AlienVault USM vs. BMC Helix ITSM

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
AlienVault USM
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
AlienVault® Unified Security Management® (USM) delivers threat detection, incident response, and compliance management in one unified platform. It is designed to combine all the essential security capabilities needed for effective security monitoring across cloud and on-premises environments, including SIEM, intrusion detection, vulnerability management, as well as continuous threat intelligence updates. The vendor states that even for resource-limited IT security teams, AlienVault…
$1,075
per month
BMC Helix ITSM
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
BMC Helix ITSM replaces Remedy. It is a broad suite of ITSM, tools with strong integrations to other BMC tools and in-built ITAM. The product is used mainly by global brands and is offered in on-premise and SaaS configurations.N/A
Pricing
AlienVault USMBMC Helix ITSM
Editions & Modules
Essentials
$1,075
per month
Standard
$1,695
per month
Premium
$2,595
per month
BMC Helix ITSM
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AlienVault USMBMC Helix ITSM
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
AlienVault USMBMC Helix ITSM
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
Comparison of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) features of Product A and Product B
AlienVault USM
7.9
8 Ratings
2% above category average
BMC Helix ITSM
-
Ratings
Centralized event and log data collection8.38 Ratings00 Ratings
Correlation8.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Event and log normalization/management8.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Deployment flexibility8.47 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools6.85 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom dashboards and workspaces7.38 Ratings00 Ratings
Host and network-based intrusion detection8.55 Ratings00 Ratings
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
AlienVault USM
-
Ratings
BMC Helix ITSM
8.6
92 Ratings
6% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings9.191 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings8.762 Ratings
Service restoration00 Ratings8.774 Ratings
Self-service tools00 Ratings8.783 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings8.365 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.381 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards00 Ratings8.482 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
AlienVault USM
-
Ratings
BMC Helix ITSM
8.5
80 Ratings
4% above category average
Configuration mangement00 Ratings8.877 Ratings
Asset management dashboard00 Ratings8.573 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement00 Ratings8.157 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
AlienVault USM
-
Ratings
BMC Helix ITSM
8.6
84 Ratings
3% above category average
Change requests repository00 Ratings8.983 Ratings
Change calendar00 Ratings8.479 Ratings
Service-level management00 Ratings8.579 Ratings
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Score 9.2 out of 10
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User Ratings
AlienVault USMBMC Helix ITSM
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(390 ratings)
9.0
(99 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.2
(18 ratings)
8.5
(8 ratings)
Usability
6.7
(34 ratings)
8.7
(50 ratings)
Availability
6.4
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(25 ratings)
3.0
(10 ratings)
In-Person Training
4.5
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.3
(6 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.4
(38 ratings)
6.6
(2 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(3 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.3
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.3
(3 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.6
(3 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(3 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
AlienVault USMBMC Helix ITSM
Likelihood to Recommend
AT&T Cybersecurity
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.
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BMC Software Inc.
There are many ITSM platforms available - but only a very select few are true enterprise leaders. BMC Helix is one. When it comes to managing thousands of incidents daily, BMC Helix helps cut through the noise with incident correlation and predictive problem management.
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Pros
AT&T Cybersecurity
  • 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.
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BMC Software Inc.
  • The Service Asset and Configuration Management capabilities of Helix ITSM are awesome. It can be used as a central repository for all SACM information and seamlessly integrated with Helix Discovery.
  • It has the most certified ITIL process modules of any ITSM system. These modules work seamlessly with each other and give you the power to manage any situation effectively.
  • As an Administrator of Helix ITSM you have many tools at your disposal to create customizations, workflows. BMC makes it easy to manage the system, leaving time to develop customizations and workflows.
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Cons
AT&T Cybersecurity
  • 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.
Read full review
BMC Software Inc.
  • Customization can be lengthy due to the numerous features included in the software.
  • New staff members require some sort of hands-on training to get to know all the use capabilities.
  • The analytics can be improved to include forecasts and trend analysis.
  • Expensive compared to competitors.
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Likelihood to Renew
AT&T Cybersecurity
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.
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BMC Software Inc.
It provides the tool we need and is able to be customised to meet new requirements. Cost to change in training and integrations would be considerable.
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Usability
AT&T Cybersecurity
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.
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BMC Software Inc.
At least Remedy is all contained in a single platform, so the interface is consistent. Also, the most heavily performed functions are generally usable. However, to use some of the more advanced modules can be a bit more cumbersome (such as Change Management and CMDB (Not Including ADDM)). So, overall BMC Remedy ITSM is better than some applications like CA SDM or HP SM, but not quite on par with ServiceNow.
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Reliability and Availability
AT&T Cybersecurity
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.
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BMC Software Inc.
for now we are satisfied. first two months 😉
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Performance
AT&T Cybersecurity
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.
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BMC Software Inc.
could be faster. db is slower from introducing postgresql
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Support Rating
AT&T Cybersecurity
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.
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BMC Software Inc.
Their tech support is top notch. They respond and get back to us, even on lower level incidents and issues, very quickly. It is rare that we deal with a support technician who does not know what they are doing.
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In-Person Training
AT&T Cybersecurity
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
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BMC Software Inc.
No answers on this topic
Online Training
AT&T Cybersecurity
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.
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BMC Software Inc.
the trainers dont have so much practical experiences. its mostly follow up and reading existing documentation withou own input. of course experiences people are on shore or have no free time. sad truth
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Implementation Rating
AT&T Cybersecurity
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.
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BMC Software Inc.
Satisfied because I didn't have to do it!
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Alternatives Considered
AT&T Cybersecurity
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.
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BMC Software Inc.
I did not select Remedy myself, so I am coming in from someone who is apart of the story, from somewhere in the midway. That being said: Remedy has begun a journey of understanding the problems associated with the implementation of ITIL, and indeed ITIL itself (it is a top-down process for management of an IT department). there are many alternatives out there. One, in particular, I am keen to investigate: Redmine. But in doing so, It will be evaluated via my experience with Remedy.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
AT&T Cybersecurity
No answers on this topic
BMC Software Inc.
unclear. lot of for less
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Scalability
AT&T Cybersecurity
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?
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BMC Software Inc.
Again, always room for improvement, but a very stable product none-the-less.
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Return on Investment
AT&T Cybersecurity
  • 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.
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BMC Software Inc.
  • The ROI was fine initially as we got what we paid for and it served its purpose
  • Over time, we got behind on releases due to limitations with customizations we made to the application. The product then became out of support and completely out of date, and we had to replace
  • Overall ROI was minimal and once the product was out of date we found more value in other tools
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ScreenShots

AlienVault USM Screenshots

Screenshot of USM Anywhere NIDS Dashboard

BMC Helix ITSM Screenshots

Screenshot of BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker. This is where users can deliver a secure service experience across multi-cloud environments.Screenshot of Knowledge Management, available with intelligent recommendations to help bring the right information to end-users and agents to quickly and accurately resolve issues.Screenshot of the incident and problem management interface, used to create and resolve incidents faster with intelligent, context-aware, and proactive incident matching.