No single security tool closes every risk. Zabbix watches the infrastructure, Wazuh the logs, and CrowdStrike the endpoints; the real value appears when all three layers meet a SOC process.
Security Monitoring Is Never One Tool
One of the most common mistakes in cybersecurity is installing a single tool and assuming every risk is now under control. In reality, modern infrastructure has to be watched across several layers at once: servers, network devices, endpoints, user activity, service continuity, logs, and security alerts.
To genuinely protect a company, you need two things: visibility and the ability to respond. Without visibility, problems are noticed too late. Without response capability, generating an alert produces no value on its own.
That is why 113SEC's monitoring approach positions Zabbix, Wazuh, and CrowdStrike together. Zabbix watches infrastructure health, Wazuh correlates logs and security events, and CrowdStrike analyzes endpoint behavior in real time. This structure lets the SOC team not just see an alert, but understand it and turn it into action.
What Does Zabbix Do?
Zabbix is the infrastructure and service monitoring layer. It tracks whether servers are up, CPU and memory usage, disk capacity, service status, the reachability of network devices, port state, and traffic metrics.
At SMB scale, this layer usually answers the question "is the system down?" But when configured well, it shows more than the crash itself: it shows the road that leads to it. The system can raise an alert in advance as disk capacity nears a critical level, CPU usage spikes, port errors increase on a network device, or service response time degrades.
In 113SEC's processes, Zabbix is treated as the first layer that continuously watches server, network, and service state. When a threshold is breached or an anomaly appears, an automatic alert fires and the event is reviewed by the technical team.
- Server and service health
- Disk, CPU, memory, and network metrics
- Switch, router, and firewall reachability
- SNMP, syslog, and agent-based monitoring
- Automatic alerting and escalation on threshold breaches
What Does Wazuh Do?
Wazuh is the SIEM and security analysis layer. While Zabbix watches infrastructure health, Wazuh makes sense of security events. Log collection, event correlation, file integrity monitoring, compliance checks, failed login attempts, suspicious behavior, and MITRE ATT&CK mapping all live in this layer.
Consider an example: a user account shows a burst of failed login attempts in a short window. In the same period, a privilege escalation attempt appears on a different server. Looked at one by one, these can seem like ordinary log lines. By correlating them, Wazuh can build a far more meaningful security signal.
This is why Wazuh helps the SOC team answer the question "what happened?" It turns raw logs into readable, prioritizable security events. You can see how 113SEC assembles this layer in more detail on our technology stack page.
- Centralized log collection
- Security event correlation
- MITRE ATT&CK mapping
- File integrity monitoring
- Suspicious session and behavior analysis
What Does CrowdStrike Do?
CrowdStrike is the endpoint security and EDR/XDR layer. The agent that runs on computers, servers, and critical endpoints analyzes processes, file activity, network connections, and behavior.
Traditional antivirus tends to focus on known signatures. EDR, by contrast, tries to understand behavior. Suspicious PowerShell execution, an unexpected process chain, credential harvesting attempts, malicious file movement, or command-and-control connections can all be detected at the endpoint level.
In 113SEC's premium security approach, CrowdStrike EDR is an important part of the 24/7 SOC service. Wazuh and CrowdStrike alerts are reviewed together by SOC analysts; real threats are prioritized, false positives are filtered out, and a response process is started when needed.
- Endpoint behavior analysis
- EDR/XDR alerting and telemetry
- Visibility into process, file, and network activity
- IOC enrichment and threat intelligence
- Support for quarantine and response decisions
How Do These Three Layers Work Together?
The real value of Zabbix, Wazuh, and CrowdStrike emerges when they work together, because each answers a different question.
Zabbix answers "is the system healthy?" Wazuh answers "is there a security-relevant event in the logs?" CrowdStrike focuses on "is there suspicious behavior on the endpoints?"
When these three data sources come together in the SOC process, they form a much stronger basis for decisions. A server may show a sudden CPU spike. At the same moment, Wazuh may see failed login attempts. CrowdStrike may have detected a suspicious process chain on the same machine. Viewed separately, these signals can look weak; evaluated together, they may point to a real attack scenario.
A simple map across the layers
- Monitoring (Zabbix): Watches servers, network, services, and metrics; surfaces infrastructure health and threshold breaches.
- SIEM (Wazuh): Processes logs, correlation, and security events; produces event context and threat signals.
- EDR/XDR (CrowdStrike): Watches endpoint behavior and telemetry; makes attack behavior on the endpoint visible.
From Alert to Response: The SOC Flow
A good monitoring system does not end with generating an alert. Who the alert goes to, how it is assessed, at what priority it is handled, and how the customer is notified all matter just as much as the alert itself.
In 113SEC's monitoring and alerting process, the signals produced by Zabbix, Wazuh, and CrowdStrike are routed to the SOC team. The SOC analyst evaluates whether the alert is a real threat; if needed, the technical team or a relevant specialist steps in. Depending on the situation, the team responds, applies a countermeasure, or closes the alert as a false positive. The process ends with a report and a record.
Thanks to this structure, the customer sees not just "there is an alert," but the alert's impact, severity, and recommended action.
Why a Central Dashboard Matters
Using multiple tools can create chaos if it is not managed well. That is why a central dashboard approach matters. The goal is not to pile all data onto one screen, but to show the right data in the right context.
The Zabbix dashboard shows infrastructure state, the Wazuh dashboard shows security events and correlations, and the CrowdStrike console presents endpoint-level threats, detections, and actions. When the information from these panels is combined with reporting, SLA tracking, and an executive summary, technical data turns into decision-support intelligence.
This is especially valuable for SMBs, because not every company can build its own in-house SOC team. The managed-service model combines this visibility with outside expertise and makes it far more accessible.
When Do You Need This Setup?
- When you have multiple servers, firewalls, switches, or critical services.
- When you have remote users or a large number of endpoints.
- When failed logins, suspicious file activity, or service outages are noticed too late.
- When backups, security alerts, and support processes are tracked separately.
- When management wants a monthly view of risk, SLA, and security posture.
- When you already have security tools but lack alert prioritization and reporting.
The 113SEC Approach: Visibility, Analysis, and Response
For 113SEC, security monitoring is not just installing tools. Tools provide the foundation; the real value is created in the operational process.
We build the monitoring infrastructure, configure alert thresholds and correlation rules, and make customer systems visible on central dashboards. The SOC team follows critical alerts, reduces false positives, prioritizes events, and starts the response process when needed. You can read the principles that shape this approach on our operating doctrine page.
The goal of this approach is simple: the system should notice the anomaly, the team should assess it, and action should be taken on time, before the problem is ever noticed by the customer.
Conclusion: Security Monitoring Is a System, Not a Layer
Zabbix, Wazuh, and CrowdStrike are powerful tools on their own. But real security value appears when they work together and are backed by a SOC process.
Zabbix keeps a finger on the pulse of the infrastructure. Wazuh makes sense of logs and security events. CrowdStrike watches behavior on the endpoints. The SOC team then interprets these signals to determine the real risk, the priority, and the action.
For SMBs, this model makes enterprise-grade security visibility far more accessible. At 113SEC, our aim is not merely to monitor your infrastructure, but to see risks early, make sense of events, and protect your business continuity. If you would like to discuss which systems in your environment should be monitored, get in touch with us.