Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) perimeter scope has widened as the business and strategic IT requirement goes beyond just security and compliance. Today SIEM are used for meeting many IT and business requirements because of the kind of data it collects, monitors, correlates and reporting from the heterogeneous set of devices (firewall, routers, switches, UTMs, Vulnerability scanners, VPNs, Content filters, IP enabled devices etc), applications (MS Exchange, Anti virus, etc), databases (Oracle, SQL) and systems (Windows, Linux, UNIX, Mac etc). SIEM is effectively used by organizations in the following areas.
- Log Management
- Detecting and responding to security events
- Protecting confidential and private data (fraud detection)
- Vulnerability Analytics
- Security and forensic analysis
- Automating security operations
- Monitoring internal & external threats
- Tracking user activity – end user behavior
- Monitoring IT staff/administrator behavior
- Meeting corporate governance initiatives
- Complying with government and industry regulations
- Risk Analysis
- Network operations, Performance monitors & optimization
- Asset Management, Capacity or resource planning
- Configuration Change Audit
- Optimizing traffic, bandwidth monitoring
- Network behavior anomaly (NBA) detection
- Troubleshooting IT problems
- Service level/performance management
- Business Analysis
- Centralized Management Analytics
- Compliance Automation
- Audit Gap Analysis
Today’s next generation SIEM delivers services to the NOC, SOC, Risk and the Audit teams. Its rich reporting capability lets enterprises to have an upper hand in the market and full visibility at the macro and micro levels. Business managers want to see how security controls map to individual lines of business which help in strategic business and IT decisions. Enterprises know what’s happening and what is expected to happen in their strategic IT environment which give them the confidence and winning edge over the competitors. With the emergence of cloud computing which reduces the cost of IT investment and maximizes the ROI, organizations are opting for Software as a Service (SaaS) for SIEM solutions. Most organizations already have invested in many point solutions to meet their IT requirements. But they have gaps and they need to fill those gaps. The SaaS delivery model of SIEM solution fills the gaps. Organizations only need to pay for what they want and that too as a subscription model. They also have all the advantage of cloud computing too. The complexities & expenses involved in managing the infrastructure and resources for point solutions is diluted.
In UAE, few MSSPs delivers SIEM through cloud computing (SaaS Model). Organizations can opt for ‘Cloud SIEM’ and the RIO is justified (lower TCO) whether it’s for filling the gaps to meet their requirements or a fully fledged SIEM solution.