For organizations relying on IBM QRadar, the project of switching to a new platform may seem complex. However, with QRadar being increasingly recognized as a legacy system, moving to a more modern and maintained solution is crucial for staying ahead and facilitating security operations.

IBM QRadar has been a trusted solution for many years. However, as security threats evolve and security operations are becoming more complex, the need for strong efficiency in security tools has never been more important (multiplication of security consoles, volumes of logs, etc.).
Sekoia Defend represents a next-generation solution designed to meet today’s cybersecurity demands with a flexible, modern and cloud-native platform. Sekoia is actively maintained and continually updated to stay ahead of the latest threats and security best-practices.

In this article, we’ll explore why making the switch from QRadar to Sekoia Defend is a rewarding experience and how Sekoia’s state-of-the-art platform offers unparalleled flexibility and power.

Benefit from a cloud-native SOC platform

Modern & efficient user experience

QRadar’s user interface is known for being complex and sometimes outdated, which can slow down daily security operations. Sekoia offers a modern and intuitive front-end designed with security operations efficiency in mind, enabling faster investigations & responses.
Additionally, QRadar is often criticized for its relatively slow performance when searching or hunting for logs. In contrast, Sekoia leverages a fully scalable and cloud-native infrastructure to deliver exceptional search speed and efficiency.

Collaborative environment

Sekoia allows a collaborative approach, enabling security teams to work together seamlessly. Unlike QRadar, which often feels siloed and rigid, Sekoia’s architecture is designed for fluid collaboration across detection, investigation, and incident response workflows. On Sekoia, users can collaborate and share their work while investigating a security event, while building an incident response scenario, etc.

Regular updates and continuous maintenance

One major challenge with traditional SIEMs like QRadar is maintaining and updating detection rules, integrations, threat intelligence feeds, etc.
Thanks to its cloud-native architecture & approach regular updates, directly integrated into the platform, reducing the operational burden on SOC teams.

🔑 Key takeaway: Sekoia replaces QRadar’s monolithic architecture with a cloud-native, collaborative, and continuously updated SOC platform, designed for efficiency and scalability.

Leverage cutting-edge detection capabilities

Native catalog of rules and powerful detection engines

Sekoia offers a catalog of more than 1 000 native detection rules, constantly updated and tailored to balance false positives and detection efficiency.
These rules span diverse threats, including operating systems (Windows, Linux), cyber threat intelligence (CTI), network activities, tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs).

With Sekoia, you can also easily create and customize detection rules using a user-friendly console. It is also possible to manage rules at scale centrally through GitHub (have a look to our dedicated blog article to learn more about this).
Sekoia native rules and user-built custom rules rely on four powerful detection engines:

• IoC-matching: Match observed activities with known IoCs.
• SIGMA: Industry-standard, vendor-agnostic detection rules.
• SIGMA Correlation: Advanced threat correlation capabilities.
• Anomaly detection: Identify abnormal patterns in vast datasets.

SIGMA standard: Open and transparent detection framework

QRadar mostly rely on a proprietary Custom Rules Engine (CRE) with a complex and rigid syntax, requiring specialized training to write and maintain rules. While powerful, these rules are vendor-locked, making them non-portable across other platforms and limiting flexibility during migrations or tool integrations.
In contrast, SIGMA is an open, platform-agnostic standard designed for clarity, portability, and collaboration:

• Open standard: SIGMA rules use a vendor-neutral YAML format, ensuring compatibility across multiple security platforms.
• Ease of use: The human-readable syntax makes rule creation and adjustments straightforward, reducing the need for specific skills.
• Community-driven : A global cybersecurity community actively maintains and improves the SIGMA framework, ensuring alignment with evolving threats and continuous updates.
• Flexibility: Rules can be easily customized to reduce false positives and fine-tune detection accuracy.

Advanced IoC-hunting capabilities

Sekoia is redefining how companies approach IoC matching. Unlike legacy solutions that rely heavily on manual processes, Sekoia offers an automated and scalable way to match millions of IoCs in real time and retroactively (based on validity date of IoCs).
Sekoia Intelligence (CTI) contains a comprehensive list of contextualized IoCs, including IPs, URLs, domains names and file hashes, that is solely built to reinforce your detection capabilities. Sekoia’s detection engine continuously scans all your logs and network traffic for known threat indicators without requiring human intervention. This allows organizations to focus on higher-value tasks while Sekoia Defend works in the background to catch potential threats.

🔑 Key takeaway: Sekoia’s full adoption of the SIGMA standard and versatile detection engines provide flexibility and scalability unmatched by QRadar’s proprietary rule format.

Benefit from included SOAR and CTI capabilities

SOAR capabilities: Included incident response

Sekoia offers native Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) capabilities fully integrated into its platform, eliminating the need for costly third-party tools and complex integrations often required with QRadar. This integration enables:

• Integrated workflows: Execute incident response directly within the platform, streamlining operations and allowing swift communication with third party security tools for incident response (EDR, firewalls, etc.)
• Automation: Trigger automated response actions seamlessly from security alerts and cases, reducing manual intervention and response time.
• Simplified deployment: Avoid the complexity of additional integrations, enabling faster setup and operational efficiency.

In contrast to QRadar, where SOAR functionality often relies on separate modules, Sekoia’s native SOAR integration ensures faster, smoother, and more cost-effective incident response workflows.

CTI capabilities: Intelligence-driven detection

Sekoia includes a native, commercial-grade Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) fully integrated into its platform, unlike QRadar, which often requires third-party feeds and complex integrations. This integration enables:

• Seamless IoC-matching detection: Native use of an extensive IoC feed directly within customer logs, requiring zero deployment effort to activate detection logic.
• In-depth contextualization of security operations: Immediate access to a high-level CTI library, including detailed threat profiles, malware descriptions, attack campaigns, and sector-specific intelligence reports, providing a comprehensive understanding of the threat landscape.

In contrast to QRadar’s reliance on external feeds and manual configurations, Sekoia’s built-in CTI ensures faster deployment, superior threat context, and enhanced detection efficiency.

🔑 Key takeaway: While QRadar relies heavily on third-party integrations for SOAR and CTI, Sekoia provides these features natively, reducing complexity and operational costs.

Easy migration to Sekoia platform

Data sources: simplified integration

Migrating from QRadar to Sekoia is designed to be seamless and disruption-free, ensuring detection continuity throughout the transition. Sekoia simplifies this process with:

• Extensive integration catalog: A wide range of more than 250 pre-built connectors enables effortless integration with existing data sources (Sekoia integration catalog).
• Rapid deployment: Sekoia integrations were designed to be operational in minutes, allowing you to collect your data in no-time.

In contrast to QRadar’s often complex migration processes, Sekoia’s streamlined integration reduce deployment time and ensure uninterrupted security operations.

Detection Rules: Easy Conversion

Migrating detection rules from QRadar to Sekoia is significantly simplified thanks to the use of the open, standardized SIGMA format. SIGMA rules are written in human-readable YAML syntax, making them easier to manage, modify, and audit.
Existing QRadar rules can be easily converted into SIGMA rules using freely available conversion tools, minimizing manual effort and ensuring consistency during migration.
In contrast to QRadar’s proprietary and rigid rule format, Sekoia’s adoption of SIGMA ensures easier rule management, better portability, and long-term adaptability.

🔑 Key takeaway: Migration from QRadar to Sekoia is simplified through modern connectors, pre-built integrations, and standardized detection rules (SIGMA), ensuring minimal disruption.

Conclusion: A clear path forward

Transitioning from QRadar to Sekoia represents a strategic investment in the future of your SOC. With its modern architecture, integrated SOAR and CTI capabilities, advanced detection engines, proactive threat hunting tools, and seamless migration process, Sekoia delivers a significant upgrade over traditional SIEM platforms like QRadar.
If you’re ready to enhance your SOC operations, reduce complexity, and future-proof your cybersecurity strategy, Sekoia is the answer.
By making the switch from IBM QRadar to Sekoia, you’re not just migrating to a new tool—you’re investing in a future-proof platform and positioning your organization for long-time success.

Take a tour of Sekoia SOC platform

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