Cybersecurity budgets aren’t growing—at least not in line with the demands of IT resources. That’s nothing new, though; security teams have long been tasked with achieving more with less. But now, the rapidly increasing adoption of cloud resources is adding ever more complexity. Teams face a tough choice: advocate for more funding or gamble that their cloud infrastructure won’t be the next target of the escalating wave of cyber attacks.
Propelling this trend even further is the explosion of AI. A recent Gartner report indicates that the rise of AI will likely lead to expanded investment in infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings to host resource-hungry AI models.
In this blog, we’ll take a close look at what’s driving up cloud security costs and examine approaches that optimize your spend and maximize your existing toolset. One strategy in particular can empower you to take decisive actions that enhance your security posture and make the most of your budget.
Cloud Security Costs That May Surprise You
According to industry research, nearly every enterprise currently operates in one or more clouds, and those that don’t are likely to in the next few years. The major cloud service providers (CSPs) like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform have a huge number of services and just as many ways of charging for it. Navigating this complexity to understand and manage costs is a problem shared across the board, and, unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Let’s explore a few ways to spot cloud-related budget leaks and maximize your cloud spend.
- Data ingress and egress charges: Cloud providers charge for data going into (ingress) and leaving (egress) their cloud environments, which can be frustrating for many cloud users. With multi-cloud becoming the norm, costs can quickly rack up across multiple bills, making it harder to track all your spending.
- Cloud log storage: Cloud log storage is often an overlooked opportunity for cost optimization. Logs are typically generated in a native cloud service and then sent to a SIEM or other third-party storage tool like a data lake. Take AWS CloudTrail logs, for example—they may be stored in an S3 bucket and then forwarded to a SIEM, which means you’re essentially paying for storage twice.
- Data transformation: Cloud data often requires transformation to ensure it’s structured for its intended use cases. This process, however, comes with costs. These can be direct, such as transformation software licensing or hiring professional services, or indirect, at the expense of the time and effort of your team to build the solution.
- SIEM licensing: SIEMs excel at complex searches across diverse datasets, but their rising costs have prompted companies to look for ways to cut expenses or consider alternatives. While moving away from SIEMs entirely may be ambitious, figuring out what’s actually important and relevant to have in your SIEM can significantly impact licensing costs.
A Few Ways to Reduce Cloud Security Waste
When it comes to controlling the financial impact of your security needs on cloud spending, viable options aren’t exactly falling from the sky. In fact, most so-called “solutions” are more like organizing deck chairs on the Titanic—they might make you feel better, but you’re still sinking. So, here’s a starter list of strategies to help you tackle waste, along with the pros and cons of each. (Keep in mind: These options can be mixed and matched, and this list is by no means exhaustive.)
- Embrace native tools offered by CSPs: Use tools like native tools to detect activity directly in your cloud logs (e.g., GuardDuty, GCP Security Command Center, Defender for Cloud).
- Pros: Reduces or even eliminates the need to pay to transfer your cloud logs elsewhere for detection.
- Cons: Subscriptions can get pricey, and for those using multiple cloud providers, you’re not exactly eliminating your silo problems.
- Invest in a cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP).
- Pros: Best for multi-cloud setups, CNAPPs reduce or eliminate the need to pay to transfer your cloud logs elsewhere for detection.
- Cons: At best, it might just be a cost trade-off, consolidating multiple cloud silos into one—but it’s still a silo.
- Scrutinize data movement: Identify critical data and audit what’s being sent where and why.
- Pros: You’ll have intimate familiarity with your cloud environment and are likely to find opportunities to cut costs.
- Cons: The juice may not be worth the squeeze (and you won’t know until after you’ve squeezed).
While these solutions can help, they may not work for everyone, and they won’t fully solve the problem of controlling cloud spend. To really achieve ROI and efficient detection in the cloud, consider detection orchestration.
Detection Orchestration: A Smarter Strategy for Managing Cloud Data
Detection orchestration is a modern detection strategy that addresses the challenges we’ve discussed in this blog (and many we haven’t, felt across SecOps more generally). It meets each organization’s unique needs to boost operational efficiency and can reduce your cloud spend.
What Is Detection Orchestration?
Detection orchestration is an approach that centralizes and streamlines threat detection across multiple cloud platforms, multi-SIEM environments, and other security tools. It integrates and automates different technologies and processes for streamlined threat detection, investigation, and response (TDIR). Think of it as a conductor leading an orchestra, ensuring every instrument (or security tool) plays in harmony from the same sheet of music.
How Can Detection Orchestration Help Reduce Cloud Spend?
- Reduces data movement: By running detections where your data naturally resides, you can minimize costly data transfers between environments.
- Optimizes storage: With a more strategic approach to detection, you can be smarter about what data you need to pay to store long-term.
- Minimizes the need for data transformation: Centralized detection management can reduce the need for extensive and costly data transformations across multiple platforms.
- Maximizes SIEM efficiency: By leveraging other tools more effectively, you could reduce the volume of data flowing into your SIEM(s), saving you both time and money.
The Key to Cloud Security ROI? Scalability
Detection orchestration centralizes the management and deployment of detection rules across diverse environments—whether on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid. This allows security teams to build detection logic once and deploy it universally, ensuring seamless coverage even as you integrate new technologies or transition between platforms. Think of it as a universal remote for your entire security ecosystem—no more fumbling with multiple controls.
This approach not only boosts threat detection accuracy and operational efficiency but also leads to faster response times, reduced overhead, and greater adaptability to evolving threats. While there is some initial investment (isn’t there always?), the long-term benefits are significant.
As cloud usage continues its skyward trajectory, detection orchestration provides a pathway to more efficient and effective cloud security management. It’s not just about stretching your budget—it’s about building a security posture that can grow with your business. Future you will thank present you for this foresight.
The ReliaQuest GreyMatter Security Operations Platform
Built on over a decade of experience, ReliaQuest stands out as the only cybersecurity technology company at scale that provides enterprise-level optionality and modularity—truly making the customer the platform.
ReliaQuest’s security operations platform, GreyMatter, empowers enterprise security teams to leverage their current or future technology stack within cloud, multicloud, and hybrid environments. GreyMatter drives greater visibility and automation without the need to centralize data or standardize tools.
This allows security leaders to achieve outcomes specific to their business by:
- Detecting threats no matter where their data lives or is stored
- Containing threats faster with AI and automation
- Responding to threats within minutes
- Eliminating Tier 1 and Tier 2 security burdens, freeing your team for strategic activities
