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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Splunk Enterprise

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ASplunk is software for searching, monitoring, and analyzing machine-generated big data, via a web-style interface. It captures, indexes and correlates real-time data in a searchable repository from which it can generate graphs, reports, alerts, dashboards and visualizations.N/A

    VMware ESXi

    Score7.5 out of 10
    N/AA bare-metal hypervisor that installs directly onto a physical server. With direct access to and control of underlying resources, VMware ESXi partitions hardware to consolidate applications and cut costs.N/A
    Pricing
    Splunk EnterpriseVMware ESXi
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Splunk EnterpriseVMware ESXi
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Splunk EnterpriseVMware ESXi
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    Chose Splunk Enterprise
    We originally used Kiwi Syslog but this was not able to keep up with the level of logs that were being sent to it. Also Kiwi does not allow you to search through logs, create alerts, etc. or any of the other features Splunk has. It is purely just a web GUI for syslog.
    Incentivized
    VMware by Broadcom
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    59 Answers
    98%
    Would buy again
    93 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    49 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    86 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    59 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    94 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    43 Answers
    99%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    82 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    50 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    91 Answers
    Features
    Splunk EnterpriseVMware ESXi
    Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
    Comparison of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) features of Splunk Enterprise and VMware ESXi
    Feature
    Splunk Enterprise
    8.3
    92 Ratings
    4% above category average
    VMware ESXi
    -
    Ratings
    Centralized event and log data collection9.086 Ratings00 Ratings
    Correlation8.488 Ratings00 Ratings
    Event and log normalization/management8.489 Ratings00 Ratings
    Deployment flexibility8.082 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools8.383 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom dashboards and workspaces8.888 Ratings00 Ratings
    Host and network-based intrusion detection7.966 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data integration/API management8.335 Ratings00 Ratings
    Behavioral analytics and baselining7.833 Ratings00 Ratings
    Rules-based and algorithmic detection thresholds8.034 Ratings00 Ratings
    Response orchestration and automation7.630 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting and compliance management8.735 Ratings00 Ratings
    Incident indexing/searching8.738 Ratings00 Ratings
    Server Virtualization
    Comparison of Server Virtualization features of Splunk Enterprise and VMware ESXi
    Feature
    Splunk Enterprise
    -
    Ratings
    VMware ESXi
    8.2
    128 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Virtual machine automated provisioning00 Ratings8.0116 Ratings
    Management console00 Ratings9.0128 Ratings
    Live virtual machine backup00 Ratings8.0112 Ratings
    Live virtual machine migration00 Ratings8.0116 Ratings
    Hypervisor-level security00 Ratings8.0117 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Splunk EnterpriseVMware ESXi
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Proxmox VE
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM Security QRadar SIEM
    Score8.4 out of 10
    VMware vSOM (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    IBM PowerVM
    Score9.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Splunk EnterpriseVMware ESXi
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (113 ratings)
    9.0
    (129 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.5
    (25 ratings)
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    8.5
    (46 ratings)
    9.0
    (6 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (19 ratings)
    10.0
    (55 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.1
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Splunk EnterpriseVMware ESXi
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    I'm liking the newer products, and I'm looking forward to how they integrate with the overall product when they come together. Just log in and be able to query a large number of systems for similar issues or a unique one. That is a great fit for Splunk Enterprise, looking for a simple case or a simple String or something of that nature across multiple machines. It's a great fit for that to identify issues or particular software, whatever your scenario is, String, to find it across any particular server or group of servers, so that you can update or do a deployment or whatever it is you're looking to do.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    If you're looking for the industry standard in server virtualization, I would recommend ESXi. After decades of expertise in the field, VMware continues to provide a strong product, production-ready, with an easy-to-learn interface that allows for quick management along with less costly upfront onboarding and training. Grab the free personal-use license and install in your homelab to start!
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Cisco
    • It is very useful in creating custom rules for analyzing system logs and display relevant information. The query language is very easy to learn.
    • We can create custom UI to visualize the output of our data. The interface is very flexible. It also allows the sharing of rules among users.
    • There is an open online community to help others. Stackoverflow also has a splunk community. These resources make it more convenient to learn.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    • Resource management. The automatic load balancing works very well to ensure no host is taxed disproportionately compared to the others.
    • Templates and cloning. It is very easy to set up a template and spin up new servers based on a specific setup. This makes server management very streamlined.
    • VM management. The vSphere interface is very easy to use and navigate. Everything is responsive and it works when you need it to. The options are also robust while also being arranged in a straightforward manner.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • Splunk light limits number of users to 5. Wish there was a flexible license, where one could add more users.
    • Splunk light does not let you add > few realtime alerts. Wish there was a flexible license, where one could add as many realtime alerts as wanted.
    • Better insight into daily ingestion values
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    • VMware ESXi can improve on the UI that is installed on the bare metal machine. The menus can be hard to navigate when looking for simple configuration items.
    • VMware ESXi can improve on the stability of their overall hypervisor. There have been a few times we had to reinstall due to corruption of VMware ESXi.
