These days, it’s clear that IT and security are coming together. The new IT is all about DevOps, with words such as “guardrails” often coming into play when referencing advancements in artificial intelligence.

It’s a big part of the data market, which is where data observability company Cribl Inc. has placed its focus. When it comes to IT and security, the two sides may use different verbiage, but they tend to have very similar problems, according to Clint Sharp (pictured), co-founder and chief executive officer of Cribl.

“This is why we call ourselves the data engine for IT and security; [it’s] the core of what we do for our products — they’re looking at the same type of data, they’re asking the same types of questions, but they talk about it very differently,” Sharp said. “You really have to go to market very differently for both of those sets of personas. You have to talk to security people like they’re used to being talked to, and you have to talk to IT people about how they’re used to being talked to.”

Sharp spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, during a CUBE Conversation ahead of the “Cybersecurity” AWS Startup Showcase event on September 14, an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed Cribl’s role in the cybersecurity market and the key challenges security teams are facing today. (* Disclosure below.)

The challenges for security teams

Ultimately, when it comes to security and IT, both have the same challenges around data growth. A company’s data may be growing at a 25% compound annual growth rate while its budget is not, according to Sharp.

“How do I store and retain the right amount of data that my enterprise needs? How do I find out about problems with my applications quicker? How do I find out about security threats quicker?” he asked. “Ultimately, they’re all dealing with the same sets of problems.”

Of course, when it comes to cybersecurity and AI, more data may be a benefit. So, is this a new challenge for security teams, or has the hype gone a little far? Part of what the market needs to understand is that there are many different classes of data, according to Sharp. When it comes to business data, for example, most probably wouldn’t keep their email for seven years.

“Should you keep all of your business transaction records? Well, you’re probably regulated to … keep all of this data. Then, the other class of data is the data that we work on,” he said. “We work on data that’s telemetry data, log data, metric data, tracing type of data. That is in a wholly different, very large class of data, very diverse data.”

For that, one can’t ask questions about data that one doesn’t have. It becomes a question about a company’s business requirements and a question that if there does need to be a breach investigation, how far back it must go, according to Sharp.

“If you want to understand your application performance, how much data do you want to be able to see? How the application was running a year ago? If so, then you probably need some amount of data that you’re retaining, maybe not the full fidelity,” he said. “Each of those classes of data, we have to answer these types of questions around retention based off of that particular business’ requirements.”

Doing more with less

Cribl’s goal is to provide value to customers, according to Sharp. Ultimately, what the company is doing is focusing on a world where budgets are constrained.

“Nearly all of our customers are budget flat or budget down, and they’re trying to figure out how they can do more with less,” he said. “We help them eliminate noise and waste. We help them control their costs. We help give them choice about their vendor relationships and their data storage, and where they think that the best place to put each class of data is.”

Part of that is a focus on helping companies find value no matter what else they have, according to Sharp. He cited Autodesk Inc. as an example of a company that has been with Cribl for a long time.

“We’ve helped them a lot of ways over the years. We’ve helped them with their cloud migration, so moving from an on-prem logging solution to a cloud logging solution, which is often a very long, difficult project that’s made a lot easier with our streams processing and routing technology,” he said. “We’ve helped them enable a portfolio of tools and be able to put the data into multiple places. And they’ve made many different choices over the years, and they’ve brought new vendors in, and then they’ve changed vendors, picking the right thing at the right time for them.”

Here’s the complete video interview with Clint Sharp, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s pre-event coverage of the “Cybersecurity” AWS Startup Showcase event:

(* Disclosure: Cribl Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Cribl nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE