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IntroductionWhy SIEM Dependency Costs You More Than You Think3 Ways to Reduce SIEM Costs Without Losing Visibility The Role of SIEM in Modern SecOps Faster Detection, Lower Costs

In this Guide:

SIEMs have been the cornerstone of security operations for years, prized for their ability to centralize data, support compliance, and assist with advanced threat hunting. But as cyber threats grow more sophisticated and IT environments expand, SIEMs are becoming a cost-heavy bottleneck rather than a solution for real-time detection.

Organizations are spending significant portions of their already-limited security budgets on SIEM data ingestion and storage. Meanwhile, operational inefficiencies and delays caused by SIEM dependency leave teams struggling to keep up.

Why SIEM Dependency Costs You More Than You Think

<h4><b>Your Attack Surface Is Growing. So Are Your Ingest Costs. </b></h4><p></p>

Your Attack Surface Is Growing. So Are Your Ingest Costs.

Sending vast amounts of raw data to your SIEM for analysis doesn’t come cheap. As your environment grows, the more data needs ingesting—and the larger the bill becomes. For many organizations, this means sacrificing other security investments just to keep up with SIEM licensing and storage fees.

<h4><b>Data Latency Drags Down Detection</b></h4><p></p>

Data Latency Drags Down Detection

SIEMs weren’t designed for speed. The process of ingesting, parsing, and indexing data introduces significant delays, leaving your team blind to threats for hours. On average, mean time to detect (MTTD) with a traditional SIEM is 3 hours—an eternity, especially considering that clever attackers are moving laterally in under 30 minutes.

<h4><b>Operational Complexity Overwhelms Teams</b></h4><p></p>

Operational Complexity Overwhelms Teams

Integrating data from diverse sources, writing detection rules, and managing multiple log formats is an uphill battle. For under-resourced security operations teams, this complexity leads to burnout, missed threats, and an erosion of operational efficiency.

<h4><b>Higher Costs Equal Bad ROI</b></h4><p><b></b></p><p></p>

Higher Costs Equal Bad ROI

Despite the rising costs, SIEMs often fail to deliver the agility and speed needed for modern threat detection. Their rigid architectures and reliance on manual processes make scaling a challenge, especially as new technologies and threats emerge.

3 Ways to Reduce SIEM Costs Without Losing Visibility


Filter Out Noisy Data


Focus on filtering out unnecessary data to cut storage costs and reduce noise. Start by identifying critical events for threat detection, investigations, and compliance—such as user authentication, privileged access, or anomalous behavior.

Routine or low-risk events, like system heartbeats or redundant logs, can often be safely excluded without sacrificing visibility. Intelligent filtering ensures your team zeroes in on high-value data, minimizes SIEM ingest volumes, and streamlines workflows for better efficiency.

Don’t Default to SIEM for Storage


Route data to the storage tool that best aligns with its purpose.

For Example:

High-fidelity logs tied to critical events should likely flow to a SIEM for real-time analysis and searchability

Less critical or long-retention data—like compliance-related logs—can move to more cost-effective options such as data lakes or cloud storage.


Tailoring storage architecture to specific use cases reduces costs while ensuring teams have access to the right data when they need it.

Detect Outside the SIEM


Having multiple detection strategies in your architecture maximizes visibility and detection speed. For example, detecting threats in transit—while data moves between systems—and detecting threats at the source provide faster responses and more flexibility for data workflows compared to a SIEM-only approach. This layered strategy catches threats earlier in their lifecycle, improves detection accuracy, and helps teams stay ahead of evolving threats.

Detecting In-Transit

Identifying threats during data movement cuts out the delays caused by SIEM ingestion and indexing. Teams can route data based on relevance—whether for immediate SIEM analysis or low-cost storage—while minimizing response times.

At-Source Detection

Analyze data directly where it’s generated, such as endpoints, cloud services, or network tools. This eliminates unnecessary data movement and storage costs while maintaining full visibility into critical events, enabling faster detection and containment.

The Role of SIEM in Modern SecOps

SIEMs still play a vital role in security operations. But relying on them as the backbone of detection is dragging down response times—and spiking costs. Here’s where a SIEM fits into a modern strategy:

  • Advanced multi-event detection and correlation: SIEMs are built to manage complex data structures and alert on unique use cases. Detection rules that involve multiple tools are still better deployed at a SIEM.

  • Short-term data retention: SIEMs are ideal for “hot storage,” when you need specific data readily available.

  • Querying structured data: Investigations and threat hunting are more effective when analysts or AI agents can reference structured data.

Real Results: Faster Detection, Lower Costs

One ReliaQuest customer transformed their detection strategy by adopting at-source detection. By reducing SIEM ingest by 860GB per day across cloud and endpoint data, they:

  • Saved 43% on SIEM licensing costs.

  • Reduced their mean time to detect by 55 minutes, achieving a 92% improvement.

This is the future of threat detection: faster, leaner, and more cost-effective.

Ready to Rethink Your SIEM Strategy?

The challenges of modern cybersecurity demand a smarter approach. At-source detection enables your team to reduce costs, streamline operations, and stay one step ahead of attackers.