Data is wealth. Extracting insights from data is valuable for any organization—data aids in making informed decisions, optimizing operations and costs, and understanding how customers behave.

However, reaping the benefits of data requires an investment in the right tools, resources, and people — something smaller organizations may not have the means to do. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often face several challenges that prevent them from effectively working with their data — small inexperienced teams, limited budget, data silos, inadequate technology, security concerns, and unclear ROI — to name a few.

Addressing these challenges often requires a combination of education, strategic investment, and incremental steps toward building data capabilities. The first step is understanding that regardless of how small or large your organization is, you’re likely already generating large amounts of data. Keeping track of it all from website traffic to application logs can be overwhelming. But it’s all data you can benefit from. So how do you make that data useful? How can small but mighty teams reign in data so it’s easily manageable?

The answer is as simple as the solution: a turnkey data lake. Here are some features and functionalities SMBs need to look for when picking the right data lake:

1. Easy and intuitive to use, without large cloud or data teams, the data lake needs to be spun up fast without the need to manage infrastructure.
2. Affordable: Since SMBs don’t have the deep pockets of large enterprises, teams will need to figure out how to do more with less.
3. Scales with ever-changing data needs. The amount of data SMBs generate and collect can quickly increase exponentially, a scalable data lake offers a cost-effective way to handle data growth without constantly upgrading infrastructure.
4. Security threats don’t discriminate, and everyone and every business is a target.
5. Quick to draw analysis from such essential business decisions can be made with confidence.

Ready to take the plunge with managing data with a data lake? Cribl Lake was built to ease the burden of teams with limited resources. It’s a turnkey data lake that can store massive amounts of IT and security data. Cribl Lake offers a powerful yet affordable way for SMBs to centralize, manage, and analyze their data:

Why Cribl Lake is Ideal for SMBs

Fast and Easy to Start Using

• Fully operational cloud data lake spun up in minutes
• Easy management with intuitive UI that requires minimal IT support
• Out-of-the-box integrations with existing systems streamline data management

Easy Management

• Intuitive UI that requires minimal IT support
• Out-of-the-box integrations streamline data management

Won’t Break the Bank

• Affordable long-term storage retention to meet compliance requirements
• Pay only for compressed data stored, not raw volume stored
• No infrastructure or equipment costs
• No need to hire costly skilled cloud engineers
• Free tier available with 50GB of data stored at no cost

Peace of Mind

• Secure data with unified security policies and access controls
• A full-fidelity copy is stored for recovery if needed

Scalability

• Grows with business needs, so there is no need to invest in more tools in the future

Fast and Efficient Analysis

• Fast incident response and data analysis with minimal effort
• Integrated Cribl Search to find data no matter where it resides
• There is no need for additional analysis tools to store, search, and analyze data

Ultimately, SMBs need to store vast amounts of structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data in a central repository as cost-effectively as possible, and choosing the right turnkey data lake can open doors to make data-driven decisions, improve operational efficiency, and stay competitive in the market. Ready to enjoy the long-term value of managing data? Try Cribl Lake today!

Cribl, the Data Engine for IT and Security, empowers organizations to transform their data strategy. Customers use Cribl’s suite of products to collect, process, route, and analyze all IT and security data, delivering the flexibility, choice, and control required to adapt to their ever-changing needs.

We offer free training, certifications, and a free tier across our products. Our community Slack features Cribl engineers, partners, and customers who can answer your questions as you get started and continue to build and evolve. We also offer a variety of hands-on Sandboxes for those interested in how companies globally leverage our products for their data challenges.