    • I would like to see VMware ESXi do better at adding more standard free features in their consumer version of VMware ESXi. For example, having the ability to back up virtual machines is good practice and something that would be very nice if offered in their free version.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    We are using Splunk extensively in our projects and we have recently upgraded to Splunk version 6.0 which is quite efficient and giving expected results. We keep track of updates and new features Splunk introduces periodically and try to introduce those features in our day to day activities for improvement in our reporting system and other tasks.
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    VMware by Broadcom
    It is critical to our business, what started out as a way to do certain functions, it has now become core to ensuring our product is available to our customers and reducing our costs to operate and reduce our recovery time and provisioning servers. Their support is great and the costs to renew is reasonable.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Cisco
    You can literally throw in a single word into Splunk and it will pull back all instances of that word across all of your logs for the time span you select (provided you have permission to see that data). We have several users who have taken a few of the free courses from Splunk that are able to pull data out of it everyday with little help at all.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    The interface is fairly intuitive for most things, and the areas that are a little less obvious usually have fantastic documentation in the online knowledgebase. In 3-4 years of managing our ESXi hosts, I think that I have only opened 4-5 support cases for things that I could not figure out myself or find answers to on the website.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    When properly setup and configured, Splunk is extremely reliable.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    Without the need to patch the servers with bug fixes and enhancements we whave not experienced any downtime with VMware issues. Even the bug fixes and updates do not cause of downtime as we just migrate the servers to the opposite node and update the one and then move servers back. Very simple and painless.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    VMware by Broadcom
    We do not notice any difference between a physical and virtual server running the same workload. In fact we can scale quicker with the virtual server than we can with the physical.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    Splunk maintains a well resourced support system that has been consistent since we purchased the product. They help out in a timely manner and provide expert level information as needed. We typically open cases online and communicate when possible via e-mail and are able to resolve most issues with that method.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    I can't say enough good about VMware's support team. To an individual they take ownership of the case, provide thorough answers, and follow up regularly. On one occasion, a problem we experienced with NSX Endpoint was escalated to development for a permanent resolution after a workaround was found. In my experience, most companies would have tried to find a way to close a case like that instead of taking it all the way. Most importantly, when production is down and every second counts, they VMware teams understand that urgency and treat your issue as if it were the only one they had to deal with. You can't ask for better.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    Cisco
    The online course was simple clear and described the main capabilities of the solution. There is also an initial module that can be done for free so anyone can familiarize themselves with the functionality of this solution. On the other hand, however, there could be more free online courses. Maybe even with a certificate, this would broaden the group of people who are familiar with the platform while increasing familiarity with the solution itself.
    Read full review
    VMware by Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    Smooth without too many major issues.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    Jsut read and follow anything your storage provider may require to allow the integration of VMware with storage operations, outside of that VMware jsut works.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    A lot of products have natively inside their own dashboards and or their own logging repositories. And each one is difficult to learn or they're too complex or they're not verbose in the sense that they're not easy to mine the data that you're looking for. So that could be anything from the native logging that you find in other Cisco products. It's easier to use Splunk to draw the data that you're looking for as opposed to going to the individual's products themselves to get the logs that you're looking for.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    As long as you're using Nutanix AOS on Nutanix hardware and are paying their software support fees, AOS is a valid competitor to VMware and can save money due to not needing a license and having their server management system built into the base host management system. If you aren't using Nutanix hardware, however, VMWare is in most cases the best way to go. I cannot comment on HyperV, but most IT people I know either use it because they have to (most) or they like it better (not many).
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    VMware by Broadcom
    it has been fair and easy to understand. I know VMware is looking at wanting to change from CPU to core pricing so we will see what that looks like when it happens.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Cisco
    Splunk can scale in to the petabyte per day range which of course is awesome
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    VMware by Broadcom
    We started out with a two-server cluster and adding a third or fourth is very straightforward and simple with no issues. You just need to be aware of the size of your Vcenter Server to handle the workload, but still the resources needed is very minimal
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Splunk has allowed developers to diagnose production issues when access of control was taken away from them to be allowed to view items in production environments and I believe that is invaluable.
    • At times some developers weren't super happy about using it, but it was more of the fact that they were used to having production access and not creating their splunk queries to get information.
    • Going one place to view logs was very beneficial to have.
    Incentivized
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    VMware by Broadcom
    • VMWare ESXi licensing is affordable for our business - and the licensing model is simplistic. Not like that of Microsoft with having to keep track of server licenses and CAL licenses for users.
    • VMWare ESXi also has hardware-monitoring built-in, so that further saves us money from having to be spent with another vendor.
    • As much as I hate the saying "a single pane of glass" does fit for this product. You can manage your servers, monitor hardware status, create and export backup snapshots, manage virtual NICs, connect to various storage devices. We're very happy with this product.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots