The Critical Role of Telemetry Pipelines in 2025 and Beyond

The beginning of 2025 has introduced some key complexities that CISOs will need to navigate going forward. With digitalization taking hold of almost every industry in some form or another, telemetry pipelines are emerging as essential tools. By facilitating the efficient collection and transmission of vast amounts of data, these pipelines enable real-time insights and proactive threat detection. So why do telemetry pipelines matter to cybersecurity?

Telemetry involves the automated collection of data from various systems and devices to monitor performance, detect anomalies, and ensure security. Modern telemetry pipelines extend to not only gathering data but also processing, analyzing, and routing it to appropriate destinations for further action. There are several factors contributing to the increased significance of pipelines in cybersecurity:

Growing Complexity of Distributed Systems: Modern IT infrastructures often consist of numerous interconnected services and applications. Monitoring each component separately without recognizing overall correlation can lead to visibility gaps, making it challenging to address issues promptly. Telemetry and observability pipelines offer centralized monitoring, enabling swift resolution of anomalies across the entire system.
Increasing Volume of Security Data: The sheer volume of security-related data generated by various sources can overwhelm traditional monitoring systems. Observability pipelines filter and route relevant data, reducing noise and ensuring that critical information is available for analysis.
Importance of Real-Time Threat Detection: In cybersecurity, the speed of threat detection and response is crucial. Telemetry pipelines facilitate real-time or near-real-time data processing, allowing security teams to respond to threats promptly and minimize potential damage.
Greater Emphasis on Regulatory Compliance: Most industries are subject to stringent regulatory requirements regarding data security and privacy. Implementing telemetry and observability pipelines helps organizations maintain compliance by ensuring comprehensive monitoring and reporting capabilities.

Key Use Cases

Organizations can leverage telemetry and observability pipelines to address a variety of cybersecurity challenges effectively. There are a few particular use cases that illustrate how these pipelines enhance operational efficiency and bolster security strategies. Here is why CISOs should take notice:

Centralized Telemetry Data Collection and Routing

Organizations generate data (logs, metrics and traces) from multiple sources, including servers, applications, network devices, and endpoints. Without a centralized system, managing and analyzing this data becomes cumbersome. Telemetry pipelines collect data from disparate sources, then route it to appropriate tools or storage systems. This ensures that operational IT and security teams have a unified view of all activities within the organization, enabling smooth operations.

Optimizing SIEM and Monitoring Costs

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems are integral to modern cybersecurity strategies. However, the cost of using SIEM solutions often escalates with the volume of ingested data. Technology that can help reduce these costs by filtering data before it reaches the SIEM is crucial to improved success. By prioritizing only relevant data, organizations can significantly lower their SIEM expenses while maintaining effective monitoring. This cost optimization also enables organizations to scale their security operations without breaking their budgets.

Compliance with Regulations

Industries like healthcare, finance, and energy are subject to strict regulatory requirements such as ISO27001, SOC2, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. Telemetry and observability pipelines simplify compliance by ensuring that all security-related data is collected, stored, and reported according to regulatory standards. This reduces the administrative burden on organizations while at the same time ensuring adherence to evolving legal requirements.

Operational Technology (OT) Monitoring

OT environments, such as SCADA and ICS systems, are increasingly targeted by cyberattacks due to their critical nature. These systems are vital to industries like manufacturing, energy, and transportation, where downtime or breaches can have severe consequences. Observability pipelines are crucial for monitoring OT systems by collecting telemetry from industrial devices and integrating it with broader IT security strategies. This ensures that security teams can detect and mitigate threats across both IT and OT environments.

Implementing Effective Telemetry Pipelines

To maximize the benefits of these pipelines, organizations should consider the following best practices:

Implement filtering mechanisms early in the pipeline to eliminate redundant information, reducing log noise and improving data flow efficiency.
Add more data context for a faster and automated response.
Standardize collected data into a common format to facilitate easier comparison and analysis, aiding in effective threat detection and response.
Ensure that critical data is prioritized and routed appropriately to minimize latency in processing time-sensitive information.
Integrate seamlessly with existing security tools, such as SIEM systems, to enhance the overall effectiveness of the cybersecurity infrastructure.
Lastly, maintain high availability in order to avoid downtime and data loss.

As cybersecurity threats continue to mature and grow in complexity and scale, the adoption of telemetry pipelines will be crucial for organizations striving to maintain robust security postures in 2025 and beyond. These pipelines provide the necessary infrastructure for comprehensive monitoring, real-time threat detection, and efficient incident response, enabling organizations to navigate cybersecurity challenges effectively.