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QRadar is sunsetting: your migration playbook

IBM sold QRadar SaaS to Palo Alto. On-premises is maintenance-only. Forrester advises against new purchases. Here is how to plan a gradual migration using parallel routing through a Cribl pipeline.

Zbigniew Gajuk2026-03-141 min readFor CISO and SOC, CIO and CTO

Five source objects stream into one dark teal pipeline stage. A thin dashed grey line runs to a faded old server tower, a solid teal line runs to a crisp new tower with a check ring, and a broad teal stream runs down into a long layered storage slab beneath both.Two destinations, one archive
Each source runs to the old platform and to its replacement at once until it is proven, while the archive underneath never stops.

What happened

IBM sold QRadar SaaS to Palo Alto Networks and placed the on-premises version in maintenance-only mode. Forrester explicitly advises against new QRadar purchases. The platform that many MSPs chose for its multi-tenant domain capabilities is now a dead end.

Why traditional migration fails

A rip-and-replace migration means 6-18 months of parallel infrastructure, double licensing costs, the risk of a compliance gap, and staff attrition as QRadar skills become unmarketable. Every month of delay increases the cost and the risk.

The parallel routing approach

A Cribl pipeline sits between your data sources and QRadar. During migration, it routes the same data to both QRadar and the replacement SIEM simultaneously. You transition one source at a time, validate detection coverage on the new platform, and decommission the old route when ready.

Your compliance archive runs continuously on S3, independent of which SIEM is active. There is never a gap. Custom DSMs are replaced by Cribl Packs with vendor-neutral parsing. NetFlow, IPFIX, and sFlow processing continues natively through Cribl sources.

A QRadar migration by parallel routing, one source at a timeSources on the left each carry a state: moved and validated, running on both while validated, or not yet moved. A pipeline routes each source to QRadar and to the replacement SIEM at once while it is validated, then retires its QRadar route. A compliance archive on S3 receives everything the whole time, whichever SIEM is active, so there is never a gap.YOUR SOURCES, ONE AT A TIMEFIREWALLSMoved and validatedWINDOWS HOSTSMoved and validatedIDENTITY PROVIDEROn both, validatingCLOUD AUDIT LOGSNot yet movedNETWORK FLOWSNot yet movedPIPELINERoutes each source toboth SIEMs while it isvalidated, then retiresits old routeQRADAREach route retired once its source is validatedTHE REPLACEMENT SIEMDetection coverage proven source by source, on the same feedCOMPLIANCE ARCHIVE ON S3Receives everything the whole time, whichever SIEM is activeNo cutover day. Parsing happens once in the pipeline and fans out to both.
A QRadar migration by parallel routing, one source at a timeSources on the left each carry a state: moved and validated, running on both while validated, or not yet moved. A pipeline routes each source to QRadar and to the replacement SIEM at once while it is validated, then retires its QRadar route. A compliance archive on S3 receives everything the whole time, whichever SIEM is active, so there is never a gap.PARALLEL ROUTING, ONE SOURCE AT A TIMEYOUR SOURCESMoved one at a time: some validated, one running onboth, the rest not yet moved.PIPELINERoutes each source to both SIEMs while it is validated,then retires its old route.QRADAREach route retired once its source is validated.THE REPLACEMENT SIEMDetection coverage proven source by source.COMPLIANCE ARCHIVE ON S3Receives everything the whole time. There is never agap.
The pipeline sends each source to QRadar and to its replacement at once until detection coverage is proven, then retires the old route. The compliance archive on S3 never stops, so the migration never opens a gap.

Timeline

Most organizations complete a Cribl-assisted migration in three to six months instead of the twelve to eighteen months typical for traditional rip-and-replace. The parallel-run period is shorter because validation happens incrementally, source by source.

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