Whether your organization is ready to deploy its first security information and event management (SIEM) solution or you’re looking to upgrade to a modern, next-gen SIEM, the number and types of tools available in the market can be overwhelming. This post will help you choose the right vendor and best SIEM tools for your business needs. SIEM tools have been available for about 15 years, but like most technologies, there has been a great deal of evolution and innovation over that time.

It’s no secret that SOC teams are struggling. The main reason is the sheer volume of data they must collect and analyze to thwart cybercrime. The data sources they need to account for include applications, transactions, IoT devices, mobile devices, and more. And the amount of global information created, replicated, and consumed is projected to increase to more than 180 zettabytes over the next five years, making the data challenge we’re facing even worse.

Software vendors have loads of high-value data they need to protect — from customers’ personally identifiable information to the company’s intellectual property — so a data breach can be catastrophic. There’s a lot on the line if these types of organizations fall victim to a cyberattack, including fines from regulators or damage to their brand and reputation.

According to the 2022 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report, the global average cost of a data breach is $4.35 million. Data breaches in the US are even more costly, averaging over $9 million. However, it isn’t just the big players caught in the line of fire. IBM’s report also found that 83% of companies will experience a data breach soon, meaning financial institutions of all sizes — from local credit unions to Fortune 500s — are at risk.

SIEMs have come a long way since they first debuted in the security operations center (SOC) well over a decade and a half ago. Today, next-gen SIEMs are far more advanced than early systems, which merely gathered and logged data from different sources. Now, SIEM software can deliver comprehensive insight into network security and data protection by looking for anomalous activity that could indicate compliance, performance and security issues.

Many automation tools, such as SOAR, suffer from an ironic Catch-22: you know that automation will save your team huge amounts of time, but it’s difficult to implement and requires skills you don’t necessarily have in-house. Essentially, you can’t afford the tools that will save you money. Ay, there’s the rub! You may have seen tools promising “no-code” capabilities with intuitive GUIs that help non-programmers build abstract functions.

The SOC is changing. And to keep cybercriminals from wreaking havoc, security teams must mature their security operations to derive more value from the systems, tools, and data at their disposal. To do so, organizations are increasingly automating more SOC tasks and have long-term plans to build autonomous SOCs to augment their security analysts.