Modern IT infrastructure generates thousands of logs every second. Web servers, databases, applications, network devices, and security tools all leave records of their activity. Reviewing these logs manually is absolutely impossible, yet they often contain signs of an attack. SIEM systems were created specifically to solve this problem, performing the task of log monitoring and security event management.
What SIEM does
A SIEM system (Security Information and Event Management) centrally collects logs from various sources, normalizes them, and analyzes them in real time. Using correlation rules, it finds related events, identifies suspicious behavior patterns, and alerts the security team. For example, if one user logs in from different countries within a short time, this is an impossible travel event, and SIEM immediately generates an alert. SIEM also automates compliance reporting for regulatory requirements.
Splunk — the commercial leader
In the corporate market, the most well-known SIEM solution is the Splunk Enterprise Security platform. Splunk has a very powerful search language called SPL, capable of quickly processing even petabytes of logs. Splunk dashboards and visualizations are considered the best for displaying security events, and the solution is used in many Fortune 500 companies. Additional products like Splunk Cloud and Splunk Phantom add SOAR functionality. The main drawback is the high cost, since Splunk licensing is calculated based on the daily log volume processed.
ELK Stack — open source alternative
In the open source ecosystem, the most popular solution is the ELK Stack, consisting of Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana. Elasticsearch is used for storing and searching logs and offers very high performance. Logstash accepts logs from various sources, parses, and enriches them. Kibana serves visualization and dashboard purposes. With the addition of Beats agents and the Elastic Security plugin, this stack has become a full-fledged SIEM platform. The advantages of ELK are flexibility and strong community support.
Sayt.uz practice
The Sayt.uz infrastructure uses a centralized log collection system built on Graylog. All web servers, databases, WAF, and payment systems send logs in real time. Correlation rules deployed in 2025 detect brute force attacks within 12 seconds and automatically block suspicious IP addresses. This service is included in hosting plans starting from 95,000 soums, meaning every client uses log monitoring without extra cost. A special security audit package for corporate clients starts at 1,800,000 soums and includes SOC connectivity. The system processes more than 4.2 billion log entries every month.