Thanks to the commoditization of big data technologies previously affordable only to the largest corporations, any company can now collect, store and analyze large amounts of unstructured information in real time. The market for security analytics solutions is growing rapidly, with both large veteran vendors and numerous startups offering solutions that promise to greatly improve detection of sophisticated external and internal security threats, reduce incident response times and lower costs and administration effort for the IT department.

As the results of our study clearly indicate, general awareness of various security analytics technologies is high across all surveyed industries. So, what is preventing companies from deploying these solutions?

Respondents to our ‘Big Data Security Analytics’ survey were asked to name the biggest obstacles and problems that they are facing when using or planning to use security analytics solutions in their organizations.

Biggest challenges for big data security analytics solutions (n=293)

Unsurprisingly, the single most important challenge for many companies, especially those based in the European Union, was data privacy. With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into force in 2018, companies were running out of time to become compliant or face significant financial penalties.

Another challenge was the lack of resources, be it in the form of inadequate technical know-how, a skills gap in the workforce or a lack of support from management. One possible way to address these challenges is to look for vendors offering managed services or even solutions deployed in the cloud. By identifying potential quick wins and looking for solutions for their specific security problems, organizations can easily find a product for any budget.