11_2 Detection at Edge

What is "Detection at Edge"?

Detection at Edge is BluSapphire's shift-left architecture that allows customers to deploy threat detection capabilities at the cloud edge, data center edge, or branch edge — exactly where logs are generated. This eliminates the traditional requirement to move massive volumes of log data to centralized SIEM infrastructure or SaaS platforms.

The Paradigm Shift

Traditional SIEM Architecture:

Branch/Cloud → Forward All Logs → Central SIEM → Detect Threats
                (Expensive)        (Vendor Lock-in)

BluSapphire Detection at Edge:

Branch/Cloud → Detect at Edge → Send Metadata/Alerts Only → Central Console
              (Local Storage)    (98% Cost Reduction)        (Unified View)

Core Value Propositions

Data Sovereignty & Complete Control

The Problem with Traditional SIEMs:

  • Competitors (Splunk, QRadar, Elastic, DNIF) require logs to be forwarded to centralized infrastructure

  • Data must leave customer premises/cloud VPC

  • Shared control with vendor

  • Complex multi-region deployments require separate instances

BluSapphire's Solution:

  • Logs stay where generated — never leave customer premises or cloud region

  • Customer owns 100% of their data

  • Independent edge deployments per region/site

  • Perfect data residency — data never crosses jurisdictional boundaries

Business Impact:

  • Complete control over sensitive data

  • Simplified sovereign cloud compliance

  • No vendor access to raw logs

  • Clear audit trail (logs never moved)

98% Cost Reduction

The Hidden Cost of Traditional SIEMs:

  • Cloud egress charges for moving logs out of AWS/Azure/GCP

  • Network bandwidth costs for centralizing all log data

  • Expensive vendor storage (Splunk: $1,800–$18,000/GB/year)

  • Data transfer costs from branches to central location

BluSapphire's Cost Savings:

Cost Category
Traditional SIEM
BluSapphire Edge
Savings

Cloud Egress

$0.09/GB (AWS)

$0 (logs stay in VPC)

100%

Data Transfer

Full log volume

Metadata only

98%

Storage

Vendor premium

Customer's S3/blob

80-90%

Network Bandwidth

Massive

Minimal

95%

Real-World Example:

  • 1 TB/day of logs from AWS to Splunk SaaS

    • AWS egress: $0.09/GB × 1,000 GB × 30 days = $2,700/month

    • Splunk storage: $5/GB × 1,000 GB = $5,000/month

    • Total: $7,700/month = $92,400/year

With BluSapphire Detection at Edge:

  • AWS egress: $0 (logs stay in S3)

  • Storage: S3 standard $0.023/GB × 1,000 GB = $23/month

  • Metadata transfer: ~20 GB × $0.09 = $1.80/month

  • Total: $25/month = $300/year

  • Savings: $92,100/year (99.7%)

Compliance & Data Localization Made Simple

Traditional SIEM Compliance Challenges:

  • GDPR: Data movement across borders creates compliance burden

  • Sovereign cloud requirements: Conflicts with centralized architecture

  • Industry regulations (HIPAA, PCI-DSS): Data must leave secure zones

  • Cross-border data transfer: Required for centralized processing

  • Audit complexity: Must track data movement and storage locations

BluSapphire's Compliance Advantages:

Requirement
Traditional SIEM
BluSapphire Edge

GDPR

Complex - data crosses borders

Easy - EU data stays in EU

Data Localization

Difficult - centralization conflicts

Perfect - data stays in jurisdiction

Sovereign Cloud

Not supported

Native support

HIPAA/PCI-DSS

Complex - data leaves secure zone

Simple - data never leaves

Cross-Border Transfer

Required

Zero

Audit Trail

Complex - track movement

Clear - logs never moved

Use Cases:

  • Financial services: Keep transaction logs in regulated jurisdictions

  • Healthcare: HIPAA-compliant — PHI never leaves secure network

  • Government: Sovereign cloud requirements met natively

  • EU operations: GDPR compliance simplified — data stays in EU

  • Multi-national: Each country's data stays in-country

Operational Complexity Eliminated

Traditional SIEM Operational Burden:

