Organizations generate more log data year over year (to the tune of 28% CAGR) and adversaries are moving faster than ever. Some security breaches can go undetected for weeks because critical security events are buried in mountains of unfiltered log data.
Security log management is the process of collecting, storing, analyzing, and monitoring log files from across your environment to spot threats, ensure compliance, and accelerate incident management and response. Done right, it’s the foundation for effective security operations, regulatory compliance, and business resilience.
What Makes Security Log Management So Challenging Today
Despite its critical role in threat detection and compliance, security log management has become increasingly difficult to execute well. Organizations are grappling with exponential data growth, rising infrastructure costs, and operational complexity that undermines visibility and response. Below, we break down the key challenges that security teams face today.
The Data Deluge (Volume & Velocity)
Modern IT environments generate an overwhelming amount of log data. Logs pour in from cloud services, on-premises servers, containers, and IoT devices, each with its own format and level of detail. This explosion in log volume and diversity makes it difficult for security teams to identify meaningful security events. Too much raw data, not enough actionable context, is the core challenge of security logging today.
Cost of Ingest & Storage
Legacy security information and event management (SIEM) platforms and log management systems often charge based on the volume of data ingested. This pricing model forces teams to choose between costly “hot” storage for real-time monitoring and cheaper “cold” storage for long-term retention. The result? Organizations may sacrifice visibility or compliance to control costs.
Alert Fatigue & Noise
Security analysts are bombarded by low-value alerts and irrelevant log data. Poor filtering and lack of context at the point of collection mean that teams waste time chasing false positives instead of focusing on real threats. Alert fatigue is a leading cause of missed security incidents.
Compliance & Retention Headaches
Regulations like HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOX, GDPR, and CCPA each have unique requirements for log retention, privacy, and access controls. Managing these obligations across global environments is complex and error-prone, especially as privacy laws evolve.
Tool Sprawl & Lack of Centralization
Many organizations use a patchwork of log management tools, SIEMs, and analytics platforms. This fragmentation makes it hard to correlate events, maintain visibility, and respond quickly to security threats.
Best Practices for Managing Security Logs in 2025 and Beyond
Log Enrichment at the Edge
Don’t wait to centralize-enrich logs as close to the source as possible. With solutions like Cribl Edge, you can add geo-IP data, asset metadata, and threat intelligence before logs are ingested. This early enrichment gives every log entry richer context, making downstream analysis faster and more accurate. Enriched logs help security teams quickly identify suspicious activity and reduce false positives, like adding user role or device type to login events makes it easier to detect anomalies.
Route & Filter Logs Intelligently
Not all log data is equally valuable. Tools like Cribl Stream filter out low-value events and route only the most relevant data to your SIEM or analytics platform for real-time monitoring. Store raw, unfiltered logs in cost-effective object storage for compliance or forensic investigations, ensuring you meet retention requirements without breaking the bank.
Embrace an Open Ecosystem
Avoid vendor lock-in by choosing log management solutions that integrate with any data source or destination. An open ecosystem lets you adapt quickly to new tools, compliance requirements, or business needs. Cribl integrates with virtually any log source or analytics tool, empowering you to build a flexible, future-proof security logging pipeline.
Check out all Cribl integrations.
Observability Pipelines Over Monoliths
Decouple log collection from analysis with modular observability pipelines. This approach allows teams to scale, adapt, and innovate without being tied to a single monolithic platform. Modular pipelines also make it easier to test, enrich, and route logs based on changing priorities. With an observability pipeline in place, teams enjoy faster onboarding of new log sources, easier compliance updates, and more agile response to emerging security threats.
Cribl’s Take: Make Your Logs Work for You
Let’s walk through a real-world use case that illustrates how Cribl transforms security log management from a challenge into a strategic advantage.
Yale New Haven Health, one of the largest healthcare providers in the Northeast, faced a sudden spike in firewall log volume (about 30-45%) due to a software update that bloated their Palo Alto logs with redundant fields. This pushed their daily log ingest well above their Splunk software license limits, threatening to increase costs and complicate compliance. Instead of accepting higher expenses or sacrificing visibility, Yale New Haven deployed Cribl Stream as an intelligent filter and pipeline for their log data.
With Cribl Stream, the team:
Filtered out unnecessary fields: Stripped out redundant and null fields from Palo Alto logs before ingestion, keeping only the data critical for security analysis.
Centralized log collection: Consolidated logs from over 30,000 endpoints, including a distributed workforce of 5,000 remote employees, into a unified pipeline.
Reduced SIEM ingest: By routing only high-value, filtered logs to Splunk, Yale New Haven reduced their Palo Alto log volume by 40% and brought daily ingest back under their 400 GB limit, down from 600-700 GB.
Enabled easy SIEM migration: When Splunk’s pricing became prohibitive, Cribl Stream made it possible to redirect filtered logs to Microsoft Sentinel and Azure Data Explorer in just two weeks.
Enhanced privacy and compliance: Stream’s data masking features protected sensitive information in Epic logs, reducing manual effort during audits and strengthening compliance.
These results aren’t unique to Yale New Haven Health. Other organizations have achieved similar outcomes, reducing SIEM costs by 40% to 80%, cutting investigation times, and onboarding new data sources with ease.
Why This Approach Works
Cribl’s open architecture lets you filter, enrich, and route logs intelligently before they reach your SIEM or analytics platform. By decoupling log collection from storage and analysis, you gain flexibility to onboard new tools, migrate data, and adapt to changing requirements without reengineering your entire stack. This approach not only reduces costs but also accelerates incident response and improves overall security visibility.
By making your logs work for you (not against you) Cribl helps organizations achieve faster, more cost-effective, and more secure security log management.
TL;DR: How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
Centralize and enrich logs at the edge for better context and faster detection.
Filter and route logs intelligently to control costs and reduce noise.
Embrace open, modular observability pipelines to stay agile and avoid vendor lock-in.
Protect log integrity and privacy with strong controls and automated retention policies.
Continuously assess and improve your log management process to address new threats and compliance needs.
Effective security log management is essential for modern organizations. By adopting best practices like edge enrichment, intelligent filtering, and open pipelines, you can reduce risk, control costs, and stay compliant, no matter how your IT landscape changes.
Ready to take control of your security logs?
Learn how Cribl’s telemetry pipeline can help you cut costs, boost detection, and achieve compliance at scale. Want to learn more about a specific use case? Check out our sandboxes, or let us know what you’d like to explore next!
