IBM Cloud Pak for Security

What is IBM Cloud Pak for Security?

Consolidating cybersecurity data has a price that rarely appears in the business case: everything copied into a central system has to be stored, paid for and — where the data is personal or regulated — justified. Federated search is the alternative bet: leave the data where it is and move the question instead.

IBM Cloud Pak for Security is a platform that connects your existing security tools - SIEM, EDR, firewalls, cloud - into one view. Instead of logging into 10 different consoles, you search everything from one place.

Main innovation: Federated Search Typical approach is copying all data to central system (data lake). Cloud Pak for Security works differently - data stays where it is, and platform sends queries to each system and aggregates results.

Effect:

• No paying for duplicate data storage
• No compliance violations (data not copied)
• Results in seconds, not hours
• Use existing tools, don’t replace them

What problem does it solve?

Problem: Security tool silos

Typical SOC has 10-50 different tools - to investigate incident, you log into each separately. Response time: hours instead of minutes.

Solution: One view

One query: “Show me everything about IP 192.168.1.50 from last 24h” Result: Logs from SIEM, alerts from EDR, sessions from firewall, cloud activity - in one place.

How does Federated Search work?

Difference: Data stays in place, no copying = lower cost, no compliance problems.

Data Explorer

Data Explorer is interface for federated search:

Example query:

Search: "user:john.doe"
Where: QRadar + CrowdStrike + Azure AD + AWS
Period: last 7 days

Result:

• QRadar: 15 high severity alerts
• CrowdStrike: 3 malware detections on laptop
• Azure AD: Login from unusual location
• AWS: Access to 50 S3 buckets

Everything in one view, with timeline, with correlation.

Threat Intelligence

Cloud Pak for Security integrates IBM X-Force - global threat database:

• IOC (Indicators of Compromise) - known malicious IPs, domains, hashes
• Threat actors - hacker group profiles
• Vulnerability intelligence - vulnerability information
• Industry-specific threats - threats for your industry

Automatic enrichment: See IP in log → Cloud Pak checks in X-Force → “This IP is associated with APT29 group”

Integrations

SIEM: QRadar, Splunk, ArcSight, Microsoft Sentinel EDR: CrowdStrike, Carbon Black, Microsoft Defender Firewall: Fortinet, Check Point Cloud: AWS CloudTrail, Azure, GCP Identity: Azure AD, Okta, CyberArk Vulnerability: Qualys, Tenable, Rapid7

For whom?

Cloud Pak makes sense when:

• You have 5+ different security tools
• SOC wastes time switching between consoles
• You don’t want to copy data (compliance, cost)
• You’re implementing Zero Trust

Cloud Pak does NOT make sense when:

• You only have one tool (nothing to integrate)
• Small company without dedicated SOC
• Everything in one SIEM (e.g. Splunk)

Deployment

Cloud Pak for Security requires Red Hat OpenShift:

Option	Description
On-premises	OpenShift in your DC
Cloud	OpenShift on AWS/Azure/IBM Cloud
Managed	IBM Cloud Pak as a Service

Requirements:

• OpenShift 4.x
• 3+ worker nodes
• Persistent storage

Specifications

Parameter	Value
Deployment	OpenShift (on-prem, cloud, managed)
Integrations	200+
Search	Federated, real-time
TI	IBM X-Force + third-party
API	REST, STIX/TAXII
SOAR	QRadar SOAR integration

Cloud Pak for Security vs SIEM

Aspect	SIEM (e.g. Splunk)	Cloud Pak for Security
Data	Copied centrally	Stays in place
Storage cost	High (pay per GB)	None (data at sources)
Compliance	Data in 2 places	Data in 1 place
Latency	Delay (ingest)	Real-time query
Replaces tools	Yes (centralizes)	No (integrates)

Cloud Pak does NOT replace SIEM - it integrates with it. If you have QRadar or Splunk, Cloud Pak adds unified search layer.

FAQ

Does Cloud Pak replace SIEM? No. It integrates with your SIEM (QRadar, Splunk, etc.). SIEM still does correlation and alerts.

What is federated search? Query sent in parallel to multiple systems. Results aggregated without copying data.

Do I need OpenShift? Yes. Cloud Pak for Security runs on Red Hat OpenShift.

How long does deployment take? Basic: 2-4 weeks. With full integration of all tools: 2-3 months.

Do I need all IBM integrations? No. Cloud Pak integrates with other vendors’ tools (Splunk, CrowdStrike, Fortinet, etc.).

What about SOAR? Cloud Pak integrates with QRadar SOAR for response automation. You can also use other SOAR.

What does pricing look like vs Splunk? Different model. Splunk: per GB ingested. Cloud Pak: capacity-based (cores). For large volumes Cloud Pak may be cheaper.

Does nFlo deploy Cloud Pak for Security? Yes. Deployment on OpenShift, integration configuration, federated search tuning.