Data access: the hidden cost of security vendor lock-in
Elastic compares SIEM data egress cost, latency, and fidelity across CrowdStrike, Microsoft, Google, and Splunk, arguing vendors engineer lock-in.
Elastic Security Labs published an opinion piece comparing how major SIEM and security vendors handle data egress, based on each vendor's public documentation as of September 2026. It rates CrowdStrike Falcon Data Replicator and Palo Alto Networks XSIAM Event Forwarding as restricted (paid add-ons with batch delays), Microsoft as partially open, Splunk as open, and Elastic as open with no export license. The piece argues frictionless ingestion paired with licensed or delayed egress is an intentional lock-in business model, and cites CrowdStrike's 2026 Global Threat Report eCrime breakout time of 29 minutes to argue real-time telemetry access is now essential.
- CrowdStrike FDR and Palo Alto XSIAM forwarding rated restricted: paid add-ons with batch windows
- Microsoft Defender streaming rated partially open: real-time but limited fields and Azure-only
- Splunk and Elastic rated open: on-demand full-fidelity JSON via included APIs
- Defines open data as free access, full fidelity, and real-time availability
- Cites 29-minute average eCrime breakout time and a 4-minute exfiltration case
- Organizations
- ElasticCrowdStrike
From the original article
7 min read at elastic.co
Getting data into a security platform is always easy; getting it back out is where vendors add cost, extra tooling, and latency, and it is the part of the evaluation most teams overlook.
By Mike Nichols,Jamie Hynds · elastic.co
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