Splunk Enterprise vs. WhoisXML API IP Geolocation API

It's well suited for what I do, which is network security operations. And that's for anything from troubleshooting incidents, troubleshooting performance, troubleshooting for the purpose of a compliance and auditing. It's not best suited for users who are new in terms of they're new to the product and they have expectations that probably Splunk cannot meet.

Incentivized

On our end, we've mostly used IP Geolocation API for cybersecurity purposes. A particular scenario that comes to mind is when suspicious IP addresses make it to our site from locations we wouldn't expect. In this context, the API integrated into our existing infosec solutions helps us spot those IP addresses so we can decide how to sort them. Also, say that one of our employees receive a phishing email or one that contains a possible malware file. We can use IP Geolocation API to enrich what we know about a sender and add the related IP address to our blocklist if necessary.

• 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

• Aside from identifying the physical location of an IP address owner, the API also provides users with its Internet service provider and connection type. That is handy information if website owners wish to customize their site loading to match the connection speed of the majority of their visitors.
• It doesn’t matter whether website visitors use an IPv4 or IPv6 address in that the API works for both spaces. The records in the API’s database are also updated weekly, so users always get the latest results.

• 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

• Like most, if not all, IP geolocation services, it does not provide very accurate information down to the street level address. But since we do most of our business transactions online, that doesn’t pose much of a problem for us.

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.

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

When properly setup and configured, Splunk is extremely reliable.

Incentivized

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

We had a few questions regarding API set up when we started using IP Geolocation API so we reached out to the support team and they promptly helped us out. We have not experienced any glitch with the product and the data sent to us has always been reliable so far.

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.

Smooth without too many major issues.

Incentivized

I didn't get to fully evaluate Logstash as our corporation was already using Logstash, but both seemed like viable solutions to the problem that we were having. I wanted to evaluate Logstash some more, both did seem like they would work for the business needs that we had, we went with splunk as many teams were already using it.

Incentivized

Splunk can scale in to the petabyte per day range which of course is awesome

• I don't have any numbers to share but Splunk has positively served as a 24/7 monitoring tool that has saved hours of work by self-detecting, saving statistics and alerting problems in the system or from external interfaces as soon as they happen.
• Splunk dashboards does a solid job in collecting, analyzing data and creating reports that contain an entire day's activity and then automatically sent out to the business.
• Splunk is very easy to learn and very useful to any program or business application.

Incentivized

• Early detection of malicious IP addresses that could result in a data breach.
• Faster investigation of malicious IP addresses.