Task
Traditional SIEM
BluSapphire Edge

Log Forwarding

Configure forwarders for every source

Not needed - detection at edge

Forwarder Management

Heavy/universal forwarders, agents

Zero - no forwarders

Network Configuration

Complex - all sources to central

Simple - edge to console (metadata only)

Firewall Rules

Extensive - all log sources

Minimal - edge outbound only

Troubleshooting

Complex - forwarders, network, indexers

Simple - local edge processing

Benefits:

  • Zero forwarder management overhead

  • Minimal network configuration

  • Simplified troubleshooting

  • Reduced IT burden

  • Faster deployment

Future-Proof with Open Standards

The Vendor Lock-In Problem:

Vendor
Data Format
Portability
Migration Risk
Lock-In

Splunk

Proprietary

Difficult, expensive export

High

Severe

QRadar

Proprietary

Difficult

High

Severe

Elastic

Elasticsearch

Moderate

Medium

Moderate

DNIF

Proprietary

Limited

High

High (SaaS)

BluSapphire

Open (Parquet/Iceberg)

Full, easy export

Zero

None

BluSapphire's Open Data Advantage:

  • Open standards: Parquet, Iceberg — industry-standard formats

  • Vendor-neutral: Any analytics tool can read the data

  • No migration ever needed: Data already in portable format

  • Multi-vendor analytics: Use any tool (Athena, Spark, Tableau, etc.)

  • Future-proof: Not dependent on BluSapphire's continued existence

Business Impact:

  • Zero switching costs if you ever want to change vendors

  • No data migration projects — data already accessible

  • Leverage existing analytics tools and investments

  • Negotiating power — not locked in

Superior Performance & Resilience

Traditional SIEM Performance Bottlenecks:

Scenario
Traditional SIEM
BluSapphire Edge

Detection Latency

High - wait for log forwarding

Lowest - detection at source

Network Dependency

High - requires constant connectivity

Low - edge operates independently

Branch Office

Poor - limited by WAN bandwidth

Excellent - local detection

Offline Operation

No - forwarding stops

Yes - edge continues detection

Scalability

Vertical - scale central (expensive)

Horizontal - add edge nodes

Resilience Benefits:

  • Branch offices: Detection continues even if WAN is down

  • Cloud regions: No cross-region dependencies

  • Disaster recovery: Each edge operates autonomously

  • Performance: No network latency for detection

Use Case Enablement

Multi-Cloud Strategy

Challenge: Aggregating logs from AWS, Azure, GCP to central SIEM

  • High cross-cloud egress costs

  • Network complexity

  • Latency issues

BluSapphire Solution: Edge in each cloud

  • Logs stay in native cloud

  • Zero cross-cloud transfer

  • Unified view in central console

  • Savings: 98% reduction in cross-cloud costs

Hybrid Cloud

Challenge: Bridging on-prem and cloud logs to central SIEM

  • Complex network architecture

  • VPN/ExpressRoute costs

  • Security concerns

BluSapphire Solution: Edge in cloud + on-prem

  • Seamless hybrid deployment

  • No data movement required

  • Unified threat detection

  • Benefit: Simplified hybrid architecture

Distributed Enterprises

Challenge: Aggregating logs from 100+ locations to central SIEM

  • Massive bandwidth requirements

  • Network bottlenecks

  • High costs

BluSapphire Solution: Edge at each location

  • Logs stay at each site

  • No WAN bandwidth consumed

  • Autonomous detection

  • Savings: 95%+ bandwidth reduction

Mergers & Acquisitions

Challenge: Integrating acquired company into central SIEM

  • Months of integration work

  • Data migration complexity

  • Network integration

BluSapphire Solution: Deploy edge at acquired entity

  • No integration required

  • Data stays at acquired company

  • Immediate unified visibility

  • Benefit: Days vs. months for security coverage

IoT/OT Security

Challenge: OT data must leave secure operational network for SIEM

  • Security risk moving OT data

  • Compliance violations

  • Air-gap requirements broken

BluSapphire Solution: Edge at OT network

  • OT data never leaves secure zone

  • Detection at OT edge

  • Air-gap maintained

  • Benefit: OT security without compromising isolation

Remote/Branch Offices

Challenge: Limited WAN bandwidth to send all logs to central SIEM

  • Log loss during WAN outages

  • Performance degradation

  • High WAN costs

BluSapphire Solution: Edge at each branch

  • Autonomous detection at branch

  • No WAN dependency

  • Continues during outages

  • Benefit: Branch security without WAN constraints

Competitive Comparison Summary

Capability
BluSapphire
Splunk
QRadar
Elastic
DNIF

Deploy at Edge

✅ Yes

❌ No

❌ No

❌ No

❌ No

Logs Stay at Source

✅ Yes

❌ No

❌ No

❌ No

❌ No

Data Sovereignty

✅ Complete

❌ Shared

❌ Shared

❌ Shared

❌ Vendor-hosted

Cost Reduction

✅ 98%

❌ High costs

❌ High costs

⚠️ Medium

❌ Premium

Open Data Format

✅ Yes

❌ Proprietary

❌ Proprietary

⚠️ Elasticsearch

❌ Proprietary

No Migration Ever

✅ Yes

❌ No

❌ No

❌ No

❌ No

Offline Operation

✅ Yes

❌ No

❌ No

❌ No

❌ No

Multi-Cloud Native

✅ Yes

⚠️ Complex

⚠️ Complex

⚠️ Complex

❌ No

Key Differentiators

Why No Competitor Offers This

Technical Barriers:

  1. Architecture: Competitors built on centralized indexing

  2. Business model: SaaS vendors need data in their cloud

  3. Storage: Proprietary formats require vendor infrastructure

  4. Complexity: Distributed detection is harder than centralized

BluSapphire's Unique Approach:

  1. Designed for edge from ground up

  2. Open data lake architecture

  3. Agentless detection works at edge

  4. Cloud-native but customer-controlled

ROI Calculation Example

Scenario: 10 TB/day enterprise with AWS + Azure + on-prem

Traditional SIEM (Splunk) Costs:

  • Cloud egress: 10 TB × $0.09/GB × 30 days = $27,000/month

  • Splunk storage: 10 TB × $5/GB = $50,000/month

  • Network bandwidth: $10,000/month

  • Total: $87,000/month = $1,044,000/year

BluSapphire Detection at Edge:

  • Cloud egress: $0 (logs stay in cloud)

  • Storage: S3/blob at $0.023/GB × 10 TB = $230/month

  • Metadata transfer: 200 GB × $0.09 = $18/month

  • Total: $248/month = $2,976/year

Annual Savings: $1,041,024 (99.7%)

Strategic Advantages

For CISOs:

  1. Cost control: Predictable, minimal data transfer costs

  2. Compliance simplified: Data localization native

  3. Risk reduction: Complete data sovereignty

  4. Future-proof: Open standards, no lock-in

  5. Negotiating power: Not dependent on vendor

For SOC Managers:

  1. Faster detection: No network latency

  2. Simplified operations: No forwarder management

  3. Better resilience: Edge operates independently

  4. Easier scaling: Add edge nodes vs. central infrastructure

For IT/Cloud Teams:

  1. Lower cloud bills: 98% reduction in egress

  2. Simpler architecture: No log aggregation complexity

  3. Faster deployment: No complex network setup

  4. Better performance: Local processing

For Compliance Teams:

  1. Clear audit trail: Logs never moved

  2. Data localization: Native support

  3. Sovereign cloud: Perfect fit

  4. Simplified reporting: Data location always known

Conclusion

BluSapphire's Detection at Edge is a fundamental architectural advantage — not an incremental improvement. The combination of data sovereignty, 98% cost reduction, compliance simplification, operational efficiency, open standards, and superior performance addresses major enterprise pain points.

No other SIEM vendor offers:

  • Detection at the edge where logs are generated

  • Logs that never leave customer premises

  • Open data formats with zero migration risk

  • 98% reduction in data transfer costs

  • Native support for sovereign cloud requirements

This is the future of SIEM architecture — and BluSapphire is delivering it today.

PreviousGetting StartedNext12_Deployment / Log Forwarding