What users are saying about
AlienVault USM
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Top Rated
681 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener noreferrer'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 7.6 out of 100
Based on 681 reviews and ratings
21 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener noreferrer'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 7.9 out of 100
Based on 21 reviews and ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
AlienVault USM
At this point I'm saying a 4. While the marketing material make it appear to be easy to use and it was relatively easy to set up, as previously mentioned, each event description is based upon the individual asset making it nearly impossible for the administrator to be a SME for each asset. For example, if one of the assets reporting is a router, the administrator monitoring alerts would need to know what the various events are that can be triggered as an event for the particular router; however, if the asset is a workstation, the administrator would need to know the various events that are triggered for workstations.

Verified User
Manager in Other
Legal Services Company, 501-1000 employeesAlienVault OSSIM
If this is your first experience with a SIEM, this one can get you started. Take the time to learn the ins and outs of the product and you'll most likely be satisfied with it if your company is an SMB. If you need compliance reports, OSSIM is too small for you, you'll need to go with USM or USM Anywhere.
Technical Services
GB Advisors, Inc.Computer & Network Security, 11-50 employees
Feature Rating Comparison
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
AlienVault USM
7.2
AlienVault OSSIM
7.6
Centralized event and log data collection
AlienVault USM
7.1
AlienVault OSSIM
8.3
Correlation
AlienVault USM
7.7
AlienVault OSSIM
7.3
Event and log normalization
AlienVault USM
7.7
AlienVault OSSIM
7.0
Deployment flexibility
AlienVault USM
6.7
AlienVault OSSIM
7.7
Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools
AlienVault USM
6.9
AlienVault OSSIM
8.9
Custom dashboards and views
AlienVault USM
6.9
AlienVault OSSIM
6.1
Host and network-based intrusion detection
AlienVault USM
7.7
AlienVault OSSIM
8.1
Pros
AlienVault USM
- AlienVault USM is simple and easy to deploy. Sensors can be deployed in as little as 15 minutes through the setup wizard.
- The USM UI is easy to understand. I've trained multiple analysts who are able to perform their duties on their first day, in part because of USM Anywhere's ease of use.
- Top-notch built-in compliance templates and reporting features.
Tier II SOC Analyst
Rendition Infosec LLCInformation Technology & Services, 11-50 employees
AlienVault OSSIM
- Asset discovery. Once installed in a centric, network-accessible server, OSSIM can poll all your endpoints with common protocols (SSH, SNMP, WMI) to detect and discover site-wide assets to monitor. You only need to group them by your own criteria once added to the product.
- SIEM Event Correlation. You can define quite complex correlation rules to detect possible suspicious or malicious actions or attempts in your network, in order to categorize them as real threats or as false positives, thus streamlining your risk assessment and management.
- Ease of installation. The entire AlienVault OSSIM is self-contained in an ISO file, which can be burned into a DVD or just mounted in your server of choice (physical or virtual) for deployment. The installation process is automated and quote verbosed, with options for static IP, email messaging and others.
- Ease of access. Being AlienVault OSSIM a self-contained appliance, it can be accessed via web by any device that supports a web browser, being that desktops, workstation, mobile devices, etc. The OSSIM dashboard and other features are automatically rearranged to adapt to the particular device being in use.
Support Services Manager
GB Advisors, Inc.Computer Software, 51-200 employees
Cons
AlienVault USM
- Personally, I've wished I could purchase a service that would configure AV for my environment. I get a lot of traffic on a daily basis and I almost need to hire an analyst that just works on AV.
- Some of the filters when looking for a specific alert aren't that easy to use.
System Administrator
Enthought, Inc.Computer Software, 51-200 employees
AlienVault OSSIM
- The reports are clunky and a bit tedious to parse through.
- Sometimes there's so much noise it's hard to tell what a true positive is. There are lots of false ones that trigger alerts but are normal behavior in many environments.
Director of Information Security
Memorial Hospital of GulfportMedical Practice, 5001-10,000 employees
Likelihood to Renew
AlienVault USM
AlienVault USM 6.5
Based on 19 answers
The centralized logging and retention for PCI compliance was our main driver, and it is meeting that need. Otherwise there has been enough frustration with the lack of documentation and the need to customize through the CLI that I would be open to alternatives.
IT Systems Architect
ROTHSTEIN.ioRestaurants, 5001-10,000 employees
AlienVault OSSIM
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Usability
AlienVault USM
AlienVault USM 6.9
Based on 35 answers
Once you are able to navigate the different panels, finding what you need is quite easily. Before getting used it it can be a bit of challenge .Each panel is quite well laid out and the filtering search capabilities are quite strong.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Government Administration Company, 201-500 employeesAlienVault OSSIM
AlienVault OSSIM 8.0
Based on 1 answer
AlienVault OSSIM is far easy to use and manage - provided you know what you're doing. As any SIEM application, there is some background knowledge required in order to take advantage of the product's functionalities, such as the log correlation and analysis. Other than that, the application is quite usable and robust.
Support Services Manager
GB Advisors, Inc.Computer Software, 51-200 employees
Reliability and Availability
AlienVault USM
AlienVault USM 6.4
Based on 3 answers
We do have issues with maintenance on the AlienVault USM as the disk fills up from time to time with other data sources. Sources for scanning logs and net flow data isn't calculated in regular disk maintenance and can easily fill up our disk if we do not keep an eye on it with some custom Nagios plugins. The system does properly trim logging data from logging sources properly.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 201-500 employeesAlienVault OSSIM
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Performance
AlienVault USM
AlienVault USM 7.3
Based on 3 answers
With the latest release of AlienVault USM overall performance has not been an issue. We have noticed single source events per second does not scale well with the overall system. 2,000eps on a vmware system with a single source produces delays of up to an hour for us. Pages, reporting and even raw log searches are rather quick though.

