THE SEASONS IN A BREATH

Autumn appeared at the window and looked around
— it was November.

"The leaves are yellow and red.
The swallows fly away in flocks over the rooftops.
The crisp air smells of roasted chestnuts and burning wood.
I like it this way,"
Autumn exclaimed.

Winter opened the door and looked around
— it was January.

"The snow and the freezing wind.
In the woods, mistletoe on branches beneath a blanket of ice.
The marmot sleeps in her covered den, dreaming of the stars.
How lovely it is to be warm and cozy!"
Winter exclaimed.

Spring stepped out onto the terrace and looked around
— it was April.

"The flowers bloom and the birds chirp, returning to their nests.
With the mild temperature, joyful life vibrates in the air.
How wonderful!"
Spring exclaimed.

Summer went into the garden and looked around
— it was July.

A cat rests in the shade of a pine tree.
The air smells of cut grass and ripe fruit.
The butterflies dance carefree to the song of the cicadas.
The sun makes me smile!"
Summer exclaimed.

The months pass and the year spins at great speed,
but they will always bring something beautiful.

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When “Normal” Doesn’t Work: Rethinking Data and the Role of the SOC Analyst

Monzy Merza, Co-Founder and CEO of Crogl, joins Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli to discuss how cybersecurity teams can finally move beyond the treadmill of normalization, alert fatigue, and brittle playbooks that keep analysts from doing what they signed up to do—find and stop bad actors.

Merza draws from his experience across research, security operations, and leadership roles at Splunk, Databricks, and one of the world’s largest banks. His message is clear: the industry’s long-standing approach of forcing all data into one format before analysis has reached its limit. Organizations are spending millions trying to normalize data that constantly changes, and analysts are paying the price—buried under alerts they can’t meaningfully investigate.

The conversation highlights the human side of this issue. Analysts often join the field to protect their organizations, but instead find themselves working on repetitive tickets with little context, limited feedback loops, and an impossible expectation to know everything—from email headers to endpoint logs. They are firefighters answering endless 911 calls, most of which turn out to be false alarms.

Crogl’s approach replaces that normalization-first mindset with an analyst-first model. By operating directly on data where it lives—without requiring migration or schema alignment—it allows every analyst to investigate deeper, faster, and more consistently. Each action taken by one team member becomes shared knowledge for the next, creating an adaptive, AI-driven system that evolves with the organization.

For CISOs, this means measurable consistency, auditability, and trust in outcomes. For analysts, it means rediscovering purpose—focusing on meaningful investigations instead of administrative noise.

The result is a more capable, connected SOC where AI augments human reasoning rather than replacing it. As Merza puts it, the new normal is no normalization—just real work, done better.

Watch the full interview and product demo: https://youtu.be/7C4zOvF9sdk

Learn more about CROGL: https://itspm.ag/crogl-103909

Note: This story contains promotional content. Learn more.

GUEST

Monzy Merza, Founder and CEO of CROGL | On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monzymerza/

RESOURCES

Learn more and catch more stories from CROGL: https://www.itspmagazine.com/directory/crogl

Brand Spotlight: The Schema Strikes Back: Killing the Normalization Tax on the SOC: https://brand-stories-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/the-schema-strikes-back-killing-the-normalization-tax-on-the-soc-a-corgl-spotlight-brand-story-conversation-with-cory-wallace [Video: https://youtu.be/Kx2JEE_tYq0]

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