Security Information & Event Management (SIEM) is a platform used for managing security incidents. It enables the collection and analysis of security logs and machine data from across organizations IT environment and analyzes it to help identify suspicious or unusual activity. If it finds anything suspicious, sends an alert and reports the situation in real-time. Finding the right SIEM deployment method is critical for your organizations data, network, and legal protection. Depending on capabilities and configuration, SIEM systems may attempt to stop attacks or security breaches in progress, helping to mitigate the impact of attacks on an enterprise’s digital assets.

Each year, cybercriminals grow more dangerous and utilize sophisticated attack methods to breach the networks and data banks of enterprises. As such, the threat landscape grows more complicated, requiring the deployment of robust security technologies. Although deploying SIEM protects organizations from fundamental breaches, its capabilities can detect and alert security analysts to a cyber-attack in progress. However, the SIEM solution must be properly managed and updated with the newest security knowledge in the marketplace to achieve such a feat.

Define Your Objectives

Incident response management and compliance are just some of the reason’s enterprise organizations and small businesses alike adopt SIEM. It also provides improved security monitoring, visibility inside your network activities, and threat detection. Before assessing the pros and cons of the various SIEM deployment methodologies, it’s best to identify the most critical use cases for your organization and determine how SIEM tools will help support such applications. IT leaders should also establish robust SIEM evaluation criteria and ensure that they align with their organization’s business needs.

For this reason, we’ve created a step-by-step guide to help IT leaders determine the best SIEM deployment method (whether on-premise, co-managed, managed, PaaS) for their organization.

SIEM Deployment Models

If you’re looking to deploy SIEM solution in your organizations, there are a few options to choose from. Each option comes with its pros and cons, so it’s best to weigh your business needs and budget carefully. You should also take cognizance of the current threat levels and the nature of the cybersecurity landscape. To help you get started, let’s take a look at the four most common SIEM deployment models.

On-Premise (Self-Hosted and Self-Managed SIEM)

SIEM solutions within this category are built or purchased, hosted on local data centers and run by an in-house team of dedicated IT security staff. Organizations that choose this method of deployment must provision the IT infrastructure necessary to self-run their SIEM solution. The amount of hardware needed is determined by event volume, storage format, whether data will be stored locally or on the cloud, ratio of short-term to long-term data retention needs, encryption requirements, and the ratio of log compression.

The financial burdens that come with undertaking an on-premise deployment include cost of licensing, IT maintenance and upgrade, resource (compute and storage) provisioning and ongoing integration with new systems. Aside from this, organizations must recruit and train a team of security experts to review alerts, investigate incidents, escalate issues and take proactive action to protect the organization’s digital assets.

Co-Managed (Self-hosted and Hybrid Managed)

In this instance, SIEM tools are deployed on-premise and run codependently by both in-house security team and MSSP experts. This means that your MSSP sets up and formats your solution and will engage when necessary. However, it’s up to your team to do the daily event management and oversee the implementation and success of your solution. 

PaaS (Platform As a Service)

Under the PaaS model, vendors deliver on-demand SIEM capabilities via cloud-based models while the organization’s in-house staff handle ongoing security operations. Although vendors bear the cost of hardware provisioning, organizations still need to pay for cloud storage capabilities in addition to licensing costs. There may also be additional costs in the form of a one-time service fee to pay for the leveraging of your long-term data on to their new solution.  These situations also require organizations to recruit, train, and maintain an in-house team of security experts at competitive pricing which is no small task.

Managed

In this instance, organizations fully outsource their SIEM needs to MSSPs. This means that MSSPs simultaneously deliver SIEM functionalities while managing in-house security operations. In this deployment model, MSSPs provide the IT infrastructure and handle all necessary configuration, maintenance, upgrades, integrations, and support while delivering immense value, cost, and time savings to your company.

The best MSSPs also deliver custom dashboards (with relevant metrics to help monitor enterprise network security levels), custom alarm building (to help organize and properly process your alerts), and reporting that’s easy to understand and relevant to business needs. However, organizations should ensure that they properly vet providers to determine their level of dedication to threat mitigation and remediation.

Features of Next-Generation SIEM

No matter their preferred deployment method, organizations should ensure that the SIEM solution they choose comes with a robust set of next-gen capabilities. According to Gartner’s report on Critical Capabilities for SIEM, next-generation SIEM tools should begin with the following additional technologies (alongside traditional skills)

•    SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response)

•    UEBA (User Event Behavioral Analytics) technology,

•    Incident Response Support

•    Threat hunting

•    Forensic analysis

•    Retention

•    Compliance

•    Search, Data Exploration and Reporting

•    Dashboards

•    Advanced Analytics

•    Correlation, Security Monitoring, and Alerts

•    Data Aggregation

•    Threat Intelligence

Which SIEM Deployment method is right for you?

Managed SIEMS makes it possible for enterprises, no matter their size, level of IT infrastructure, team expertise or financial ability to enter the SIEM game. If you are interested in investing in a managed security services provider to safely and cost-effectively outsource your SIEM security needs, ArmorPoint is here to help. For more information about our products and services, subscribe to our blog today!

About ArmorPoint

ArmorPoint is a security information and event management solution that provides a cost-effective and reliable way to continually protect your business from emerging threats. Through its customizable service pricing model, ArmorPoint’s cost-effective packages and dynamic levels of expert management support the security strategies of all companies, regardless of available budget, talent, or time. And since ArmorPoint offers 24/7 security support with a team of dedicated specialists, they can provide you with the manpower you need to expertly manage all of your cybersecurity initiatives. See how ArmorPoint can make a difference in your security posture with a risk-free 30 day free trial