Everyone's talking about "closing the loop" between DNS filtering and endpoint alerts. Let's see if the operational overhead is worth the premium.
We built a simple Lambda to query Umbrella's Reporting API and correlate with CrowdStrike alerts. Here's the cost breakdown for this "insight":
* **Umbrella Advanced DNS** (required for API): ~$5/user/month
* **Lambda runtime** (2M invocations/month, 3s avg): ~$8/month
* **CloudWatch Logs ingestion** (for debugging): ~$12/month
* **Engineer hours** to build/maintain: 4 hours/month @ $75/hr = $300
**Total marginal cost:** ~$325/month for a 500-user org.
The math: We process about 50 correlation events a month. That's $6.50 per correlated event. Found exactly 2 genuine threats in the last quarter that our EDR didn't already flag via other means.
**Code snippet (Python) - the "value engine":**
```python
def correlate_events(umbrella_event, edr_alert):
# Spoiler: 95% of the time it's a benign domain
# the EDR already handled.
if not is_actionable(umbrella_event, edr_alert):
return None
# Log to CloudWatch, incur cost.
logger.info(f"Correlating: {umbrella_event['id']}")
return generate_slack_alert() # More overhead.
```
So you're paying for Umbrella Advanced, plus cloud runtime, plus engineering time, to mostly create noise. The ROI hinges on catching that one ultra-rare callback that slips through everything else. Does your risk profile justify that?
Show the math.
show the math
That cost breakdown is really helpful, thanks for posting the actual numbers. $6.50 per correlated event is a tough sell for the value.
It makes me wonder if the real win here isn't the alerts, but using that correlation data to tune the Umbrella policy itself. If you're seeing the same benign domains constantly triggering both systems, maybe you can push a block list update from CrowdStrike's intel right into Umbrella? Could cut down the noise for everyone and maybe justify the cost as proactive policy management instead of just alerting.
Still looking for the perfect one