Are You Overpaying for Logs?

19.03.25 08:21 PM By Aby Olival

How to Cut Costs Without Losing Critical Data

Why You're Probably Paying Too Much

Organisations often fall into the trap of collecting excessive log data "just in case." We get it: nobody wants to miss that critical piece of evidence during an incident investigation. However, logging everything - every login attempt, debug info, repetitive system events - quickly becomes overwhelming and costly. It's akin to holding onto every receipt from every coffee you've ever bought, "just in case." Your wallet fills up quickly, and there are better ways to store this information in case you need it one day. I'm not saying you shouldn't keep or your logs, but you can do it in a more intelligent and cost-effective way, acknowledging that the data in the logs themselves may be unnecessary to your purpose.

This "log-hoarding" habit not only inflates your storage and licensing fees, but it buries your critical alerts under mountains of irrelevant data, slowing your incident response and taxing your analysts.

Quick and Effective Ways to Reduce Your Log Costs

Good news: you don’t have to embark on a year-long project to start saving on log costs. Think of this as a bit of “Marie Kondo meets IT” – we’re going to tidy up that log closet and only keep what truly sparks joy (or at least, sparks useful insights). Here are some selected quick wins you can implement right away to reduce log volume and costs without losing critical data - download our whitepaper for a more comprehensive list:

Filter Redundant and Noisy Data: Start at the source by filtering out redundant fields and verbose metadata before it hits your SIEM. For example, timestamps in multiple formats or GUIDs repeated endlessly add little value but consume costly space. Both Splunk and Microsoft Sentinel offer built-in solutions (like Splunk's ingest-time filtering and Sentinel's Data Collection Rules) to help you easily implement this.
Consolidate Duplicate Events: If a single event generates multiple logs (like a VPN login event appearing across firewalls, VPN concentrators, and directory servers), consolidate them into one enriched event. Additionally, if your logs generate identical repetitive messages, aggregate them. Instead of indexing 100 identical error messages, store it once with a count of 100. Simple aggregations can cut log volumes by 10-20% instantly.
Leverage Tiered Storage and Intelligent Retention Policies: Not all log data deserves the same storage treatment. Prioritise your critical logs in high-performance storage and move less essential data - like verbose debug logs - to cheaper, lower-tier storage or archival solutions. For example, Splunk's archival index to AWS S3 or Azure Sentinel's Basic Logs can dramatically lower your ongoing storage costs.
Harness Tools Like Cribl for Smarter Log Routing: Pebble partners with Cribl, a powerful log routing tool that filters, transforms, and routes logs intelligently before they reach your SIEM or observability platform. Cribl can dramatically reduce data volume by selectively filtering redundant or irrelevant data. Best of all, Cribl is free to use up to 1 TB/day, giving you ample room to test the impact without upfront costs.

Real-World Wins: How Much Can You Actually Save?

In short, these quick wins are your log cleanup checklist: filter, consolidate, tier, and route. They’re relatively easy to implement and often yield immediate savings. It’s not unrealistic to reduce your log ingestion by 20–80% or more without losing any important data. (Yes, you read that right – you could cut your bill nearly in half just by trimming the fat!). And as a bonus, your analysts will thank you when their threat hunts no longer involve wading through endless noise.

One organization cut its firewall log volume by 62% simply by filtering trivial events. Another saved nearly $2 million annually by trimming redundant application logs and unnecessary Windows event logs.

The potential savings aren't just theoretical - they're proven results that free up budgets and let security teams focus on threats rather than sifting through noise.

Your Next Steps: Act Now and Save

By now, you might be thinking, “Okay, I know I have a problem – what do I do next?” Don’t worry, you don’t have to solve this alone (and you definitely don’t have to manually comb through each log line with a highlighter... unless that’s your idea of fun). Here are some concrete next steps to get your logging costs under control:

Take a Step Back and Assess: First, get visibility into what you’re logging and spending. Identify the top offenders – which sources are generating the most volume and cost? (Your SIEM or log platform likely has a usage dashboard for this). You might discover, for example, that one application’s debug logs are 40% of your ingest. Simply turning that off in production could save a fortune.
Download Our Free White Paper: We’ve compiled a comprehensive white paper, “The Ultimate Guide to Log Optimisation: Cutting Costs While Maximising Insights,” that deep dives into the strategies we touched on here. It’s chock full of real-world examples, case studies, and step-by-step guidance on filtering, routing, and retention tuning. If you want to arm yourself with a blueprint for log optimisation (and show your boss you’re not just winging it), this guide is a must-read. It expands on how to achieve that 20–50% log volume reduction without losing critical data, and it outlines platform-specific tips for Splunk, Sentinel, Elastic, and more. Best of all, it’s written in plain English – no PhD in log management required.
Get a Log Health Check (Free Assessment): Sometimes you need a fresh pair of eyes. Sign up for our Log Health Check – a free assessment where our logging experts (yes, we’re nerds about this stuff) review your current log setup. Think of it like taking your car to a mechanic for a tune-up. We’ll identify immediate areas of savings, like redundant data you can drop or misconfigured retention policies. Often, we find quick wins in just a few hours that can slash tens of thousands off your SIEM bill annually. We’ll give you a report of recommendations tailored to your environment. Whether you have Splunk, Sentinel, or another tool, our team knows the ins and outs (we live and breathe logs). There’s zero obligation – whether you implement the tips yourself or engage us to help, you’ll at least know where you stand and how much you could be saving.
Implement & Iterate: Log optimisation isn’t a one-and-done project – it’s an ongoing habit. Start with the low-hanging fruit identified from the steps above. Maybe you begin by filtering out a few noisy Windows Event IDs and see immediate savings. Then you consolidate those duplicate VPN logs that were flooding your SIEM. Track the savings (it feels good, trust me) and celebrate them. Then rinse and repeat. Set a calendar reminder to review your logging strategy quarterly. As new systems come online or updates happen, logs can creep back up. But now you’ll have the mindset and tools to keep things lean and efficient. Over time, this becomes part of your team’s culture – logging with purpose, not by default.
Consider Enlisting a Partner (if needed): If you find this overwhelming or just have bigger fish to fry, consider bringing in a partner (like us, cue shameless plug) who specialises in log management and SIEM cost optimisation. We work with companies to implement solutions like Cribl, fine-tune Splunk ingest rules, build long-term log retention roadmaps, and even leverage AI-driven log reduction techniques. The ROI on such projects is typically very high – you’re directly cutting recurring costs and improving security operations. Whether you do it in-house or with help, the important thing is to take action. Every day that passes with the status quo is literally money down the drain.