Security information and event management (SIEM) systems sink or swim depending on their storage. A SIEM solution must simultaneously ingest large amounts of data while also performing analysis and correlation on that data to identify active risks. According to the IDC report, “How the Right Storage Can Help Improve Enterprise SIEM Operations,” many enterprises require at least 1TB of storage every day to store SIEM data. And security data is only going up in terms of volume: In Q3 2024, vulnerability-based attacks surged 124% compared to the same period in 2023, thanks in large part to increased accessibility of AI tools like ChatGPT.
If a SIEM system’s storage is underperforming, the resulting backups and bottlenecks can make it nearly impossible for security engineers to do their jobs effectively. Since every minute counts when trying to stop attackers, storage that can’t keep up is like a gift to bad actors. As IDC notes in its report, “The performance of a SIEM strategy is interwoven with the capabilities of its storage system. The right storage system will help the security team accomplish their work to their highest ability.”
The Scope of the Challenge
Even the best SIEMs with out-of-the-box storage capabilities don’t always provide the speed and visibility needed to keep up in today’s frenetic cybersecurity landscape. (During the webinar, “How the Right Storage Can Improve SIEM Operations,” participants, including Pure Storage CTO Andy Stone, made this point.)
Why is visibility so key? As the saying goes, you can’t protect what you can’t see. You need to correlate anomalies across the network, endpoints, and end users to quickly identify a targeted response to a potential threat via modern data protection and a resiliency architecture.
This is where the right storage infrastructure becomes critical. Enterprises can’t tackle a big data problem efficiently when the pool of data is too small, incomplete, or too slow. You won’t catch the adversaries in time to stop them. Many organizations end up having to compromise on how many sources from which they can ingest data.
Speedy Analysis Rests on Storage
Many organizations support their SIEM systems with direct-attached storage (DAS). But this approach causes problems as the amount of SIEM data increases. The better option is disaggregated scale-out storage architectures that allow for more efficient sharing of purchased storage capacity across different servers, including enterprise storage management capabilities that drive higher availability and increased efficiencies. They make storage administration and scaling storage capacity easier and more cost-effective.
How Pure Storage Architects Storage for SIEM
There’s a definite need for agility in SIEM solutions because they need to conduct their analyses at high speed. This need is outlined in the IDC report, along with other must-haves:
- High-ingest performance to capture relevant data without impacting information and event collection capability
- Sufficient performance to enable real-time search, alerts, and correlation to provide comprehensive security protection, delivery of forensic evidence to authorities, and demonstration of compliance with applicable regulations
- High availability to ensure that component failures and/or upgrades in the storage system do not impact an enterprise’s ability to protect and/or recover its information assets
- Multi-petabyte capacity that can scale to collect the data needed from a growing number of sources, enabling enterprises to retain data over long periods to improve accuracy
- Unified unstructured storage capabilities (supporting file- and object-based data on the same storage platform) that make a system better suited to capture, store, protect, and analyze security telemetry (since most of that data will be unstructured)
Fragmented security tools make it nearly impossible to see the full picture of a threat. We’re changing that with built-in and integrated detection capabilities that give you complete visibility across your environment:
- CrowdStrike real-time Threat Graph integration: Enact threat intelligence and automatically detect and remediate malicious activity and attacks as they happen.
- Threat detection: Pure Storage AI Copilot helps identify risks early and enables proactive action to reduce business impact before threats can cause damage.
- Threat hunting in Log Center: Use Pure Storage Log Center to investigate insider threats and anomalous user access, giving you the power to find threats that traditional tools miss.
- Real-time malware scanning with ICAP: Enable next-gen anti-virus for file workloads to detect malware as it attempts to infect your systems.
Superna Data Security and CrowdStrike next-gen SIEM integrations: Our new integrations with Superna and CrowdStrike help you accelerate remediation tactics and combat malicious activity at the data layer.
Pure Storage Transforms Data Infrastructure Into the Foundation of Cyber Resilience
By combining indelible protection, high-performance architecture, and seamless integration with leading SIEM, SOAR, and XDR partners, Pure enables organizations to detect threats in real time, respond automatically, and recover cleanly at flash speed. Built-in immutability, enterprise-grade security, and policy-driven automation ensure that protection and compliance are not just added features—they’re inherent to the platform.
With Pure, CISOs and IT leaders gain the confidence that their data, their operations, and their business are always protected, always recoverable, and always ready for what comes next.
The State of Cyber Resilience
Learn how 620 US-based IT security practitioners are approaching their data storage and keeping it safe.
The State of Cyber Resilience
Learn the security strategies of 620 US-based IT security practitioners.
