AlienVault USM vs WatchGuard Network Security | TrustRadius

What users are saying about

Score 7.5 out of 10

Based on 679 reviews and ratings

Score 9 out of 10

Based on 175 reviews and ratings

Feature Rating Comparison

AlienVault USM

WatchGuard Network Security

Centralized event and log data collection

Correlation

Event and log normalization

Deployment flexibility

Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools

Custom dashboards and views

Host and network-based intrusion detection

AlienVault USM

WatchGuard Network Security

Identification Technologies

Visualization Tools

Content Inspection

Policy-based Controls

Active Directory and LDAP

Firewall Management Console

Reporting and Logging

VPN

High Availability

Stateful Inspection

Proxy Server

Pros

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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Tier II SOC Analyst

Rendition Infosec LLCInformation Technology & Services, 11-50 employees

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URL Filtering: Extremely effective for blocking of questionable content and protecting from phishing sites.
Antivirus: Our clients have seen far fewer active threats when a WatchGuard Network Security Device is in place.
Data Loss Prevention: A valuable tool for our clients who require more security when it comes to metadata and personal data leaving the network.

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Senior Support Specialist / Project Manager

Tech HelpInformation Technology and Services, 1-10 employees

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Cons

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

System Administrator

Enthought, Inc.Computer Software, 51-200 employees

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Partner communications on technical issues. For example the undocumented feature of SDWAN hidden route. There is still no documentation on that.
Too infrequent communications about high incidence technical support issues. We do not want to have to be encountering known issues and then having outages or problems that we then have to put in tickets about.
Pay attention to your most highly technical partners, not just those that sell a lot of equipment. The highly technical partners can and do provide very usable feedback that can make the products better.
WG wants partners to build relationships with people inside WG so we can drive solutions to problems, but too frequently, we get no response to emails sent to the proper internal resources about legitimate issues.

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President

Quality Plus ConsultingInformation Technology and Services, 1-10 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

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.

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Aaron Rothstein

IT Systems Architect

ROTHSTEIN.ioRestaurants, 5001-10,000 employees

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WatchGuard Network Security 9.8

Based on 3 answers

To be replaced, we would need to see a clear set of reasons that acutely address the points I have made in favor of this solution, and they would need to be Cheaper, easier to use, give more clarity into the networking, and create easier dashboards and reports for managemnt of users networking and threat actors attempts to compromise the network.

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IT Director

Wayne Transports, Inc.Transportation/Trucking/Railroad, 501-1000 employees

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Usability

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.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 201-500 employees

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WatchGuard Network Security 8.5

Based on 98 answers

I first started using WatchGuard firewalls about 20 years ago and found them easy to pick up and learn. Since then I have had experience with many other types--Sonicwalls, Palo Altos, and Cisco Meraki, just to name a few--and I still find the that WatchGuard is the easiest to deploy and work with. I still use the management software (vs. the newer web interface) and it's just very easy to find what I need and to make changes.

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IT Director

LSLCPAsFinancial Services, 51-200 employees

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Reliability and Availability

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.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Information Technology and Services Company, 201-500 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Performance

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.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Information Technology and Services Company, 201-500 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Support Rating

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.

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Verified User

Project Manager in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 201-500 employees

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WatchGuard Network Security 8.0

Based on 7 answers

I give this rating as a result of almost 20 years of interfacing with WatchGuard technical support. Of all my vendors that I have to deal with WatchGuard is one of the best I have ever dealt with bar none. I have seldom finished a call to them without a solution. If they by chance don't have the solution, they will figure it out and get back to you ASAP as well as update the casefile online. Technical support is available via phone and web portal. It takes a few minutes to create a case online, assign a priority and submit. They get back to you depending on the critical nature of the issue, but you can expect urgent attention for critical and catastrophic issues.

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Director Of Information Technology

Fort Walton Machining, Inc.Aviation & Aerospace, 51-200 employees

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In-Person Training

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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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Information Technology and Services Company, 201-500 employees

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WatchGuard Network Security 9.1

Based on 1 answer

In person training is very good for the interaction with qualified trainers

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President

Quality Plus ConsultingInformation Technology and Services, 1-10 employees

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Online Training

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.

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Verified User

Director in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 501-1000 employees

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WatchGuard Network Security 6.4

Based on 1 answer

Online training is good for learning how to use the product. It does not teach security strategy because that is not its intent.

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President

Quality Plus ConsultingInformation Technology and Services, 1-10 employees

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Implementation Rating

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.

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Verified User

Supervisor in Information Technology

Utilities Company, 51-200 employees

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WatchGuard Network Security 8.4

Based on 108 answers

Implementation of a device, with knowledge of the WatchGuard system, can be fairly straightforward for a typical school/branch office. Anywhere with a few servers will have the policy list grow exponentially and end up with a big mess of policies. We have 30 servers, along with providing local Internet. We have over 100 policies and growing.

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Verified User

Project Manager in Information Technology

Primary/Secondary Education Company, 201-500 employees

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Alternatives Considered

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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Verified User

Director in Information Technology

Staffing and Recruiting Company, 51-200 employees

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I find Watchguard much easier to deploy and maintain than Sonicwall devices. I find they offer a comparable range of products and features, however, I liked the deployment process of Watchguards much more. The Cisco ASA is a great firewall as well, however, can require more in-depth knowledge to deploy. Watchguard dual WAN functionality is better than the ASA as well which requires routers outside of the ASA to maintain a true dual WAN setup.

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Senior Network Engineer

DiamondITInformation Technology and Services, 11-50 employees

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Scalability

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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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Information Technology and Services Company, 201-500 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Return on Investment

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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Verified User

Employee in Information Technology

Financial Services Company, 51-200 employees

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Blocking bad websites has saved many of our clients from any infection which saves time and money from a business being down and needing files restored perspective.
Automatic end user training has saved time not having to go onsite to do it ourselves.
Traffic and Security Reports that we use with clients to show them employee usage, blocked security threats, and growth projections.

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Joshua Churchwell

Project Engineer

Echopath, LLCComputer & Network Security, 11-50 employees

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Screenshots

See All (4) WatchGuard Network Security Screenshots

Pricing Details

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

—

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

Yes

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

WatchGuard Network Security Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

Rating Summary

AlienVault USM

WatchGuard Network Security

AlienVault USM

WatchGuard Network Security

AlienVault USM

WatchGuard Network Security

AlienVault USM

WatchGuard Network Security

AlienVault USM

WatchGuard Network Security

AlienVault USM

WatchGuard Network Security

AlienVault USM

WatchGuard Network Security

AlienVault USM

WatchGuard Network Security

AlienVault USM

WatchGuard Network Security

AlienVault USM

WatchGuard Network Security

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