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
LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform
Score 7.1 out of 10
N/A
The LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform, from LogRhythm in Boulder, Colorado, is security information and event management (SIEM) software which includes SOAR functionality via SmartResponse Automation Plugins (a RespondX feature), the DetectX security analytics module, and AnalytiX as a log management solution that centralizes log data, enriches it with contextual details and applies a consistent schema across all data types.
N/A
Pricing
AlienVault USM
LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform
Editions & Modules
Essentials
$1,075
per month
Standard
$1,695
per month
Premium
$2,595
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AlienVault USM
LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform
Free Trial
Yes
No
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
Optional
No setup fee
Additional Details
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AlienVault USM
LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform
Considered Both Products
AlienVault USM
Verified User
Manager
Chose AlienVault USM
The cost of AlienVault is what sold us on AlienVault. However, considering the amount of time and effort that has gone into getting it set up and realizing that views and reports cannot be shared across groups makes it not worth the savings.
I evaluated Splunk in the past but found the interface and work required to build queries and manage alerting was more work than I was willing to take on. I didn't like having to learn another language just to search for what I wanted. Through a managed service provider I also …
AlienVault was able to provide the same basic functionalities as the other competitors. Open Threat Exchange is a really good feature, and the fact that it came with intrusion detection was a huge plus and key part of why we purchased.
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 …
With the exception of Solar Winds, AlienVault USM is far easier to administer and support, but far less extensible. LogRhythm and Splunk are going to offer far more advanced capabilities in the way of deployment models, features, and automation capabilities. Also, other …
AlienVault was the cheapest solution compared with the competition and had similar or better features. Also, the SaaS based solution made it easy to deploy the solution without the need to maintain additional servers on premise. It was very easy to use and had a great UI which …
SIEM vendors are having to adapt and thus it is difficult to perform a true apples-to-apples comparison between all the vendors. They offer different features and can even take different approaches to solving the logging and SIEM issue. Still, with that consideration in mind, …
Solarwinds LEM was replaced with USM, the UI and the sluggishness and lack of ease of use made that decision easy. LogRhythm was a top contender, the cost and complexity to implement made USM an easy choice.
All of the other products have their strengths and weaknesses. In trying to keep the platform focused on security while keeping the spend contained, we chose AlienVault. Both LogRhythm and Splunk had great solutions, but AlienVault just checked off more of our organizational …
We found AlienVault to best suit our environment and provide the level of detail that we needed to not only secure our environment but to help us prepare for IT asset audits. It has VMWare, O365, and Meraki integrations which we use in our office and we required software that …
AlienVault provides an all in one/unified approach to security. AlienVaults online threat exchange (OTX) provides additional context to events and event flows that may not originally be seen as a possible threat. The cost of USM and ease to deploy is a big differentiator.
For us it came down to cost. AlienVault's competitors just could not compare on cost for a small organization like us. They are out of touch. Everyone needs a solid tool like AlienVault, but too often the industry only caters to big budgets. More often than not, that results in …
I felt that AlienVault performed the SIEM aspect as well as the one mentioned. My opinion has always been that the SIEM product is as good as the person using it is experienced. I selected AlienVault because of the many added features.
AlienVault USM works well for any company size. LogRhythm might be too much if your company is not already big, and the same can be said of McAfee Enterprise Security Manager. If this is your first SIEM, it's a really good choice and has nothing to envy from the others I'm …
AlienVault was the only product that spoke to all our needs for log management, vulnerability scans and system monitoring. AlienVault impressed with their knowledge of the security landscape and was able to answer every question to satisfaction.
AlienVault United Security Management like any SIEM takes tuning and work to get good results. AlienVault United Security Management made this easy and when compared to the other centralized logging or SIEM products, does so much more and costs so much less. We have not been …
AlienVault is generally more affordable than its competitors. It also includes a built-in OpenVAS vulnerability scanner - which most competitors don't have. It is a decent option, but is not as mature of a product as some of the more expensive options like Splunk and LogRhythm.
