Security information management (SIM) systems started to appear because of the fact that security experts really needed a substitute for manually sorting the growing number of security signals and alerts collected across numerous devices and networks.
SIM concept was created to automate the collection of event-log information from security equipment as well as assist users make sense of it by means of a universal administration console.
SIM makes use of event-correlation and data-aggregation technologies much like the network-management software packages and applies these to event logs received from security devices, like proxy servers, firewalls, antivirus software, and intrusion-detection systems.
SIM solutions may standardize data and convert Cisco and Check Point Software signals into a standard form to correlate the data.
There exists a marketing struggle over how to name these items. The security information-management (SIM) and security event-management (SEM) appeared practically at the same time. Manufacturers utilized separate acronyms to depict identical functions. SIM and SEM are basically the same; it simply boils down to the acronym the service provider selected.
Some people would say SEM surfaced earlier as a convenient array of features that grown to be a traditional element in more complicated SIM solutions. For example, SEM is used to accumulate log information from systems and devices, and that is also essential to pretty much any SIM system. However, other people would that SIM systems get the computer data gathering to the next stage.
SEM came out to remove the noise of all the alerts arriving from numerous systems and determine which incidents were threats in real time. In recent times, to also handle the appropriate demand for IT compliance. And finally, SIM introduced trend analysis, historical reporting, and long-term computer data storage.
At this moment, SIM products originate from start-ups and big security and management manufacturers alike.
The majority of start-up businesses deliver solutions built to wed the data collection and correlation capabilities of management software with the brainpower of security instruments.
Larger vendors discovered the potential of this technological know-how began acquisitions. Prominent vendors acquired mostly all SIM related start-ups.
As a result of challenges associated with meeting regulatory standards, more organizations have to carry out log management illustrate the integrity of their business procedures.
One more aspect that pushes the development within this industry is small-to-midsize companies exploring SIM. Since the solutions come to be simpler to use and less expensive, SMBs begin to pick up the technology. Right now, businesses with fewer than 1,000 workers account for only a very small percentage of the market, but in several years they could make up about half of all sales.
SIM solutions can turn into a bridge between business operations and IT. It will cultivate further cooperation since it flourishes in organizations of all types and sizes. SIM will likely be the major instrument for empowering security and operations teams to work together on turning business strategies into successful models; evaluating the danger of constant security challenges; and directing quick reactions to security threats.