In complex IT environments, managing metrics, events, logs, and traces effectively is critical, but many organizations still rely on disconnected tools and custom integrations that create more chaos than clarity. Over time, this approach drives up costs, builds data silos, and slows down operations. A centralized, universal MELT data broker brings everything together, giving teams one place to collect, route, and process their telemetry data with full visibility and control.
I’ve seen a lot of customer environments where data pipelines are built as one-off solutions for specific use cases. They’re usually put together quickly, solving an immediate problem but rarely scaling beyond it. It often sounds like this:
“For these logs, we send them through a special pipeline to clean and reduce before sending to our SIEM, LogJammer 3000. Most other logs go direct, except for those that need extra work because LJ3K doesn’t have a connector. Those debug logs? We skip them since they’re rarely needed. And there’s a pile of appliances we still haven’t integrated. The archive? Let’s just say it’s complicated.”
This kind of setup might work for a while, but it’s fragile and incomplete. Each new pipeline adds complexity, more tools to manage, and more rules to maintain. When you need to reprocess or replay data, it becomes a nightmare. The more complicated the system gets, the harder it is to achieve consistent results.
The truth is that security and telemetry challenges are never solved with less data. You’ll always need more, and you’ll get more whether you plan for it or not. Without a unified strategy, you’ll spend more time managing data than using it.
A universal MELT data broker changes that. It creates a single, flexible foundation where all your telemetry data is standardized and governed. You get one place to manage transformations, policies, and pipelines, while keeping your tools in sync. It’s not about collecting everything everywhere: it’s about giving your teams the control and consistency to make data work for them instead of the other way around.
1. Centralized Ingestion & Control
A data broker acts as a single point of entry for all your MELT data. Regardless of the source, whether it's from applications, servers, network devices, cloud services, or IoT devices, you can ingest it in the same place. This centralization eliminates the need for disparate log forwarders and agents, simplifying your architecture and providing a unified view of your data streams.
Big picture: This enables your universal logging strategy. Step one, for any potential MELT source, is to send to your broker. Once there, you can create capture samples, create and test rules, routes, and transformations… in a common environment with easy-to-grok configurations. Cribl Stream is this broker.
2. Flexible & Open Data Routing
A MELT data broker should route data to the required destinations based on your specific needs and policies. This means you can send critical security logs to your SIEM, operational metrics to your APM tool, and less critical data to cheaper object storage for long-term retention.
Multiple cloud providers? No problem. Testing a new analysis tool? Easy. Using the right tool for the job? Yes please!
Big picture: Collect once, deliver many. Archive in open formats not tied to any one vendor. With Cribl Stream you decide where your data goes based on your needs. Not the vendors'.
3. Powerful Data Filtering and Transformation
Your MELT broker should be able to reshape, filter, and transform as well. Maybe your Mr Fusion appliance generates XML data, but your SIEM needs JSON. Maybe your firewall generates 10m logs per second, but you'd really be happy with a summary of those logs only. Maybe you want to lookup IPs and add the names or CMDB-derived tags before it lands in your SIEM. Your data broker needs to have the ability to dress up logs to remove load from your SIEM.
Big picture: Controlling the shape, format, and content of your data in one place takes a big load off your team for overall management and control. Even junior engineers should be able to jump in and understand what's happening. Cribl Stream provides an extensive list of functions to twist your data into whatever shape or form you need in an easy to understand presentation.
4. Enhanced Compliance
A universal data broker can significantly enhance your security posture and simplify compliance efforts. Your collection requirements, retention policies, access controls, and sensitive data needs are all controlled in one place. Traditionally, controlling PII at scale in vendor-controlled toolsets has been a trial. And it's compounded when you have to know multiple toolsets and maintain consistency across them all.
Big picture: Providing a succinct, simple, centralized place is key to compliance with governance. Cribl Stream gives the tools, and the interface, to confidently meet your requirements.
5. Vendor Agnostic and Future-Proof
The universal MELT broker should be able to talk to all data creators and consumers. This means you can onboard easily, keeps you untethered from vendor handcuffs, and leave you free to use the best tool for the job. Or test new candidates easily.
And defaulting to open data format is a key part of that discussion. Your SIEM may allow you to age data into cheaper storage, but how do you use it from there? How will you use it in 3 years when you're no longer with that vendor? Owning your data is vital, and having quick 'n easy access to your archived data is a power-up that will change the way you tier MELT data.
Big picture: Your data broker should be omnivorous and free from vendor anchors holding you down. Make it earn your continued use, not rely on the implied tech debt represented by a migration. Cribl Stream is agnostic, and enables you to more easily execute things like SIEM and/or cloud migrations, audits, and using the right tool for the job.
Conclusion
Implementing a universal MELT broker is a transformative change for modern data management. You need control of your data. You need a comprehensive, universal strategy for putting your data where it needs to be. And you need to own your data. Running MELT data through multiple toolsets resulting in vendor owned formats and archives will not end happily ever after. Especially as MELT volume continues to grow.
Cribl is the ultimate MELT broker. Who doesn't love a tool that takes your chaotic mix of Metrics, Events, Logs, and Traces and turns it into a perfectly organized data charcuterie board? It's like Marie Kondo for observability data: If it doesn't spark insight, leave it in your long term archive only.
Cribl will make your data behave so your budget doesn't melt!
Ready to bring clarity and control to your telemetry data? Try Cribl.Cloud today to get started with Cribl Stream and see the difference a true MELT data broker can make.
