How much does managed SIEM cost?

$3,000 to $5,000 a month for most small and mid-sized businesses, with heavier log volumes pushing toward $10,000. Compare that to $1.5M to $2.5M a year to staff an in-house SOC, and the managed model wins for almost anyone under a few hundred people.

Do we still need this if we already have a firewall and antivirus?

Yes, and they do different jobs. A firewall blocks traffic and antivirus blocks malware. A SIEM watches what all those tools report, correlates it, and catches the lateral movement a single tool never sees. Prevention and detection aren't the same layer.

Is a SIEM required for compliance?

Effectively, for several frameworks. PCI DSS Requirement 10 demands centralized logging, daily review, and 12 months of retention. CMMC and NIST 800-171 require the same for Level 2. If a framework applies to you, the logging capability isn't optional.

Can you run the SIEM we already bought?

Usually, yes. We support co-managed engagements on existing Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, and Elastic deployments, adding the monitoring and correlation tuning that was missing. You don't always have to rip and replace.

What size company is SIEM as a service for?

We serve businesses between 20 and 500 users well. Below that, a full SIEM is often overkill. Above it, some companies build their own operation. The sweet spot is the mid-market team with a compliance mandate and no 24/7 security staff.

SIEM as a Service

Managed SIEM with a real security team behind it, so the alerts get read at 3 a.m. instead of blinking in an empty office.

Enterprise security teams now field close to 3,000 alerts a day, and 61% of teams admit ignoring ones that later turned out to be critical. (UnderDefense, 2026)

SIEM as a service is managed SIEM. A provider collects your logs, correlates them, tunes the detection rules, and staffs a 24/7 team to investigate alerts, so the platform catches threats instead of blinking in an empty room. You get the detection capability without building a million-dollar security operation.

A SIEM Nobody Watches Protects Nothing

Most companies don't buy a SIEM because they want one. They buy it because a cyber-insurance renewal asked for log monitoring, or an auditor pointed at PCI DSS Requirement 10, or a bigger customer put security terms in a contract. So the platform gets purchased. The dashboard lights up. And then the alerts start.

That's where it falls apart. A SIEM doesn't keep you safe. The people reading it do. Buy the platform without anyone to watch it and you've installed 40 security cameras pointed at an empty chair. This page is about the other model, where managed cybersecurity means a team actually watches the SIEM, tunes it, and acts when it fires.

We run security operations for a living, so fair warning, we're not a neutral party here. But the data backs the point independently, and we'll show our sources as we go.

What Managed SIEM Actually Includes

A SIEM platform is one line item. A working detection program is five. When you hand SIEM to Consilien, here's what the engagement covers, and what most sell-you-the-license pitches quietly leave out.

Managed SIEM log collection hub wired to firewall, laptop, cloud, and server with an analyst reviewing alerts

DIY, Co-Managed, or Fully Managed SIEM

Three ways to run a SIEM. The right one depends on whether you have a security team and how many hours you can actually cover.

	DIY SIEM	Co-Managed SIEM	Fully Managed SIEM
Who runs it	Your team	Your team plus Consilien	Consilien
24/7 coverage	Only if you staff it	Consilien covers the gaps	Yes, always
Best for	300+ users with a real security team	A lean IT team that needs after-hours coverage	20 to 500 users, no security staff
Rough monthly cost	$2K to $8K tooling, plus salaries	Mid-range retainer	$3K to $5K, scales with log volume
The trap	Shelfware nobody watches	Gaps if roles aren't clear	Picking a provider that only emails alerts

Co-Managed or Fully Managed. The Real Decision.

The question isn't really which SIEM platform. It's who runs it. Three models exist, and picking the wrong one is how security budgets get spent on noise.

If you've already got a security analyst or two, you may just need help covering the hours you can't staff. That's co-managed. If you have no security team and no plan to build one, fully managed is almost always the smarter buy. And if you're a 400-person shop with the budget for a staffed operation, maybe you build it yourself. Most companies under a few hundred people don't, and the math is why.

Building and staffing a 24/7 in-house security operation runs $1.5M to $2.5M a year once you count enough analysts to cover nights and weekends without anyone burning out. Managed SIEM lands most small and mid-sized businesses in the $3,000 to $5,000 a month range, heavier log volumes pushing toward $10,000. Same detection capability. A fraction of the payroll.

That last point matters more than the price. A SIEM you own but don't monitor is the single most expensive mistake we see, and it's not close.

The Compliance Reason SIEM Shows Up At All

For a lot of businesses, threat detection isn't what gets the budget approved. Compliance is. And several frameworks require centralized logging whether or not you call it a SIEM.

PCI DSS Requirement 10 demands centralized log collection, daily review, and 12 months of retention. That's SIEM capability under a different name. CMMC and NIST 800-171 require the same logging and alerting for Level 2. SOC 2 auditors want the audit trail on demand. If one of these applies to you, check which standards actually apply before you spend a dollar on tooling.