Price was a big deal for us but we also read very positive reviews of AlienVault from different trade magazines, etc. We found that it included more for your dollar as well as one of the better interfaces for alarm troubleshooting. They have a great dashboard that you can …
AlienVault USM Appliance and USM Anywhere might lack some functionality where LogRhythm does well. For instance, SmartResponse functionality is more mature than the Orchestration rules at AlienVault USM Anywhere. You can easily script SmartResponse to act accordingly to each …
I work with every SIEM on the market and I believe LogRhythm simply provides the best overall value in terms of price, incident response capability, content capability, and ease of engineering.
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.
LogRhythm is good for providing a comprehensive view of the environment. It gives a great outline of whatever is going on in our servers and systems regarding security malfunctions. The SIEM sends real-time notifications when there are some occurrences; like creating a new user and inappropriate login attempts. It also avails a good use case that meets our HIPAA compliance.
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.
LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform has an alarm system that generates tickets based on the event and the way it has been configured in the LogRhythm console. Let's say we have a ticket for a malicious email attachment. The ticket will some information like the source of the log, the source IP, destination IP etc. It can be drilled down to obtain specific information like the recipient, source location, file attachment name, SHA hash of the file, source and destination port, time, mac address of the machine that downloaded it etc. This helps the analysts to go to the root of the cause and take actions easily without manually parsing them.
The second good thing about the LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform is that it is very easy to use with its well-structured interface. To use LogRhythm, an user barely require any technical skills. A little overview of IP, CIDR, hash, etc. is enough to get your hands on it. It requires no programming or coding skills, as everything is GUI based. It also provides a beautiful visualization dashboard. There is another beautiful feature that it provides for the classification of events, known as cases. Multiple users working on the same platform can create cases and add events to it. They also help to maintain future reference.
The third good feature is the search tool which is very powerful. For example, sometimes it is hard to find the users who downloaded a malware from the guest wireless of the institution and not the private network. The search tool helps us in searching the user by automatically correlating the MAC address from the current network logs and the previous logs as the MAC address is the same. It is highly scalable for parsing a large number of logs from various sources.
I particularly think this is one of the best software available for log parsing in an organization where non-technical users are working on incident response. This tool has a good amount of flexibility. However, it can only be configured with the LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform Console.
In terms of usability, as already mentioned, it is a very easy tool to use, with a GUI based interface.
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.
LogRhythm absolutely needs to provide back end support for threat intelligence lists. Performing a linear search on massive lists of IPs on incoming web traffic can bring the SIEM to its knees.
LogRhythm should drop its entire code base for implementing lists and simply turn them into hash tables to avoid the excessive cost associated with referencing lists in rules. I haven't seen the code, but the performance suggests O(n).
The reporting feature is the worst of all SIEMs, luckily reports are not my primary service offering. LogRhythm should definitely revamp its reporting to be more intuitive.
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.
LogRhythm is focused on SIEM. That is their core business. Cost of operations, feature set and ease of use. The Log Rhythm support team is outstanding. Overall reliability is good. Reporting module needs some improvement and LR is promising that there will be significant improvements in future releases.
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.
LogRhythm does a rather decent job of making the functionality advanced (allowing for advanced keyword & field searching, use of "AND" as well as "OR" statements in the search bar) while keeping it accessible (by not requiring a specific syntax to do quick searches). This combined with a user interface that has headings and labels that are intuitive is very helpful.
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.
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.
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.
While LogRhythm support is generally quick to respond, the initial response is usually from a first line support engineer with general knowledge of the product. Any advanced or complex issues have always required the assistance of a higher tier of support, directly or indirectly. For a few occasions we actually used our PS hours to work on the issue.
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
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.
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.
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.
LogRhythm was simpler to set up and configure as well as extract information from. It also was less intrusive in terms of how many appliances were needed to implement. We were up and running within 5 hours to start accepting log sources. We selected LogRhythm as well since support is based in the USA in Colorado.
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?
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.
The ability to search through logs in a centralized location really helps us to provide RCA (Root Cause Analysis) to management for outages. This helps us to quickly identify the cause of outages and thus saves money due to reduced downtime.
Being able to configure the alarms to provide real-time notification (and responses) to security events helps to prevent potential loss due to compromises (such as a fraudulent wire transfer).
The initial investment in LogRhythm SIEM is somewhat expensive, however, the appliance is built to your specific needs so you won't have to constantly be upgrading the device as your company grows.
