SIEM and its role in the enterprise SOC [Q&A]
SIEM (security information and event management) is currently one of the cybersecurity field’s most active markets. It holds the promise of making sense of the disparate data sources across enterprise environments to detect and respond to malicious activity.
Over the past year, we’ve witnessed a wave of innovation, mergers and acquisitions and consolidation in this area, largely driven by AI advancements and the push toward the AI-native security operations center (SOC). But there's also a 'data paradox' involved in balancing cost with importing and storing as much data as possible.
We talked to Ajit Sancheti, GM, Next-Gen SIEM at CrowdStrike to learn more about SIEM's role in enterprise security operations.
BN: There has been more activity in the SIEM market the past few months than in years. Why do you think SIEM is such a hot cybersecurity category?
AS: The SIEM category is receiving a surge of attention now because organizations are facing increasingly complex security challenges that legacy SIEMs are incapable of solving. Attackers are faster and more sophisticated. A breach can happen in just a matter of minutes. The speed of the adversary requires a faster, more intelligent response from security teams -- and that's where modern SIEM solutions, like CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM, come into play.
Next-gen SIEM is so much more than the simple log aggregators of the past. Next-gen SIEM uses AI to deliver actionable insights in real time and drive automation across the organization. This empowers security teams to prioritize and respond to threats more effectively -- which is critical for stopping breaches in today's cloud-first, hybrid environments. As the cyber threat landscape continues to rapidly evolve, organizations need integrated, comprehensive protection across endpoints, identities, cloud environments, and data to stop breaches. This is why SIEMs are experiencing renewed focus and innovation.
BN: Why are today's SIEMs not providing SOC teams the outcomes they require? Can you talk about the challenges SOC teams are facing due to legacy SIEMs?
AS: Legacy SIEMs are falling short of meeting the demands of modern SOC teams because they were not designed to handle today's scale and complexity of data and cyber threats. Traditional SIEMs struggle to process massive volumes of telemetry coming from cloud environments, hybrid infrastructures, and a growing number of connected devices. This overload of data can lead to false positives, alert fatigue, exorbitant ingestion and retention costs, and missed threats.
Additionally, legacy SIEMs rely heavily on rules-based detection, which can't keep pace with the evolving tactics of adversaries. Attackers today are leveraging increasingly sophisticated methods, such as malware-free, identity-based attacks, which are difficult to catch with static rules alone. Another significant challenge is the fragmentation of security tools, which can create blind spots and hinder the SOC’s ability to correlate data effectively. Legacy SIEMs struggle to integrate with modern security stacks, requiring manual intervention and slowing down response times. SOC teams need integrated solutions that bring together all sources of data and automate responses -- enabling them to stop breaches faster and more efficiently.
BN: Tell me more about the next generation of SIEM. What makes it a significant leap forward compared to legacy SIEMs being used today?
AS: Tackling modern SOC challenges demands a complete rethinking of how security data is managed and leveraged. The next generation of SIEM integrates security, IT, and data with AI and workflow automation, all within a unified, AI-native cybersecurity platform where SOC teams can seamlessly perform most of their investigative work. By consolidating these capabilities into a single platform, next-gen SIEMs streamline threat investigations and speed up detection by eliminating the need to pivot between multiple consoles or manually stitch together data. There’s no need to forward or periodically retrieve logs from endpoint detection and response (EDR), cloud workloads, or identity protection tools. With key data already present and available for real-time correlation, next-gen SIEMs eliminate latency and backlogs, significantly reducing the mean time to detect and respond. This efficiency allows SOC teams to stay ahead of emerging threats without the delays and complexity of legacy systems.
BN: Can you talk more about the AI-native SOC and how taking an AI-native platform approach will transform security operations as we know it today?
AS: An AI-native SOC, powered by a next-gen SIEM, transforms security operations by embedding artificial intelligence and machine learning into its core, enabling faster, more accurate threat detection, response, and prevention. Unlike traditional SOCs that rely on manual processes and predefined rules, an AI-native approach continuously learns from evolving threat patterns, uncovering sophisticated attacks that might otherwise go unnoticed. This platform automates threat triage, reduces false positives, and prioritizes incidents based on risk, allowing security teams to focus on the most critical issues.
With AI-driven automation, response times are significantly improved, especially when integrated with Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platforms. Ultimately, the AI-native SOC shifts security operations from reactive to proactive, helping organizations stay ahead of emerging threats while optimizing efficiency across the board.
BN: What should CISOs consider when choosing a next generation SIEM for their security operations center?
AS: When choosing a next-generation SIEM for their SOC, CISOs should look for a solution that’s faster, easier to deploy and more cost-effective than legacy SIEMs. When considering a next-generation SIEM, security leaders need to ask themselves several questions to ensure they are selecting the right solution for their SOC.
The first question is will it be able to handle the growing volume of data generated by hybrid cloud environments and modern IT infrastructure and provide the scalability needed to meet organizational demands without breaking the bank? This is especially important with increasing adversary speed and data volumes. Another question to ask, "Is this SIEM easy to deploy and maintain?" SOC teams spend more than several hours and resources to not just stand up their SIEM, but also maintain it. This use of the SOC team's time could be better used to focus on more mission critical tasks. And finally, will it be able to break down silos and consolidate their tools to slash complexities and costs? The SIEM should be compatible with existing security tools and able to collect, normalize, and correlate data from a wide range of sources. Cost considerations include upfront investment, licensing models, and ongoing expenses such as data storage and system maintenance. If these requirements are fulfilled, the next generation SIEM will ensure better security outcomes for the business.
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