How easy is it to work with your security tools? So easy that you’re telling all your family and friends and you singing their praises from the occasional rooftop? Well, we sure hope so. Security tools, like any other tool, should help you save time, not waste it. Nobody would have invented a drill if screwdrivers were fast enough — but it’s also up to you to make sure you are using your drill and all the other power tools available in the modern world.

If you have the choice between using the screwdriver or a drill for the same 100 screw, you would pick the more efficient tool. Don’t forget to apply the same logic to the data you need to store — you want to make sure you are using the tools that will make your job easy as pie.

Security Tools: Use The Right Tool for The Job

Equally as important as making sure that your tools are easy to use is making sure that they have the right capabilities. A giant toolbox full of gear is great, but if you don’t have the right tools for the job, properly instrumented, it’s like you have none at all.

If you’re trying to assemble a coffee table that comes with a bunch of nails that need to be hammered in, and the only tools in your toolbox are that screwdriver and drill, the table is probably going to end up being more wobbly than you’d like. Likewise, if each of your security tools is limited to specific formatting rules, integration is going to be a nightmare. If you need to get multiple data formats into your analytics tools, be sure to get yourself that hammer you should have bought so that your data security turns out to be more stable than your furniture.

Do You Have An Axe to Grind?

We think you should. It’s yours and your team’s time after all — you only have so much of it, so you need to make sure you’re allocating it to solving the most important problems, not mucking about with workarounds or inefficient processes. If your vendors are forcing you to store data in their expensive or proprietary solutions that can only deal with one type of data, aren’t they basically admitting that they don’t have the best tools for the job?

Would you pay for a subscription to receive tools like hammers and screwdrivers that only work with the nails and screws supplied by the same company? Sure, it could work if you only want to work with that brand of tools for the rest of your life. And it might even be worth it if they’re far and away the best tool company of all time — but are either of these things true about your current security tools? Maybe you’re getting regular updates and new features, but that’s not enough, and the issues you run into with using the software make it really difficult to be excited about the whole thing.

Put the Hammer Down

Are the inefficiencies in your current security landscape keeping you from spending your time on the most important issues and initiatives? If so, Cribl Stream can help you shorten the time it takes to onboard new data to your security tools — time that you are not only losing, but also aren’t able to use effectively to accomplish other things that can’t be automated. It gets compounded each time you have to stop and do one of these tasks manually.

Stream provides an easier way to connect data sources and destinations, and makes onboarding and routing more intuitive and efficient. You can integrate Cribl Packs and steer away from the DIY approach with pre-built routes, pipelines, samples, lookups, and knowledge objects that speed up time to value and also reduce risk. Optimize operations with the monitoring dashboard and get notifications of interruptions in your data flow, saving downstream systems from data loss and expensive outages.

Integrating Cribl Stream could really shake up the rankings when it comes to the sharpest tools in your shed. We actually think it has the potential to take over the top spot — family and friends will be just as thrilled with the news as you are.

The fastest way to get started with Cribl Stream and Cribl Edge is to try the Free Cloud Sandboxes.