The Cyber Defense eMagazine November Edition for 2023

But the most crucial innovations have come with the advent of cloud-native SIEM solutions. Boasting all
the benefits of SaaS products, like fast deployment and scalability, cloud-based SIEM platforms also offer
a host of advantages that their on-premise peers do not.
With cyberattacks becoming more sophisticated and widespread, keeping your security stack up-to-date
is critical. The threat landscape is evolving constantly, and yesterday’s security tools cannot defend
against today’s cyber risks.
If your organisation is relying on on-premises SIEM solutions, then you could be leaving yourself
vulnerable to fast-developing threats.
Many of the most common disadvantages of running an on-premises SIEM solution aren’t just
inconvenient compared to their cloud counterparts; they can also present security risks. Let’s take a look
at some of the key pitfalls of on-premise SIEMs.
High (and recurring) costs
On-premises SIEM solutions can be costly, not only to purchase but also to maintain.
As well as the upfront investment needed in storage, servers, hardware, and software licences,
responsibility for ongoing maintenance or upgrades falls on the shoulders of the organisation. For a SIEM
to deliver proper protection, it needs to be regularly updated, optimised, and patched, requiring significant
time and effort from your IT team.
Limited scalability
Change is the only constant in today’s economy, and as a result, the ability to flex resources based on
an organisation’s needs can give businesses the edge. Scaling up capacity to meet usage demands or
scaling down to reduce waste and overspend is essential—and the faster you can do it, the better.
On-premise SIEM deployments can often lack this flexibility, and this sluggishness to respond to
changing requirements can leave your organisation unprotected. Adding new data streams or event types
to look out for may require additional hardware or infrastructure upgrades if the existing system can’t
handle the extra data volume and processing requirements.
Complex deployment
Deploying any kind of software on-premises is complex and time-consuming. With multiple data sources
to ingest and rules to put in place, a SIEM can be especially tricky to implement. Often taking months to
roll out, on-premises SIEM tools usually require expert assistance to install, which can be costly. Plus,
the potential consequences of any errors or misconfigurations that occur during set-up can be dire.
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