Threats keep evolving, but budgets aren’t keeping pace. In fact, 51% of respondents to ISACA’s State of Cybersecurity 2024 report say that their cyber budgets are underfunded. For organizations dealing with these constraints, traditional enterprise tools like SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) systems can be more of a burden than a benefit.
This is why more organizations are asking the question: Do we even need a SIEM?
For many modern organizations, the answer is no. With more flexible, focused alternatives like managed Network Detection and Response (NDR), it’s now entirely impossible to go SIEM-less, without losing visibility.
SIEMs: Powerful, But Impractical
SIEM platforms offer a single-pane-of-glass view of network activity. In theory, they correlate logs, surface threats, and streamline incident response. But in today’s threat landscape, they have become notorious for triggering alert fatigue, high operational costs, and burdensome integration requirements.
In 2023, for example, research published in Security Info Watch revealed that 14% of security teams claim to receive more than 14,00 alerts daily, while 4% get more than 100,000. When we consider that 67% of respondents indicated a staffing shortage to ISC2 last year, it’s easy to see why SIEMs are rapidly becoming untenable.
These struggles are especially acute for smaller organizations, like those in the local government sector. Limited personnel and budget force them to make a difficult choice: settle for partial coverage or delay detection entirely. And that’s if they can afford a SIEM at all; 2021 research revealed that 43% of security practitioners believe they are overpaying for their SIEM.
Fortunately, there’s a better way. If these problems are familiar to you, it’s time to go SIEM-less.
Managed NDR: A Leaner, Smarter Alternative
Organizations that can’t afford or manage a full SIEM are increasingly turning to a more agile model: pairing Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) with managed NDR. This combination delivers comprehensive threat visibility and layered defense without the complexity, cost, or staffing burden of traditional SIEM platforms.
Unlike SIEMs, which demand constant tuning, scripting, and maintenance, managed NDR solutions offer curated alerts, forensic visibility, and continuous monitoring out of the box. And because they’re based on network flows, not log aggregation, they don’t require you to centralize data from every application or cloud tool to be useful.
This is what makes managed NDR such a compelling choice for resource-constrained teams: it can deliver actionable insights and a relatively simple integration.
Managed NDR in Action: City of Newton
The City of Newton, Kansas, is a shining example of the benefits of managed NDR. With just two IT staff supporting over 230 users and 20,000 residents, deploying and managing a SIEM was daunting and out of reach. However, they needed more visibility than what their EDR could provide.
“When I started, we had no real eyes on the network,” said Nathan Wallace, cybersecurity architect at the City of Newton. “We relied on an MSP, but I needed to verify what was happening inside the perimeter.”
Instead of deploying a SIEM, Wallace implemented a managed detection platform that provided real-time visibility into both internal and external traffic. He emphasized that it allowed him to “go back and look” at historical flows and connections – an immediate win he described as “huge,” without the heavy lift of a SIEM integration.
The Newton team also began using monthly reporting features to track activity and support budget discussions. Brenda Ternes, the city’s IT Director and GMIS International President, plans to use this data in the upcoming budget cycle. “Since we implemented it last year, we’ll be able to demonstrate our progress and the value we’ve gained.”
Beyond Government
While Newton is a municipality, their challenges and choices aren’t unique. Many organizations face similar limitations: not enough budget, not enough staff, not enough time. For these teams, the question isn’t whether SIEMs work. It’s whether they’re the right fit for the organization’s scale and complexity.
In many cases, the answer is no. And that’s okay.
Just as EDR displaced traditional antivirus, managed NDR is a viable replacement for SIEM in leaner environments. It offers visibility, detection, and support without the steep operational costs or tuning requirements.
What’s more, as more teams adopt Zero Trust architectures, network-level visibility is becoming even more critical. After all, if every user and every device should be ‘trusted’ and vetted, you need another set of eyes on the wire – not just the endpoint – to ensure these policies are implemented effectively.
Breaking the Alert Fatigue Cycle
Breaking the cycle of alert fatigue is one of the most practical advantages of going SIEM-less.
With SIEMs, especially those lacking mature tuning, the volume of alerts can quickly become overwhelming. And without a dedicated team to triage and respond, important signals get lost in the noise.
Managed alternatives, however, typically provide enriched, filtered alerts, often with human oversight. This helps small teams stay focused and respond faster without constantly second-guessing their tooling.
“Most nights, I get a digest of that day’s alerts,” said Wallace. “If something looks off, I dig in. Otherwise, I can rest easy knowing we’re covered. It’s a level of clarity I have never had before.”
Final Thoughts
Cybersecurity doesn’t need to be expensive to be effective. For teams operating with limited resources, going SIEM-less in 2025 is not a risk; it’s a rational choice.
Resource-restrained organizations need to know that there are tools that deliver deep network visibility, expert-vetted detections, and real-time response without requiring a massive SIEM platform. As the threat landscape evolves, organizations are realizing they don’t need more dashboards – they need clarity, confidence, and coverage.
Ted has worked with network security and web technologies for almost 30 years, beginning his career as a full-stack web engineer and transitioning to network security. He now guides Nomic and its supporting initiatives, including CINS Active Threat Intelligence.
The opinions expressed in this post belong to the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Information Security Buzz.