have access to all necessary features without any unexpected financial burden.

3. Too. Many. Tools.

Legacy SIEMs typically have a modular architecture, resulting in disjointed workflows for analysts. Each module has its interface and user experience, making it challenging to correlate data from multiple sources seamlessly. This swivel-chair approach hinders efficiency and collaboration within the SOC.

In contrast, cloud-native SIEMs provide a unified platform where data from various sources can be correlated and analyzed within a single interface. By integrating all functionalities, including machine learning, data visualization, and analytics, cloud-native SIEMs expedite analyst workflows, reduce manual tasks, and empower security teams to respond quickly and decisively to threats.

4. Poor Data Enrichment

Legacy SIEMs struggle to offer flexible data enrichment capabilities, often relying on manual processes or fixed (and often costly) add-ons. This limitation hampers SOC analysts, who require contextual information to make accurate decisions quickly.

Smarter SIEMs excel in data enrichment by offering flexible and programmatically driven capabilities. They allow users to upload business context data and write custom queries to cross-reference the collected data with contextual information. Moreover, modern SIEMs typically include an integrated, cost-free threat intelligence platform to enhance detection and response capabilities.

Your on-prem SIEM may have been a reliable ally in the past, but it’s time for a change. Spend some time evaluating your SIEM, and then future-proof your cybersecurity strategy by embracing the innovative capabilities offered by a SIEM that is a generation ahead of the pack.Is your SIEM cramping your style? Download our Buyer’s Guide for a more in-depth look at the top next-gen SIEM vendors and upgrade today.