The acquisitions of Splunk by Cisco and IBM QRadar by Palo Alto are shaking up the SIEM market. What is the future for SIEM and the cybersecurity industry as a whole?

The cybersecurity market is highly competitive and SIEM (Security information event management) has always been the embodiment of this. According to Gartner, there are currently around twenty players in the market competing for the top position.

However, a lot has changed in the market recently. A series of acquisitions and mergers between major players seem to be turning the situation in the SIEM market on its head.

Splunk and QRadar

Cisco threw in the towel in the fourth quarter of 2023 and announced the acquisition of Splunk, a deal that closed in March for $28 billion. The duo are discussing a plan to bundle Splunk’s SIEM solution into Cisco’s SOAR platform, which focuses on analytics from the cloud, network and endpoint. A multi-cloud observation platform is also on the agenda.

A month later, Palo Alto joined the debate by acquiring QRadar from IBM. Once again, the integration of the SIEM solution into Palo Alto’s broader portfolio is being discussed. According to Gartner, this is an indication of where the future of SIEM lies.

“To me it means IBM is abandoning SIEM and wants its customers to move to XDR. While Palo Alto doesn’t want the technology, they just want QRadar’s customers,” analyst Peter Firstbook told SDX Central.

Domino effect

Gartner predicts that the first dominoes have been toppled with the acquisitions of Splunk and QRadar. Smaller market players such as LogRhythm and Exabeam are considering a merger. Other parties could follow Splunk’s path and join forces with one of the major security providers that sees SIEM as a sensible addition to the portfolio.

This evolution may not only be happening in the SIEM market. The shift from on-premise to cloud security has transformed the industry. The cybersecurity industry may transform in the coming years from a multitude of smaller, specialized players to a consolidated market with a few large players offering integrated platforms.