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SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) vs. Symantec Critical System Protection

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds LEM is security information and event management (SIEM) software.N/A

    Symantec Critical System Protection

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ASymantec Critical System Protection is a lightweight behavioral hardening engine purpose-built to protect legacy, EOL systems and embedded devices, by adding layers of defense at the kernel level to prevent unhygenic operations on IoT devices and machines.N/A
    Pricing
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)Symantec Critical System Protection
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)Symantec Critical System Protection
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)Symantec Critical System Protection
    Considered Both Products
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Broadcom
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    88%
    Would buy again
    30 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    28 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    31 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    25 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)Symantec Critical System Protection
    Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
    Comparison of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) features of SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) and Symantec Critical System Protection
    Feature
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    8.9
    18 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Symantec Critical System Protection
    -
    Ratings
    Centralized event and log data collection9.018 Ratings00 Ratings
    Correlation8.015 Ratings00 Ratings
    Event and log normalization/management8.018 Ratings00 Ratings
    Deployment flexibility10.018 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools8.013 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom dashboards and workspaces9.017 Ratings00 Ratings
    Host and network-based intrusion detection10.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)Symantec Critical System Protection
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM Security QRadar SIEM
    Score8.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Microsoft Sentinel
    Score8.6 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)Symantec Critical System Protection
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (46 ratings)
    5.0
    (2 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.5
    (17 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)Symantec Critical System Protection
    Likelihood to Recommend
    SolarWinds
    Optimal for SolarWinds Security Event Manager needs for smaller companies - it is a very cool product but has some limitations around EPS (which gets chewed up quickly if you're doing it the right way & adding servers/storage/FW & other network devices)... Also pricing model is GREAT (not consumption-based, which is the greatest grift the SIEM industry has created).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    Symantec Critical System Protection (CSP) is very well suited for environments that do not change such as point of sale systems and critical servers. This product is spectacular at protecting end of life operating systems when supporting legacy software prevents upgrades. When security updates are no longer available, CSP will prevent exploits and other malware from taking advantage. This product is not well suited for systems that require a lot of changes. For one, it does not notify when a change has been blocked by CSP, causing some server administrators to waste many hours chasing a phantom technical problem when turning off CSP could have solved it right away. Also, profiling takes time so systems that constantly change would need hundreds of exceptions made.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    SolarWinds
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    • Data Center Security 6.0 and higher allows you to easily build out policies to deploy to monitor/block what is required/needed.
    • The agent that is installed on the hosts has a small footprint in terms of CPU and memory usage.
    • The ability to customize it anyway you need to as well as utilize out of the box policies to monitor critical OS functionality.
    Read full review
    Cons
    SolarWinds
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    • Tuning takes a very long time
    • Turning the product on or off can take time
    • When an action is prevented by CSP, there is no pop up or notification, making this a burden for server administrators
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    SolarWinds
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    SolarWinds
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    SolarWinds
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    They respond quickly and efficiently without the need to reiterate the actual issue. Their backline support is amazing and always there for us when it is needed. They explain the troubleshooting steps taken and what they did to help us resolve the issue just incase it creeps up again we have the information to correct it ourselves.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    SolarWinds
    Fortianalzyer can only do logs from FortiGate so usefulness is limited. Elasticsearch was a lot slower than Solarwinds and the filters were a lot harder to set up and use. The connectors for SEM were far more stable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    We evaluated Bit 9 and you have more flexibility with the rule set and do not rely on the cloud to tell you what is approved and not approved. You build out the policies the way you need them to be and who better knows the environment that the people that work it daily.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    SolarWinds
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    • Great protection for unchanging systems
    • We have comfort that the protected systems are safe from intrusion
    • Excellent price
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) Screenshots

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