Most conversations about security tool sprawl start with a licence renewal spreadsheet. Someone counts the tools, adds up the annual spend, and asks whether the organisation really needs all of them.<\/p>\n
That is a fair question, but it measures the wrong thing. The bigger operational cost of running many security consoles is rarely the invoice. It is the time analysts spend assembling enough information to understand a single alert.<\/p>\n
This article calls that cost time to context. It is measurable, it compounds quietly across thousands of alerts, and most security teams have never put a number against it. Below is a practical way to measure it in your own environment before your next renewal or platform expansion.<\/p>\n