Survey: Enterprises Will Spend More on Security, But Not on SIEM

Nearly half of enterprises in the United States will increase their spending on security in the beginning of 2016, but this won’t include updating a key technology often used as the main security dashboard, according to a new survey by 451 Research.

The Voice of the Enterprise: Information Security study conducted in September and October 2015 by the research group found that 44 percent of respondents plan to increase security spending in the beginning of the year, with nearly 10 percent saying they will do so “significantly.” This increase is 37 percent from spending in the previous quarter. Moreover, only 4 percent of respondents said they would decrease security spending.

However, even though spending is on the rise, one key area of security technology and the specific focus of the report–security information and event management (SIEM)—won’t be getting updated anytime soon in many enterprises, according to the research.

The survey found that SIEM is present at 56 percent of enterprises, and 21 percent of those companies projected new growth over the next calendar year. However, even though 69 percent of those surveyed said they see SIEM as the potential single pane of glass or primary dashboard for their security operations, more than half—or 58 percent—have no plans to bring in new SIEM technology to the enterprise.

The findings represent complete survey answers from more than 900 IT decision makers in North America and Europe. Fifty-seven percent of respondents work at companies with 1,000 employees or more; nearly 20 percent at companies with less than 250 employees, while roughly 15 percent work at mid-sized companies with 250-999 employees. Eight percent of those surveyed work at government and educational institutions.

The lack of projected investment in SIEM is slightly worrying, especially since respondents said that the technology has transcended its roots in meeting compliance requirements around log review or event tracking, according to the survey. In fact, nearly 92 percent of respondents with SIEM in place said they would utilize the technology even if it were not required for compliance.

Still, while most companies said they don’t plan to make new SIEM investments in the short term, there are some reasons they may displace the current vendors providing the technology, the survey found. Cost was one defining factor, with 18 percent of respondents saying this might drive a decision to make different SIEM investments. Another was lack of features and/or functionality, which nearly 14 percent of respondents said could convince them to make changes to their SIEM technology.