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 201-500 employeesAlienVault OSSIM
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
AlienVault USM
AlienVault USM 7.3
Based on 28 answers
The support we received from alienvault was excellent. They went above and beyond in making sure everything was working as it needed to be. They REALLY want their product implementation to be a success and our security goals be achieved. They are like a member of our security team.

Verified User
Project Manager in Information Technology
Higher Education Company, 201-500 employeesAlienVault OSSIM
AlienVault OSSIM 7.9
Based on 4 answers
AlienVault OSSIM support has been very good. I have not had an issue that they were not able to quickly identify and provide a fix for. They are very quick to respond to open cases and are very knowledgeable in the product, which makes troubleshooting issues fast and solutions are provided quickly.
Help Desk Manager
Black Hills Federal Credit UnionBanking, 201-500 employees
In-Person Training
AlienVault USM
AlienVault USM 4.5
Based on 1 answer
I did not have any experience with "in person" training directly. The free online classes offered for a half a day are based on the actual training offered. These little teasers are very good and well worth your time to learn a few quick and dirty ways of getting more information from your SIEM

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 201-500 employeesAlienVault OSSIM
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Online Training
AlienVault USM
AlienVault USM 8.5
Based on 6 answers
It was very well organized and helpful in using the product to the fullest extent. The instructor allowed time for folks who were involved with managed services to receive tuning tips in order to better support their customers. In addition, the course materials were automatically updated when the new version came out.

Verified User
Director in Information Technology
Higher Education Company, 501-1000 employeesAlienVault OSSIM
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
AlienVault USM
AlienVault USM 6.4
Based on 39 answers
AlienVault USM was a very simple to implement and get up and running. We started with a trial version and had that up and going within an hour of receiving email instructions from the sales engineer. We never had to contact support to get the system up and going. It was extremely easy to convert over to a full license once we started with a paid version.

Verified User
Supervisor in Information Technology
Utilities Company, 51-200 employeesAlienVault OSSIM
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
AlienVault USM
Splunk's ES is a paid add-on on top of an already pricey product. Finding a MSSP that supports Splunk and isn't a 6 figure annual commitment seems unlikely. LogRhythm did not have a cloud-based solution when we were considering SIEMs. Fantastic product though and have a good MSSP base.Devo did not have a MSSP partner base when we looked. Their product is fantastic too.AlienVault USM has good partners to choose from as well as an affordable cloud model, that's why we chose it.

Verified User
Director in Information Technology
Staffing and Recruiting Company, 51-200 employeesAlienVault OSSIM
Best bang for the buck. Darktrace did not perform even close to AlienVault. I ran them concurrently. AlienVault consistently found issues that Darktrace didn't pick up, and the Darktrace incidents were false positives. At one point, Darktrace stated I had 2,000 servers and I have 112.FortiSIEM is an awesome package but it's more then I need (or can afford). I would need to add staff, for at least the first year or so, just to get it setup and configured correctly.
Director of Information Technology
Council Rock School DistrictEducation Management, 1001-5000 employees
Scalability
AlienVault USM
AlienVault USM 6.3
Based on 3 answers
The AlienVault USM is not very scalable. Some scalability can be achieved by installing additional sensors, but this only offers 500eps per sensor and is still overall limited by the installation type of VM or physical. We have also noticed the EPS (events per second) is rated overall and not towards a single source. A single source on a very healthy VMware partition tops out at 2,000eps for us, no matter how we configure it. Maybe this is a problem of the 5.2 release?

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 201-500 employeesAlienVault OSSIM
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
AlienVault USM
- Once you hit the 150 asset mark, you have to jump to their unlimited license. There is no middle ground. We were only 10 or so assets above the 150 so we had to chose to either not monitor those assets or pay the price of the upgrade.
- AlienVault brings all the information to one place which makes it much quicker to track down problems.

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Financial Services Company, 51-200 employeesAlienVault OSSIM
- The only investment here is setting it up and I think seeing it's performance it's a fantastic tool and has a great positive ROI!

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Non-Profit Organization Management Company, 501-1000 employeesScreenshots
AlienVault USM
AlienVault OSSIM
—Pricing Details
AlienVault USM
General
Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level set up fee?
Optional
AlienVault USM Editions & Modules
Edition
Essentials | $1,0751 |
---|---|
Standard | $1,6951 |
Premium | $2,5951 |
- per month
Additional Pricing Details
—AlienVault OSSIM
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
AlienVault OSSIM Editions & Modules
—