Yannick H.,
Too Long; Didn't Read
More security tools do not mean more security. 65% of companies have too many, and 74% of ransomware victims say the same. The problem: 53% cannot integrate their tools, 40% of alerts are never investigated. The solution is counterintuitive: consolidation. Companies with fewer, better-integrated tools achieve a 4x higher ROI, detect threats 74 days faster, and save 15-25% on security costs.
The Security Tool Paradox
Here is the situation in most SMEs:
You have an antivirus scanner. A firewall. A SIEM. Endpoint Detection. Email Security. Cloud Security Posture Management. Maybe a few more specialized tools for compliance.
That sounds like good security. But often it is not.
65% of companies believe they have too many security tools.
That is not a minority opinion. That is the majority.
The uncomfortable numbers
74% of companies affected by multiple ransomware attacks say: "We are juggling too many security tools."
That is not a correlation. That is a pattern. More tools, worse outcomes.
Why?
53% of tools cannot be integrated. Every vendor promises a "Single Pane of Glass." None of them really delivers it.
77% say: Tool chaos hinders detection. More dashboards mean more places where something can be missed.
Only 10-20% of features are used. You pay for enterprise features and use basic features.
Alert Fatigue: The silent killer
This is where it gets really problematic.
On average, 960 security alerts per day. From about 28 different tools.
(AI SOC Market Landscape 2025)
No one can meaningfully process 960 alerts a day. So the inevitable happens:
40% of alerts are never investigated.
61% of teams have ignored alerts that later turned out to be critical.
70% of SOC teams feel emotionally overwhelmed.
(SOC Alert Fatigue Research 2025)
That means: You pay for tools that generate alarms no one reads. And somewhere in that noise, the real attack is hiding.
The SME Dilemma
Large enterprises have SOC teams with 20+ analysts. They can afford tool sprawl - at least partly.
SMEs do not have that.
83% of SMEs are not prepared to recover from the financial damage of a cyberattack.
Only 14% consider their own cybersecurity highly effective.
The problem is not a lack of budget for more tools. The problem is: More tools do not solve the problem.
What works: Consolidation
The numbers are clear.
75% of companies are actively consolidating their security tools. In 2020, it was only 29%.
This is not a cost-cutting exercise. This is a security strategy.
The results for consolidators:
4x higher ROI. Consolidated platforms: 101% ROI. Fragmented stacks: 28%.
74 days faster detection. Because one platform correlates faster than 20 dashboards.
84 days faster response. Because orchestration works automatically; manual coordination does not.
15-25% lower security spending. Fewer licenses, less integration effort, less management overhead.
For a deeper dive: Zero Trust demystified: What the security concept can really do and what it cannot.
The pragmatic security strategy
Here is what we recommend for SMEs:
1. Take inventory
List all security tools. All of them. Even the "free" browser plugins and the Excel sheets for compliance tracking.
Most people are surprised by how many there are.
2. Review usage
For each tool: Who uses it? How often? Which features?
Ernst & Young says: Most people use 10-20% of what they pay for. Our experience confirms that.
3. Identify overlaps
Three different endpoint solutions? Two SIEM approaches? Cloud security from the cloud provider AND a third-party tool?
That is not defense in depth. That is tool sprawl.
4. Consolidate, do not accumulate
The goal: 5-7 tools that cover 95% of threats. Properly configured. Properly integrated. Monitored by someone who knows what they are doing.
Better than 20 tools that never investigate 40% of alerts.
We explore this aspect in How to build a pragmatic ISMS (without losing your mind).
The CISO question
Most SMEs do not have a CISO. And they do not need a full-time CISO either.
What they need: Someone responsible for the security strategy. Someone who makes tool decisions. Someone who prioritizes the alerts that matter.
That can be an external CISO-as-a-Service. That can be an IT manager with a security focus. That can be a managed security provider.
What it cannot be: Nobody.
61% of teams have ignored critical alerts. Not because of incompetence - because of overload.
Someone has to make the decisions. Someone has to keep the overview. Someone has to be able to say no when the next vendor comes with the next "indispensable" tool.
The next step
Tomorrow morning: Count your security tools.
Not the ones you know about. All of them. Ask your team. Check the credit card statements. Look at the cloud subscriptions.
If the number is higher than you thought - and it almost always is - then consolidation is not an option. It is a necessity.
Fewer tools. Better integrated. Properly monitored.
That is pragmatic cybersecurity.
If you need help
We conduct security assessments for SMEs. Not to sell more tools - but to identify the right ones.
Security Assessment: What do you have? What do you really need?
Tool Consolidation: From 20 to 7 - without security gaps
CISO-as-a-Service: Strategy and oversight without full-time costs
Managed Detection: Alerts that someone actually reads
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