The Cyber Defense eMagazine January Edition for 2024

Solving for What the SOC Needs Now: Flexibility and Optionality
The cybersecurity ecosystem is reshaping itself. The technology, the leaders, everything now is shifting
so that security teams can have a more open future – a future where they’re not locked into a single
SIEM, one with freedom for detections, and freedom for response.
From data pipelines to threat detection platforms, an unbundling is taking place. Security organizations
increasingly prioritize flexibility and optionality, driving demand for decoupled solutions. Analytics
separate from data storage, stand schemas and open table formats are all gaining mindshare.
Interest in decoupling threat detection from log storage is fueled by the huge difference in cost between
data platform options. Where tightly coupled SIEM solutions impose a steep ingest tax, cloud data lake
options charge by usage and don’t limit retention. Use cases whose data can be analyzed outside the
SIEM often see cost savings upwards of 80%. The combination of improved visibility and lower spend
makes new data platforms appealing. As a result, CISOs have started demanding the flexibility to explore
cost-effective alternatives on a per-use case basis.
A New Era of Freedom for Splunk + Snowflake Users
Enterprises are being pushed by lock-in fears and pulled by opportunities for better scale. They are
looking for ways to augment Splunk with data platforms that deliver efficiencies and support the latest
machine learning. But “rip and replace” is not an option for most, so a bridge is needed for the transition
from monolithic SIEMs to a security data lake architecture.
In my experiences working with customers at Snowflake, I saw the immediate impact when they could
start using Snowflake alongside Splunk. They no longer only had one option for their security data.
They had more choices, they had freedom.
Splunk isn't disappearing. Beyond its continued relevance in cybersecurity, Cisco will invest heavily in
bolstering Observability and application monitoring. At the same time, the "all in one" approach is being
replaced by a SOC architecture that utilizes the most suitable home for each data source and use case.
Security teams demand the liberty of choosing where their data lives and the flexibility to detect threats
equally well across their SIEM and data lake of choice. I look forward to helping organizations do just that
in my new role at Anvilogic.
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