IBM Security QRadar SIEM vs. Splunk Enterprise Security (ES)

QRadar is very well suited on environments where there are not multiple tenants or domains, we do have success on this kind of scenario. IBM Security QRadar SIEM is less appropriate for environments with multiple tenants, specially when each tenant represent a different End Costumer (such as for MSSP companies), those environments require a high amount of rules and building blocks replications, since each tenant will have its own "BB definitions", servers, rules exception, etc. Also, some information, such as EPS count or EPS dropped are generated by QRadar's own log sources, which takes place on default domain, therefore users associated with different domain can not have access to those logs, even when the information is related to other domain's environment. For example, even if Event Collector 1 is associated to Domain A, the log informing its dropped EPS is generated by System notification, log source that must be associated to Default domain.

Incentivized

Well suited: Splunk ES is highly recommended in an environment with many data sources and experienced computer engineers. It has a steep learning curve, but once that hurdle is crossed, it is absolutely a beast. It is also very expensive, so a company putting a high amount of budget in Security is needed. Not well suited: Splunk ES is not recommended if a company has only a few sources and some non-technical IT users. The price won't justify the fewer data sources and scratching just the surface level. Moreover, non-technical IT users would be better off with something that has a query builder, unlike Splunk.

Incentivized

• Enables identification and prioritization of vulnerabilities in IT infrastructure for corrective action.
• Facilitates security incident investigation and forensic analysis.
• Provides a real-time view of security events, enabling immediate incident response.
• Can integrate with external threat intelligence sources to enrich data and improve threat detection.
• Enables the generation of detailed and customized reports.

Incentivized

• Advanced Threat Detection and Correlation: ES stands out in its ability to detect sophisticated threats by correlating data from multiple sources. For instance, it can identify unusual patterns in user behavior, cross-referencing with network logs to flag potential insider threats.
• Real-time Monitoring and Alerting: ES offers robust real-time monitoring capabilities. It excels in promptly alerting us to critical security events, such as suspicious network traffic spikes or unauthorized access attempts, allowing for immediate response.
• Comprehensive Log Analysis: ES ingests and analyzes an extensive range of log data. It's particularly adept at parsing and making sense of complex log formats, making it a versatile tool for understanding system activities and security events.

Incentivized

• Need to spend more time configuring the system to properly interpret and normalize different type of data collected from multiple resources.
• While Rule creation QRadar uses that rules to detect security threats and generate alerts, but to creating and managing rules is bit complex & tedious work to complete.
• IBM Security QRadar SIEM is excellent in handling large & complex systems that requires in-depth knowledge and extensive training to configure and maintain the system which includes upgrading, optimization of performance & issue troubleshooting.

Incentivized

• ES on the cloud (SaaS) has too many limitations with platform administration.
• Supported integrations are not always on par with enterprise support especially when dependent on 3rd-party proprietary APIs.
• In later versions, unforeseen glitches seem to show up that have no resolution except version upgrade. This used to not be the case in prior versions which were very stable.

With the arrival of IBM Security QRadar SIEM at our company, we have a better vision of all the security needs that may arise, it is a very safe software to use that prevents threats from damaging our IT environment, it is impossible to change it for another software.

Incentivized

We are very happy with Splunk and would advise anyone to take a serious look at it. It might look pricey but the rewards Splunk offers seem endless.

Incentivized

A very special system to use without problems, the process is very genuine and does not require complicated procedures.

Incentivized

You definitely need to learn how to use Splunk to get the most of the tool. There are many courses available for free to get up to speed on the usability of the tool but it's not that simple. It will take time to digest all the data and to understand how to query for what you are looking for.

Incentivized

I'm not an ES user, but, in my implementation I usually try to prevent all service stops to guarantee High availability to the final customers.

Incentivized

ES requires a very performant infrastructure: if it has it's performant, otherwise not. I had situation with a very performant infrastructure and I didn't notized that it was a distributed architecture, it seemed that there ware few data on my PC, othewise I experienced less performant infrastructures with less performaces.

Incentivized

Customer support is Good of IBM, While Using IBM QRadar its deployment is to slow and suddenly stop working and crashed we have contacted IBM Support and Rised a Ticket within a few minute we get call back from customer support and Query Resolved by them Fast And Rapid Support of Ibm

Incentivized

It's good when it's responsive, but I've had times where I had to wait quite a while for a response. But these are typically the exceptions rather than the rule. When you do get a response it is always well-informed and appropriate. I would say they've been trending better over time with this.

Incentivized

I experienced only on-line training, but the trainers were very professional and competent. Maybe it could be more useful if they also have an experience in projects because sometimes they didn't have a real project experience to communicate to the students. Anyway, it was very interesting and I learned many thing that's very difficoult (or maybe impossible!) to have by myself, aven if I have more than 10 years of Splunk activity experience.

Incentivized

It was very interesting and I learned many thing that's very difficoult (or maybe impossible!) to have by myself. The only problem was that, when I worked with the Splunk Professional Services, I found some difference between the training contents and the information from PS. In addition is required a long experience on Splunk Enterprise for the data ingestion part, in other words I'm able to work with ES because I'm worling on Splunk since 11 years, otherwise I'd some problem.

Incentivized

It's a fantatic product and it was very useful the presence of Splunk Professional Services for the Design Phase and the final Health Check.

Incentivized

IBM Qradar takes the best from its competitors. Reliable and stable but sometimes very expensive, the SIEM from IBM offers a wide range of scenarios in which the customers can suite and size their own infrastructures. IBM Qradar doesn't really needs to stack up againt its competitors because it already sets an example in the SIEM world.

Incentivized

Splunk enterprise is the only solution that we’ve been able to identify that provides risk based alerting, which allows our SOC to reduce analyst fatigue which would be a huge problem without it. Before RBA, there were thousands of alerts a day and it was impossible to review all of them

Incentivized

for my exterience, unit pricing and billing frequency are correct. As I already said, I hint to have more discount flexibility, expecially with new customers, because there are competitors less expensive and very aggressive that are dangerous. In addition the possibility to don't pay the license for the development period could be a very interesting feature for the final customers.

Incentivized

- 8 out of 10 and took 2 for the data pipeline and administration part. Even if you'd like to improve yourself or your team, you have to pay a lot of money and it could be more than GIAC education + cert. - Normalization for Data models and CPU-based searches can be a problem sometimes.

Incentivized

I had a fantastic experience with Splunk Professional Services: they worked with us in our last SON project (a SOC migration for a very large customer) and helped to build a multi tenent environment even if ES isn't a multi tenant platform. Th Splunk PS was a very professional and competent people, he is italian and was able to speak with our italian customers.

Incentivized

• Offense investigation was really helped in tackling the incidents. It was accurate and brief
• The automation with IBM resilient (SOAR) was a milestone in elimination of user mistakes
• The X-Force threat intelligence supported us in getting the work done without any 3rd party enterprise OSINT database

Incentivized

• ES has highly impacted ROI because as the customer of the ES the work we do for creating use cases for clients in terms of security-related aspects by their logs has given more return than investment.
• The correlation searches we run to get detailed results from the Data models are very less time-consuming than Splunk Enterprise itself we can get quick responses to the use cases and dashboards populated because of ES.
• The CIM compliance feature is ES has made more jobs easy in the terms of finding more Authentication related data we can get data onboarded in the Email data model from O365 and search is email data model instead of searching for particular indexes.

Incentivized