The SIEM Tax: Why Compliance Doesn’t Require Complexity
If a client needs compliance, managed service providers (MSP) have typically bought a SIEM.
SIEM is the standard industry answer — and it’s also the most expensive one.
While security information and event management (SIEM) tools are powerful, they impose a heavy ‘tax’ on MSPs. Aside from licensing fees, there are engineering hours, alert fatigue, and infrastructure complexity.
Leading MSPs, however, know the goal isn’t just to pass an audit. Today, the goal is to pass the audit without destroying your margins.
Here’s why the era of the heavy SIEM is ending, and why compliance-based MDR is the lean alternative you’ve been waiting for.
What is the SIEM Tax?
In cybersecurity, the SIEM tax is the gap between what you pay for and what you actually use.
Traditional SIEMs were built for large-scale enterprises with dedicated internal security teams. When an MSP adopts one to satisfy a compliance checklist for a 50-person medical practice, it inherits the enterprise complexity without the enterprise budget.
The SIEM tax shows up in three ways:
- Data Tax: SIEM pricing often scales by ingestion volume. As your client grows, your bill explodes, even if you’re just storing ‘cold’ logs for an auditor.
- Talent Tax: A SIEM is not a set-it-and-forget-it tool. It requires constant tuning, rule writing, and parsing. If you don’t have a dedicated SIEM engineer, your Level 3 technicians will waste billable hours managing a tool instead of managing clients.
- Noise Tax: Without constant tuning, SIEMs generate thousands of low-fidelity alerts. This creates alert fatigue, causing your team to potentially miss the actual fire because they were too busy putting out false alarms.
But Do I Need a SIEM for Specific Compliance?
The short answer is not necessarily.
Regulations like NIST 800-171, CMMC, and HIPAA do not explicitly mandate that you purchase and operate a SIEM-labeled tool.
NIST log requires mandate that you must:
- Capture specific audit logs.
- Retain logs for a set period (often 365 days).
- Review logs for anomalies.
- Protect logs from tampering.
You need the capability of log retention and review. Yet you don’t necessarily need all the complexity of a traditional SIEM to achieve it.
Here’s the Alternative: Compliance MDR
If the goal is to satisfy the auditor and secure the environment, there’s a more efficient path: compliance MDR.
This approach decouples logging from alerting.
In this model, your MDR provider, such as Blackpoint, handles the active threat detection and response using its own high-fidelity technology. Meanwhile, the lightweight logging module, like Blackpoint’s LogIC, runs in the background to satisfy the compliance retention requirements.
The SIEM tax is eliminated entirely:
- No Tuning: The MDR provider manages the detection logic.
- No Storage Fees: Logs are stored for compliance (often included in the price) without complex data-tiering.
- Automated Mapping: Instead of building custom reports, the system automatically maps logs to frameworks.
Comparison: Traditional SIEM vs Streamlined SIEM
For an MSP managing multiple regulated environments, the difference between traditional SIEM and streamlined SIEM in operational overhead is massive.
| Feature | Traditional SIEM | Streamlined SIEM |
| Primary Goal | Deep analytics and custom queries | Audit readiness and log retention |
| Setup Time | Weeks/months (engineering-heavy) | Minutes (push-button deployment) |
| Maintenance | High (requires constant rule tuning) | Zero (managed by vendor) |
| Cost Model | Variable (data ingestion and storage fees) | Predictable (per-user/endpoint) |
| Compliance Mapping | Manual configuration required | Automated |
| Threat Response | Passive; alerts your team to fix it | Active; SOC responds immediately |
Blackpoint’s Unified Advantage: The CompassOne Platform
The strongest argument for moving away from a standalone SIEM is unification.
When you use a SIEM alternative for MSPs like Blackpoint’s LogIC, you aren’t just storing logs in a vacuum. You’re feeding data into the same ecosystem that handles your endpoint detection and response (EDR) and cloud security.
This is the power of Blackpoint’s CompassOne platform:
- The SOC sees the context. Because the logs are integrated, Blackpoint’s 24/7 SOC uses the data to make faster decisions during an active incident.
- You see the posture. You instantly generate reports showing exactly which controls are satisfied, turning a stressful audit into a 10-minute export task.
Stop Paying for Cybersecurity ‘Shelfware’
If you’re paying thousands of dollars each month for a SIEM that you only log into once a year when the auditor calls, you’re overpaying.
Compliance shouldn’t require a PhD in data engineering. By shifting to a compliance MDR model, you satisfy log requirements, keep your margins healthy, and free your technicians to focus on what matters: serving clients and growing the business.
Ready to drop the SIEM tax? See how Blackpoint automates compliance logging without the complexity.