Cyber threats are more complex and prevalent than ever in the AI era. Companies have continuously relied on Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms to gather, store, and analyze security data from throughout their IT infrastructure to help spot any potential cyber threats that may be lurking. Security teams study the data of every application, network device, cloud server, and other technological endpoint to detect threats before they cause any damage to the organization.
For years, organizations have chosen SIEM platforms as their centralized cybersecurity monitoring solution. And even though they continue to be relevant today, SIEM platforms are increasing their pricing rates based on the volume of the data logs generated. And since modern companies have to analyze higher volumes of data, they are forced to pay higher prices for their SIEM solutions.
As a result, many companies are no longer retaining every piece of security data they collect. Instead, some are limiting their data collection, shortening their data retention periods, or deleting data logs in order to reduce their expenses. Unfortunately, these cost-saving tactics can create significant blind spots if companies ever need to investigate a cyber threat to their organizations.
Independent Research Reveals Significant Value in Gravwell
Companies need to consider new cost-effective strategies for collecting and analyzing their security data. According to an independently commissioned Forrester Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study, organizations using the Gravwell Security Data Platform (SDP) achieved a 264% return on investment, $743,000 net present value (NPV), and payback in under six months over three years.
Gravwell is an advanced and modernized security data platform rather than just another traditional SIEM platform. It helps organizations collect, retain, and analyze large volumes of data associated with their IT architecture, security, and operational technology without the cost limitations commonly associated with traditional SIEM platforms.
The independent study identified a significant reduction in SIEM costs when organizations use Gravwell. The largest calculated financial benefit was approximately $694,000 in reduced SIEM licensing and platform costs, which clearly sheds light on the increasing pressure organizations face around traditional SIEM pricing and security data management costs.
One organization reported around $1 million in total benefits from using Gravwell, against a mere $282,000 in costs. That shows the value of Gravwell doesn’t just come from the money saved on licensing fees, but also the cost savings from the broader operational improvements made. For instance, the study calculated approximately $288,000 in security analyst productivity gains. At the same time, customer interviews emphasized stronger investigations by ingesting and storing all security data rather than reducing data logs due to cost or storage limitations.
Organizational Security Teams are Rethinking Legacy SIEM Economics
The information presented in the study reveals a growing trend among organizations looking to modernize their security data architecture. As their data log volumes continue to grow, organizations need a sufficient way to handle the influx of data without bearing too many higher costs or jeopardizing their security.
Gravwell seems to be positioned as a suitable solution to address this dilemma. But rather than just replacing a SIEM platform, Gravwell works to reduce the costs associated with ingesting more data volume while still allowing organizations to maintain complete visibility across security, IT, and OT environments.
The leaders and stakeholders from several organizations have already praised Gravwell for the cost savings and high security it provides them. “We’re getting a million-dollar product for a fraction of the price,” said the Director of Information Security at a private academic institution. “Now we can ingest everything and know we’re not missing anything important,” said a Senior Threat Response Engineer from a financial services organization.
The Key Benefits of Gravwell
The briefings on the Gravwell security data platform reveal several key benefits for organizations that must be addressed. They include the following:
1) Not Just Another SIEM
Current SIEM architectural models cannot handle the high volumes of data that companies have to process today. That is why organizations need a modernized security data platform that can handle such massive volumes of data.
Gravwell is a security data platform meant to replace outdated legacy SIEM architecture to help organizations achieve this objective. While traditional SIEMs primarily focus on collecting and comparing security logs from across a company’s IT infrastructure, a security data platform like Gravwell serves as a centralized location for monitoring data and cyber threats.
2) No Data Blind Spots
One of the biggest challenges facing organizational security teams today is deciding which data they can afford to keep. These are blind spots because they could end up inadvertently deleting critical information to save money. Gravwell eliminates these blind spots by allowing organizations to ingest and retain all their security data without raising costs.
3) Enterprise-scale Operations
Major enterprises and large corporations now have to process several terabytes of data per day to keep their security strong. They cannot do this cost-effectively with traditional SIEM platforms. Gravwell supports multi-terabyte-per-day data environments and more than 3.5 million searches daily for large-scale enterprises.
4) Predictable, Infrastructure-based Pricing
Unlike many traditional SIEM platforms that increase licensing costs as data volumes grow, the infrastructure-based pricing model of Gravwell charges based on the computing resources required. There is no per-gigabyte penalty for keeping data, so costs don’t escalate with the amount of data delivered. The Forrester study revealed that Gravwell delivers an average 264% return on investment.
5) Support as a Differentiator
The sophistication of technology in a security data platform doesn’t always guarantee total protection. That is why many organizations also value knowledgeable and responsive customer support from their security data solution providers. With Gravwell, every customer gets a dedicated Mission Support Manager assigned to them rather than ending up in a services queue.
6) Environment-Aware AI
The latest version of Gravwell (v. 5.10) introduces environment-aware AI agents that use an organization’s own data to investigate alerts and gather evidence related to potential cyber threats facing it. Then, based on this data, the platform can escalate any real threats detected.
The Future of Security Data Management
The fast growth of security data architecture and digital infrastructure will require organizations to continue generating more data logs for analytical and security purposes. The commissioned Forrester study suggests that organizations need to adopt cost-effective security data platforms like Gravwell to reduce their licensing and operating costs without jeopardizing the security data architecture and digital infrastructure.
