Upgrading Legacy SIEM Platforms with Next-Gen SIEM Replacements

Introduction to SIEM replacment

Cybersecurity is a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. Threat actors continuously adapt their tactics, techniques, and procedures to overcome cybersecurity defenses. This forces enterprises to adapt their security tooling and policies to stop modern threats. For example, cybersecurity professionals must now account for new attacks, such as ransomware-as-a-service, fileless malware, and deepfake phishing.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools are essential in maintaining a strong security posture and identifying complex attacks in the modern threat landscape. SIEMs enable robust data collection, aggregation, analysis, real-time threat detection, and alerting to — serving as a central hub for security operations. 

However, just as endpoint detection and other security solutions were forced to evolve to address modern threats, legacy SIEM platforms are losing ground as attackers develop increasingly sophisticated techniques with the assistance of AI and other cutting-edge technologies. To address this challenge, a new generation of modern, highly scalable, AI-powered SIEM systems is emerging. 

This article will explore the differences between traditional and next-gen SIEM platforms and how enterprises can replace legacy platforms with contemporary solutions capable of addressing modern security challenges.  

An overview of traditional SIEM

SIEMs ingest and store logs and events from systems across an organization. They then analyze the data to detect threats and anomalies. For example, SIEMs can identify known attack patterns, detect suspicious behavior that other cyber defense tools may miss, and raise alerts for incident responders and automation tools. Their ability to effectively mitigate risks, prevent breaches, and streamline compliance reporting by generating comprehensive audit trails made them vital to modern cybersecurity.

Limitations of traditional SIEM solutions

While SIEM systems remain a cornerstone of effective cybersecurity programs, traditional SIEM platforms have limitations that create business risk and operational issues. Let’s take a look at the four most impactful limitations of traditional SIEMs:

• Limited speed and scale: The amount of data transmitted through modern enterprise networks has increased exponentially since SIEM systems were first introduced. Traditional on-premises SIEM systems typically struggle with ingesting and processing data at the scale generated by today’s systems. As a result, their threat detection, analysis, and alerting capabilities suffer and lead to issues with limited visibility and delayed response.
  

• Cost inefficiencies: Operating a legacy on-premises SIEM involves server hardware, power, cooling, and licensing costs. The CapEx alone can leave a significant dent in the budget. On-premises scaling is challenging and leads to enterprises either purchasing more infrastructure than they need in the near term or having long lead times if the system needs to grow. However, the cost of maintenance and shifting engineers' focus to administrative tasks related to the SIEM can be even more impactful.
  

• Manual workflows with steep learning curves: In addition to maintenance, traditional SIEM tools often require significant manual work to supplement threat detection, derive key insights, and generate meaningful reports. Additionally, on-premises SIEM systems tend to require a steep learning curve, burdening the onboarding of new team members.
  

• Limited visibility: On-premises log aggregation systems are at a disadvantage in a cloud-native world. Traditional on-premises SIEM architecture simply isn’t conducive to large-scale data aggregation in the modern world. A limited number of third-party integrations and poor scaling abilities make traditional SIEMs miss valuable context, leading to blind spots and risk.

Next-Gen SIEM: the modern alternative

The challenges with traditional SIEMs created a business need for a current alternative. Next-gen SIEMs address the shortcomings of legacy solutions and leverage modern tech, such as AI and cloud-native architecture, to solve modern cybersecurity and operational challenges. 

These next-gen SIEM features enable them to address the limitations of traditional on-premises SIEM:

• Adversary-driven detection. Uncovers threats in real time with laser-accurate correlation rules, world-class threat intelligence, and comprehensive, AI-powered indicators of attack for key data sources like endpoint data. .

• Index-free architecture. Increases query speed to expedite processing more significant amounts of log data.

• Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) integration. Automates tasks that would otherwise require manual effort while significantly reducing response times. SOAR provides automated workflows and playbooks, full integration with numerous third-party tools and cloud providers, real-time alerts and attack path visualization. 

Why modern organizations are switching to next-gen SIEM 

Enterprises are adopting next-gen SIEM at a high rate because it addresses the business challenges and security risks they face today. Below are three specific reasons next-gen SIEM popularity is surging among security-conscious organizations. 

1. Improved detection and response

Cloud-native performance, accurate, real-time detection and AI-led investigations reduce mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR), which can drastically reduce blast radius in the event of a breach. 

2. Reduced TCO

More efficient and scalable data storage, no on-premises infrastructure to maintain, and streamlined workflows considerably reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO). Cloud-based storage models enhance elasticity and scalability, allowing businesses to pay only for what they use without purchasing hardware in advance. 

3. Scalability and flexibility 

Exceptional performance and scalability reduce the number of system bottlenecks and the need for human intervention. Traditional SIEM tools can’t compete with the unparalleled speed and efficiency of next-gen SIEMs.  

Replacing the traditional SIEM with Next-Gen SIEM: key considerations

The advantages of next-gen SIEM over traditional SIEM are clear. However, most organizations have SIEM integrated into their existing security operations. Maintaining day-to-day operations while they make the switch is an essential part of cybersecurity modernization. Below are three key considerations for traditional SIEM to next-gen SIEM transitions. 

1. Evaluation and integration

A thorough evaluation of existing systems is essential. Before beginning the replacement process, organizations should assess their current SIEM usage, determine the exact volumes of data ingestion, and attempt to identify the most impactful performance bottlenecks and cost inefficiencies. 

As SIEM platforms ingest data from various third-party integrations, confirming that any new SIEM tool supports integration with all existing data sources is crucial.

2. Data migration

Throughout the data migration process, it is crucial to ensure that data normalization is accurately configured and automated, thereby resolving any discrepancies in data formats between platforms. In an integrated platform ecosystem, pre-existing EDR data can help streamline the data migration.

Key benefits of replacing your SIEM with CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM

Solutions that streamline your transition while delivering a substantial upgrade in SIEM capabilities are crucial for organizations aiming to strengthen security defenses without disrupting day-to-day operations or overburdening their IT teams. 

CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM is an enterprise-grade, AI-powered platform that modernizes your SIEM capabilities, delivering a suite of powerful benefits that enhance security operations and take them to the next level. Those benefits include:

• Index-free logging, resulting in exceptionally fast search times, is a critical feature during time-sensitive incident investigations, where swift access to data is essential for effective threat detection and response.

• Real-time defense across cloud, endpoint, and identity data, supported by robust integration with the MITRE ATT&CK knowledge base to enable advanced threat detection. 

• AI-led investigations, world-class threat intelligence and workflow automation ensure that your cybersecurity posture is future-proof and consistently aligned with the latest attack vectors, emerging threats, and industry standards.

Leveling up your organization’s SIEM Solution

Change is the only constant in cybersecurity, and the evolution of SIEM solutions is just another example. Traditional on-premises SIEM solutions must be equipped to manage the substantial levels of log ingestion and analysis required against increasingly sophisticated attack methods. 

Modern next-gen SIEM platforms provide substantial upgrades in performance and cost-effectiveness. They utilize state-of-the-art threat detection and automation for comprehensive security coverage, rapid incident response, and adaptation to constantly changing cyber threats. 

CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM can transform your security posture and significantly enhance your organization's ability to detect and mitigate threats in real time. For a deep dive into how to migrate to next-gen SIEM, download the free guide, Future-Proof Your SOC: A Migration Guide from Legacy to Next-Gen SIEM with CrowdStrike.