IBM is selling its QRadar security assets, including its Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), to long-time partner Palo Alto Networks.

While IBM has an extensive portfolio of its security technologies, there have been complaints that it needs to be faster to innovate and its real strength is in consultative services. Picking up the IBM SIEM technology fills an important hole in Palo Alto Networks’ already broad set of cloud-based security solutions.

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May has been an active month for deals involving one of the foundational cybersecurity technologies – SIEM. SIEM solutions provide SOC analysts with data on anomalous behaviour and threats essential to isolating malicious activity and identifying breaches.

IBM may be leading the charge

The companies are positioning the move as benefiting customers who want to pick up a full stack of integrated security technology from a single vendor. IBM will train 1,000 Palo Alto employees on the QRadar technology, and provide consulting services for it, effectively acting as a QRadar reseller. IBM is working with other third-party channel partners to integrate them into the Palo Alto partner network.

Exabeam, arguably best known for its user behavioural analytics, and SIEM vendor LogRhythm are merging to create a more cohesive and complete security solution set. LogRhythm, which stumbled getting out of the gate with cloud-based security solutions, may benefit from Exabeam’s experience in delivering security-as-a-service solutions. That said, it is hard to predict how integration efforts will go and whether this tie-up helps or hurts prospects with new clients and relations with existing ones.

The pressure is on

The pressure is on enterprises to balance executing on an effective security strategy against tightening budgets. Add the complexity associated with managing too many discrete security solutions and the task at hand gets that much more difficult. Increasingly, customers are calling on security providers to deliver multi-function solutions that better integrate data from other sources.

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Another challenge is that while a provider excels in one particular set of security capabilities, it might be missing other aspects. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can be one of the fastest and, depending on how the integration is managed, more efficient ways to close these gaps.