Three key advantages for SIEM-As-A-Service

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) technology is an essential component in a modern defense-in-depth strategy for IT Security. SIEM is described as such in every Best Practice recommendation from industry groups and security pundits. The absence of SIEM is repeatedly noted in Verizon Enterprise Data Breach Investigations Report as a factor in late discovery of breaches. Indeed attackers are most often successful with soft targets where defenders do not review log and other security data. In addition, all regulatory compliance standards, such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, FISMA etc specifically require SIEM technology be deployed and more importantly be used actively.

This last point (“be used actively”) is the Achilles heel for many organizations and has been noted often, as “security is something you do, not something you buy.” Organizations large and small struggle to assign staff with necessary expertise and maintain the discipline of periodic log review.

New SIEM-As-A Service options

SIEM services are available for buyers that cannot leverage traditional on premise, self-serve products. In such models, the vendor assumes responsibility for as much (or as little) of the heavy lifting as desired by the user including: Installation, Configuration, Tuning, Periodic review, Updates and responding to incident investigation or audit support requests.

Such offerings have three distinct advantages over the traditional self-serve, on premise model.

1) Managed Service Delivery: The vendor is responsible for the most “fragile” and “difficult to get right” aspect of a SIEM deployment – that is installation, configuration, tuning and Periodic review of SIEM data. This can also include upgrades, performance management to get speedy response and updates to security threat intelligence feeds.
2) Deployment options: In addition to the traditional on premise model, such services usually offer cloud based, managed hosted or hybrid solutions. Options for host based agents and/or premise based collectors/sensors allow for great flexibility in deployment
3) Utility pricing: Contrast with traditional perpetual models that require capital expenditure and front loading, SIEM-As-A-Service follows the utility model with usage based pricing and monthly expenditure. This is friendly to Operational Expenditures.

SIEM is a core technology in the modern IT Enterprise. New As-A-Service deployment models can increase adoption and value of this complex monitoring technology.