The SIEM Market Discussion Continues

Bill Roth of LogLogic commented on my Twitter exchange with Rocky DeStefano of Visible Risk where we talked about LogLogic's announcement that they were discounting their SIEM product. I then wrote a reply, and it got a little long. So I made it a blog post instead.

Rocky, Paul:
The ClueTrain Manifesto calls markets "conversations", so here goes.....

I think you're falling into a the trap of "conventional wisdom". First off, the basic assumption that the world falls neatly into the SIEM categorization is just plain false. I stand by LogLogic's model....it all starts with log management as the crucial piece, without that key use cases like network forensics are not even possible. Second, the notion that dropping the price is bad is just plain weird. Is LogLogic dropping the price to sell more? Sure we are. Are we dropping the price to take market share? Sure we are. Are we seeing a great response? Sure we are. Since when is saving people money a bad thing?

And we're always interested in a podcast. :)

Bill Roth, EVP
LogLogic

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the comment! And thanks for participating in the dialogue. I think it's awesome that LogLogic is out front and engaging on its business decisions. Very refreshing!

As to your point about log management being that crucial initial component of a SIEM implementation, I agree completely. Log management has also developed as its own market segment as well, independent of SIEM. But I don't need to tell you that. :-)

On the topic of LogLogic's decision to discount its SIEM product, I didn't mean - and I don't believe Rocky did either - that charging less for SIEM is bad, or even a bad business move.

That said, I do believe that for some significant portion of potential customers log management is a commodity technology. However, from my own experience and from everything I've seen to date, SIEM is not a commodity technology, and I'm not convinced it will be. As such, I don't see price as a strong competitive differentiator in the SIEM market.

Following the recent recession, where IT capital budgets still haven't caught up to the (hopefully sustained) economic upturn, I imagine the feedback on LogLogic's price cut has been positive, and that you'll see some SIEM sales where you wouldn't have but for the discount. But in the mid- to long-term, I have my doubts as to whether there is any meaningful gain in market share to be had for LogLogic - or any SIEM vendor for that matter - simply by competing on price with other SIEM vendors.

Let's be frank, if price were a big piece of why companies choose a particular SIEM, Cisco MARS would have the lion's share of the market and ArcSight would be folding. Instead, it's the other way around.

Twitter Killed the Blog Star

I've been really busy both in my personal and professional life for the past year or so, with no signs of slowing down soon. But I have to acknowledge that the main reason my blog posts have fallen off is Twitter. Now, all of the ideas that I have that I might have developed and expanded into a blog post are prematurely evaluated for length. If they can be abbreviated to a couple of 140-character haikus or less, they go on Twitter. Which means they never grow up to be blog posts. They're like the high school dropouts of ideas.

But every once in a while, a Twitter exchange becomes so interesting that, despite the compressed and fleeting nature of Twitter, it turns into something worthy of framing. The other night, Rocky DeStefano of Visible Risk and I had an exchange on SIEM that I thought the wider world might find interesting. The background to the conversation is this post from Rocky's blog about the recent announcement from LogLogic that they were discounting their SIEM product, and then this responding blog post from LogLogic.

rockyd
The LogLogic response ->> http://bit.ly/bAQSZO to my discounting SIEM Post ( http://bit.ly/aiW3kB )
8:47 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

rockyd
I need to noodle on the LogLogic response more. I appreciate the conversation, I think I may see the opposite end of the customer spectrum.
9:02 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

pmelson
@rockyd I think you nailed the issue. If you *NEED* SIEM, you won't compromise features/functionality for capital cost savings.
9:06 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

pmelson
@rockyd If Cisco couldn't make "Free SIEM With Purchase" work, it's not ever going to work.
9:07 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

rockyd
@pmelson let's be honest how could they possible respond any differently than they did? time for a podcast on the subject ?
9:50 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

pmelson
@rockyd They could just fess up. "We're shipping log management appliances, but SIEM isn't moving. So we put it on clearance sale." :-)
9:52 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

pmelson
@rockyd I think with Gartner's SIEM MQ being released, we're about to see another round of SIEM casualties as VC pulls out.
9:54 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

rockyd
@pmelson There has to be quickening soon, there is way too much of the same thing in the market.
9:57 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

pmelson
@rockyd Right. I've been thinking about the key SIEM differentiators and I've only got three.
10:00 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

rockyd
@pmelson which three?
10:06 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

rockyd
@pmelson Like - Sources, Scalability, Analytical Usage, Correlation / Statistical Evaluation, and getting Intelligent information out?
10:08 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

pmelson
@rockyd 1) performance/scalability 2) UI and drill-down 3) supported sources.
10:07 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

rockyd
@pmelson there are some others like context of Host, Vuln, Registry, Applications and Users that lead you towards more advanced usage
10:09 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

pmelson
@rockyd OK, so asset data model(s) makes 4, pre-defined content is 5? That's still not a lot.
10:15 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

rockyd
@pmelson each is several years of development and refinement with customers.
10:32 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

rockyd
@pmelson this comes down to a compliance check box sale versus a security team needing to integrate a tool into their process.
10:35 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

pmelson
@rockyd Agree. But a handful of differentiators == a handful of potential market leaders. Time to thin the herd. Again.
10:42 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

rockyd
@pmelson now I see where you're headed. BTW I think you'll see 3 more acqusitions by end of year.
10:45 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

rockyd
I was thinking about creating a "vegas odds" website for SIEM Quickending and donate some portion of the funds to HFC.
10:47 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

pmelson
@rockyd A SIEM futures market? Very DARPA!
10:49 PM May 18th via TweetDeck

So there, for your parsing and edification, some thoughts on the SIEM product space, the recent Gartner MQ for SIEM, and the near-term ramifications of Gartner's paper on the market.

Also, if you aren't already, you should be reading Rocky's blog, especially if you're interested in SIEM and security ops. Rocky's a guru in this space, and in addition to his blog he has already put together some great podcasts since launching his latest venture, Visible Risk.