SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) vs. Varonis Data Security Platform

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

The most highlighted feature of Varonis Data Security Platform is the data analyzing mechanism. It analyzes your data all the time with some special algorithms to detect any unusual activities so that it can identify any unusual behavior or users and
take necessary action to save your sensitive data. They also offer a complete dashboard solution for their customers to control across different data stores, see their current state, and any security breaches to be addressed manually.

Incentivized

• 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

• Varonis logging is very robust and captures all audit events being sent from the file servers.
• The ability to report and alert on Active Directory account events works very well with file activity monitoring. It can show the complete picture of what an account did while being used.
• Have a customizable dashboard is great for being able to show upper management information that only pertains to them.

• 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

• Implementation can be challenging in some areas and can only be executed by the vendor
• Implementation can only be executed by the vendor and additional work can be chargeable
• Licensing can be improved upon
• Agent based so implementation can be longer than expected

Incentivized

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

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

I would rate Varonis Data Security Platform usability an 8 out of 10, as it offers powerful, detailed insights once configured, though initial setup can be complex for new users.

Incentivized

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

Support has always been very responsive and addressed any issues we may have had in the past. Some local engineers are willing to come onsite or work over a web session to discuss creating a new rule set or look at some issues. Getting issues address has never been a problem. There was one feature we had trouble getting to function correctly, but support and local engineers were willing to work with us as much as needed to get it working correctly for our organization.

Incentivized

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

Actually, we didn't expend much time evaluating other file auditing platforms. We chose Varonis just after a serious incident and we had already heard about Varonis at a Netapp event. So it was an easy choice. We called Varonis and asked them for a PoC, that's it. The PoC became a production and it is running until this day.

Incentivized

• 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

• We have identified data classifications issues that our organization was not aware of prior to the implementation.
• The tool does take a dedicated resource for it to be effective.
• Varonis has improved the speed with which we can fulfill audit requests, leaving us more time for other tasks.

Incentivized