Making sure your security information and event management system (SIEM) is up to date is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity – here are six signs you need to upgrade
SIEM migrations are complex, time-consuming, and costly. So, who could blame you for avoiding the issue? The problem is, the cyber security threat landscape is evolving at an alarming rate, turbocharged by AI. That means, if your SIEM isn’t up to scratch, you could easily be the next victim.
Even some of the biggest UK retailers with large cyber security budgets have been caught out recently. Reports of high-profile attacks on the likes of Co-Op, Marks & Spencer, and Harrods, for example, have made it into the mainstream news.
At the time of writing, we do not have enough details to comment on whether these breaches were down to outdated SIEMs. What we can say, though, is that attackers are getting bolder, breaches more numerous, and repercussions more severe.
The truth is, in an era this dangerous, legacy SIEMs simply can’t keep up.
To help you assess whether it’s time for you to update, we’ve put together six telltale signs that you need a new SIEM.
1. Your SOC Team is at Breaking Point
Cyber security job satisfaction dropped by 8% between 2022 and 2024, while the vast majority of professionals looking to leave their roles attribute the decision to stress and job demands.
This is perhaps unsurprising when you consider this 2020 report, which states that the average SecOps team receives 11,000 alerts per day – a huge manual workload for even the largest team.
Combine these figures with the cyber security skills gap, which rose to 4.8m in 2024, and you have a serious potential problem.
A large contributor to why your team is so overstretched is likely to be because of all the extra work your legacy SIEM is creating for them.
The manual nature of legacy platforms means that your analysts and engineers are working overtime trying to keep up with false positives, duplications, and a lack of context. This can lead to alert fatigue, which is an increasing problem in the industry.
Modern SIEMs, on the other hand, benefit from machine learning (ML) and automation that will do all this work for you. Not only does that relieve the pressure and raise morale, but it also frees up their time to work on other initiatives.
2. False Positives are Burying Real Threats
Following on from point one above, teams are becoming so overstretched that they simply do not have the time to investigate every alert. One study found that, on average, SOCs were clearing only 65% of alerts, leaving 35% unchecked. That’s a huge margin for error.
If your team is facing a similar situation, it is time to modernize your SIEM before it’s too late.
Modern SIEMs feature ML-assisted automation that can significantly reduce manual workload. These tools can perform deduplication, false-positive reduction, and alert triage. They can even offer threat hunting assistance. Efficiency is drastically improved, strengthening defense and reducing MTTR.
3. Ingest & Storage Bills are Increasing
We are creating data like never before, not least in the cyber security space. Many SIEMs are processing large amounts of log data every day, which is constantly increasing with the number and capability of endpoint devices.
Not only does this drive up ingestion costs, but all that data requires ever-increasing storage, which can be expensive – especially if you are using a hardware-based legacy SIEM.
While ingestion and storage costs will always be an essential part of cyber security, modern SIEMs, combined with observability platforms such as Cribl, can significantly reduce them.
Modern SIEMs are cloud based, so storage can shrink and grow on demand. This often results in much more reasonable, reactive costs when compared to the expense and maintenance of scaling and maintaining on-prem hardware.
Furthermore, observability tools like Cribl can automatically filter and remove unnecessary data. This ensures your SIEM is only fed the data it needs, significantly reducing volume and, in turn, ingest cost.
4. You Want to Scale but Can’t
With threat levels constantly evolving, data ingest increasing, and regulations placing more pressure on organizations to retain their data, it is imperative for SIEMs to be able to scale.
If you’re operating a legacy SIEM that relies on on-prem hardware, the initial outlay required to purchase and setup that hardware can be prohibitive. And that’s before you even consider ongoing maintenance.
Modern-SIEMs are cloud-based in nature, so there is no hardware required. This eliminates the cost of the gear, the cost of the maintenance, and makes future scaling easy.
This study from Microsoft and Forrester, for example, found that discontinuing a legacy SIEM could reduce TCO by 44%.
With that in mind, the cost of a SIEM migration is nothing compared to the long-term savings – not to mention the peace of mind that your defenses are as strong as they need to be.
5. You Nearly Missed a Compliance Deadline
Have you recently scraped through an audit by the skin of your teeth? What if you had one tomorrow? Could you meet demands?
Rules by regulators are getting stricter and more challenging. The EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), for example, now requires that banks report an incident within four hours or no later than 24 hours.
Many SIEMs are not equipped to meet these demands efficiently. Limited long-term storage, manual processes increasing MTTR, and labor-intensive data searches all place additional pressure on overstretched teams and dwindling budgets.
Now consider that NIS2 can impose fines of up to €10m or 2% of turnover on essential entities, while GDPR can fine up to €20m or 4% of turnover. When faced with these numbers, the scale of the risk becomes clear.
By upgrading your SIEM, it is possible to mitigate many of these issues. ML and automation increase efficiency to clean data and reduce MTTR. Additionally, more flexible cloud storage solutions make long-term cold storage much more affordable, easy to scale, and searchable.
6. Attackers are Leaving you Behind
Are you feeling like it’s increasingly difficult to defend against the modern cyber threat? You’re not alone.
The evolution of the threat landscape has been turbocharged by the democratization of AI and many legacy SIEMs simply do not possess the capabilities to keep up.
For example, CrowdStrike’s Global Threat Report 2025 found that the average breakout time was 48 minutes, with the fastest just 51 seconds. When faced with this level of threat, how would your SIEM fare?
Many legacy SIEMs, for example can be slow to update with the latest threat detection because they rely on on-prem hardware that takes time and expense to upgrade. Furthermore, unclean data, higher false positives, and manual processes increase response times.
Newer, cloud-based SIEMs can be updated immediately to ensure they are equipped with the most modern defenses. With the help of ML and automated processes, they are also much faster at detecting threats, reducing MTTR and beating these increasingly rapid breakout times.
Conclusion
Your SIEM is a crucial aspect of your cyber security. If it does not possess the speed and agility to keep up with the ever-evolving threat landscape, your organization is at serious risk.
If you are experiencing any of the above signs, you’re likely to be in need of a SIEM upgrade and we would recommend seeking advice. While the cost, time, and expertise required can seem like a barrier, the long-term benefits are immeasurable.
To learn more about the SIEM migration process and the state of the current market, download our exclusive SIEM Migration Buyer's Guide 2025.
Before taking the next step, it’s important to note that SIEM migration is an extremely complicated process that needs to be conducted by experts. If not, it could do more harm than good.
At NETbuilder, we have performed over 100 successful migrations for some of the largest companies in the world, so we can take all the stress out of your upgrade.
We’re vendor agnostic, so we’ll offer advice that’s tailored for you, not for us. Get in touch with our friendly team to find out more.
