Topics to reflect on internally when considering a new product or solution.

Ensure that the SIEM solution can scale to accommodate the organization's current and future data volumes, as well as the number of monitored devices, systems, and applications.

I-SIEM solutions are typically designed to address the shortage of cybersecurity skills in the market by automating analyst workflows, supporting decision-making, and providing search capabilities that do not require analysts to master query languages. Leading solutions are designed to make analysts, including junior analysts, more efficient and productive. However, support for analysts is not uniform, so ensure your organization has sufficient technical knowledge and skills to deploy and manage prospective solutions.

Assess the TCO of any prospective SIEM solution, including initial deployment costs, ongoing maintenance, licensing fees, and scalability considerations, to ensure it aligns with the organization's budget, resources, and growth plans.

Evaluate any prospective SIEM's ability to collect and integrate data from all the security data sources in your organization, including logs, events, and telemetry data from on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. Also evaluate the SIEM's ability to integrate with other security tools, platforms, and ecosystems, such as SOAR platforms, threat intelligence feeds, and third-party security solutions.

Look for SIEM solutions with advanced analytics capabilities, such as machine learning, behavioral analytics, and threat intelligence integration, to enhance threat detection and response capabilities and address any skill shortages.

Assess any prospective SIEM solution's capabilities for real-time monitoring and alerting, including customizable dashboards, correlation rules, and automated alert notifications for rapid incident response.

Check that prospective SIEM solutions have the UEBA functionality to detect insider threats, compromised accounts, and abnormal behavior patterns across the organization's IT environment.

Ensure prospective SIEM platforms support automation and orchestration capabilities to streamline incident response workflows, automate routine tasks, and integrate with your existing security tools and systems.

Assess your organization’s compliance needs and check that any prospective SIEM solution supports the compliance management features your organization requires, including audit trails and reporting capabilities.

Consider whether any prospective SIEM solution is cloud-native or can integrate easily and cost effectively with your cloud environments, supporting cloud security monitoring and compliance management requirements.

Ensure that there is strong executive support and buy-in for the SIEM implementation project, including allocation of resources, budget, and support from key stakeholders.

Foster collaboration between IT, security, compliance, and other relevant departments to ensure alignment of objectives, requirements, and priorities for the SIEM implementation.

Clearly define the use cases, goals, and objectives for the SIEM implementation, based on the organization's security and compliance requirements, risk profile, business needs, skills, and budget.

Establish clear governance structures and ownership roles for the SIEM solution, including responsibilities for configuration, maintenance, monitoring, and incident response, although the requirement for these activities should be lower where I-SIEMs are deployed compared with traditional SIEM solutions.

Assess the organization's staffing and skill requirements for operating and maintaining the SIEM solution, and provide appropriate training and resources to personnel involved in SIEM operations, although I-SIEM solutions should require less training and personnel resources than traditional SIEMs.

Develop a change management plan to address organizational changes, process improvements, and cultural shifts associated with the adoption of an I-SIEM solution.

Ascertain the budget, skills, resource, and time requirements for the I-SIEM implementation, and ensure that your organization can meet these requirements, although these should be lower compared with traditional SIEM solutions.