AlienVault USM
718 Ratings
SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
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118 Ratings
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AlienVault USM

718 Ratings
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Score 7.7 out of 100

Based on 718 reviews and ratings

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

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118 Ratings
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Score 7.4 out of 100

Based on 118 reviews and ratings

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Feature Set Ratings

  • SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) ranks higher in 1 feature set: Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

6.6

AlienVault USM

66%
7.6

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

76%
SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) ranks higher in 6/7 features
SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) ranks higher in 6/7 features

Centralized event and log data collection

6.8
68%
5 Ratings
8.5
85%
18 Ratings

Correlation

7.1
71%
5 Ratings
7.6
76%
15 Ratings

Event and log normalization/management

6.7
67%
7 Ratings
7.3
73%
36 Ratings

Deployment flexibility

6.0
60%
5 Ratings
7.9
79%
18 Ratings

Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools

6.6
66%
3 Ratings
7.9
79%
13 Ratings

Custom dashboards and workspaces

6.1
61%
7 Ratings
4.9
49%
34 Ratings

Host and network-based intrusion detection

6.7
67%
4 Ratings
9.0
90%
4 Ratings

Attribute Ratings

  • AlienVault USM is rated higher in 1 area: Likelihood to Recommend
  • SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) is rated higher in 2 areas: Likelihood to Renew, Support Rating
  • AlienVault USM and SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) are tied in 1 area: Usability

Likelihood to Recommend

8.1

AlienVault USM

81%
389 Ratings
7.7

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

77%
46 Ratings

Likelihood to Renew

7.2

AlienVault USM

72%
19 Ratings
7.3

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

73%
2 Ratings

Usability

6.7

AlienVault USM

67%
35 Ratings
6.7

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

67%
5 Ratings

Availability

6.4

AlienVault USM

64%
6 Ratings

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

N/A
0 Ratings

Performance

7.3

AlienVault USM

73%
6 Ratings

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

N/A
0 Ratings

Support Rating

7.3

AlienVault USM

73%
51 Ratings
7.4

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

74%
26 Ratings

In-Person Training

4.5

AlienVault USM

45%
1 Rating

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

N/A
0 Ratings

Online Training

8.3

AlienVault USM

83%
6 Ratings

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

N/A
0 Ratings

Implementation Rating

6.4

AlienVault USM

64%
76 Ratings

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

N/A
0 Ratings

Product Scalability

6.3

AlienVault USM

63%
3 Ratings

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

N/A
0 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.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 389 answers on this topic

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

Solarwinds SEM is great for generating reports for investigation purposes. Once you set up the connectors you can walk away and the product runs without needing maintenance. It was however pretty difficult to create the reports and alerts when now starting out and it can be very intimidating for new users.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 46 answers on this topic

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.

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Matthew Stacks | TrustRadius Reviewer
Matthew Stacks
View all 389 answers on this topic

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

  • It does a great job of notifying us when accounts have been locked out. We can then find out the device on the network where the login attempt occurred.
  • Searching for incidents is now a lot faster with the implementation of the HTML 5 interface.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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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.

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Christian Holton | TrustRadius Reviewer
Christian Holton
View all 389 answers on this topic

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

  • All SolarWinds product suffer from slow response times in management portals. SolarWinds SEM is no exception. While it is much preferred over a "thick client" there is much room for improvement in speed.
  • If you use the email alert features with SolarWinds make sure to prepare you staff and team for the large amount of emails they could receive. Make sure to reduce the number of alerts so your team does not ignore the alerts.

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Adam Morrison | TrustRadius Reviewer
Adam Morrison
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Pricing Details

AlienVault USM

General

Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level set up fee?
Optional

Starting Price

$1,075 per month

AlienVault USM Editions & Modules

Edition
Essentials$1,0751
Standard$1,6951
Premium$2,5951
  1. per month
Additional Pricing Details
—

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

General

Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—
Entry-level set up fee?
No

Starting Price

—

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) Editions & Modules

—
Additional Pricing Details
—

Likelihood to Renew

AlienVault USM

AlienVault USM 7.2
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.

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Aaron Rothstein | TrustRadius Reviewer
Aaron Rothstein
View all 19 answers on this topic

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) 7.3
Based on 2 answers
It is pretty likely that we will renew SEM when the time comes up. It is easy to use and maintain so there isn't much of a need to replace this product. It is also a pretty fair price for the capabilities provided by the SEM

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 2 answers on this topic

Usability

AlienVault USM

AlienVault USM 6.7
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.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 35 answers on this topic

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) 6.7
Based on 5 answers
If you are familiar with SolarWinds then you can use this product it's as easy as that. If you have never used a SolarWinds product then it will take a minute to get how they do reports and make dashboards but that being said the tool is great and can make things very easy once you get a feel for how it works and get everything setup how you like it.

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Tim Short | TrustRadius Reviewer
Tim Short
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Reliability and Availability

AlienVault USM

AlienVault USM 6.4
Based on 6 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.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 6 answers on this topic

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Performance

AlienVault USM

AlienVault USM 7.3
Based on 6 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.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 6 answers on this topic

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Support Rating

AlienVault USM

AlienVault USM 7.3
Based on 51 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.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 51 answers on this topic

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) 7.4
Based on 26 answers
The quality of support can vary depending on whom you end up speaking with. I was fortunate enough to work with a support representative who was very familiar with the product. He had even authored some of the support documentation on the website. On the flip side, I had two other experiences where I was simply directed to online training material.

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Brandon Demko | TrustRadius Reviewer
Brandon Demko
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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

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 1 answers on this topic

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Online Training

AlienVault USM

AlienVault USM 8.3
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.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 6 answers on this topic

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Implementation Rating

AlienVault USM

AlienVault USM 6.4
Based on 76 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.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
View all 76 answers on this topic

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

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.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

Splunk was a pretty good product but the licensing structure needed a lot of work. They changed the structure three times that I am aware and I still had problems understanding LogRhythm had a lot of issues correlating users to IP addresses, the mappings were frequently wrong so this product could not be trusted in my environment as all our access logs are IP based and this needs to be matched to usernames from AD Fortianalzyer is a great product but it can only do logs from Fortigates so that was not helping for anything other than our firewalls.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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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?

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Return on Investment

AlienVault USM

  • Compliance
  • Threat detection
  • Easy asset management
  • Save on vulnerability scanning

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

  • For the price, it produced a decent value. It did a lot of the easy stuff well. I can't give any specific data given the objective of the product was to monitor very basic events in the environment.
  • There are free options that can do a better job.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Screenshots

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