One note, and it's a real one. Compliance is a separate Consilien offering, not something bundled into managed IT. A SIEM helps you meet a logging control. It doesn't make you compliant on its own. Our compliance readiness work is where the frameworks get mapped end to end.

The Numbers Behind the Model

Three numbers explain why the managed model keeps winning.

~3,000/day

Alerts a typical enterprise security team now fields every 24 hours. Alert-fatigue research found 61% of teams ignored alerts that turned out critical. Volume without triage isn't protection.

UnderDefense, 2026

+34%

Gartner projects AI-augmented SIEM will grow 34% through 2027, with AI handling more first-pass triage. The managed model gets cheaper and sharper at the same time.

Gartner, via UnderDefense 2026

$1.5M vs $3K

The yearly cost of a staffed in-house SOC against the monthly cost of managed SIEM. For most companies under a few hundred people, that gap ends the debate.

UnderDefense Managed SIEM Pricing, 2026

How We Stand Up Your SIEM

No magic. Five steps, and the ambiguity comes out of each one so you know exactly what happens after you call.

1. Assess

We map your environment, what you run, what you're required to log, and what's worth monitoring. Often this starts with a cyber threat assessment so we're defending real risks, not guesses.

2. Connect Log Sources

We wire in the systems that matter and normalize their formats so events can be compared. Getting logs flowing takes days.

3. Tune Correlation

We write and refine the detection rules to your environment. This is the part that cuts false positives, and it's ongoing.

4. Monitor 24/7

Our security operations center watches the queue around the clock and triages what fires.

5. Report and Refine

You get the compliance reporting and the monthly tuning that keeps detection sharp as your environment changes. Anyone promising a fully tuned SIEM in a week is selling the box, not the outcome.

SIEM, SOC, MDR. Sorting the Acronyms.

Quick clarifier, because the alphabet soup is half the confusion. A SIEM is a tool. A SOC is the team running it. MDR is a delivery model where a provider does both for you. If you want the deep version, here's how a SIEM works under the hood and how SIEM stacks up against MDR and MSSP.

What Is SIEM as a Service?

SIEM as a service is a managed offering where a provider owns the operation of your Security Information and Event Management platform, collecting and correlating logs, tuning detection, monitoring alerts 24/7, and handling compliance reporting, so your business gets threat detection and audit-ready logging without hiring a security team.

Term	What it is	The one-line difference
SIEM	Software that collects and correlates logs	The log-and-alert engine
SOC	The team and process running the tools	People, not software
MDR	A provider runs detection and response for you	Includes the humans and the action

Who This Is For, and Who It Is Not

Managed SIEM isn't right for everyone, and we'd rather you self-select out now than six months in.

You're a strong fit if you:

Run a company between 20 and 500 users in manufacturing, distribution, food processing, real estate management, or professional services.
Face a logging mandate from PCI DSS, CMMC, NIST 800-171, SOC 2, or a cyber-insurance policy.
Have IT staff who are already stretched and can't realistically watch a security queue at 2 a.m.
Handle regulated data, cardholder information, or controlled unclassified information.

You're probably not the right fit if you:

Already run a fully staffed 24/7 security operations center. You don't need us to watch it.
Are a 5-person shop with no compliance obligation and a simple cloud footprint. A SIEM is likely overkill; start with endpoint protection and MFA.
Want a platform license and nothing else. We sell the watching, not just the watcher.

Consilien is not healthcare-focused, and we don't do checkbox security. If either is what you're after, we're the wrong call.

Small IT team with monitored security versus a full in-house SOC, Consilien green and gray line art

The Questions Keeping You From Deciding

"Isn't it cheaper to just buy the SIEM ourselves?"

Only on the invoice. Licensing is rarely more than 40% of the real cost of running a SIEM. The rest is storage, tuning, integration, and the analysts to operate it. Buy the license alone and you've bought a dashboard nobody watches.

"We already own a SIEM. Now what?"

Good, we can probably run the one you have. Co-managed engagements often keep an existing Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, or Elastic deployment and add the monitoring and tuning that was missing. You don't always have to start over.

"How do we know you'll actually respond, not just forward alerts?"

Fair question, and it's the whole game. On a fully managed engagement, when a threat is confirmed, we act, isolate the endpoint, lock the account, stop the spread, then tell you what we did. Not notify. Respond.

"How long until it's working?"

Logs flowing in days. Genuinely tuned in months. We're honest about that timeline because the vendors who promise a week are describing installation, not detection.

You Don't Need a Better SIEM. You Need Someone Watching It.

Every unread alert is a window an attacker gets to keep open. The average breach still runs undetected for months, and nobody was watching is the reason more often than any missing tool.

You don't need a better SIEM. You need someone watching it. If you're weighing whether to own a SIEM or hand it to a team that watches it around the clock, start with a real look at your environment.

Common Questions About Managed SIEM

What is the difference between SIEM and SIEM as a service?

One is the tool, the other is the tool plus the team. SIEM is the software that collects and correlates logs. SIEM as a service adds the people who tune it, watch it 24/7, and respond when it fires. Most businesses need the second one.

Talk to the team that watches the SIEM at 3 a.m.

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