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SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

Overview

What is SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)?

SolarWinds LEM is security information and event management (SIEM) software.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Easy Configuration Process: Many users have expressed their positive experiences with the configuration process of SolarWinds, noting that …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 7 features
  • Centralized event and log data collection (17)
    8.5
    85%
  • Deployment flexibility (17)
    7.9
    79%
  • Event and log normalization/management (17)
    7.3
    73%
  • Custom dashboards and workspaces (16)
    4.9
    49%
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Pricing

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N/A
Unavailable

What is SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)?

SolarWinds LEM is security information and event management (SIEM) software.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.solarwinds.com/products/pri…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Alternatives Pricing

What is Microsoft Sentinel?

Microsoft Sentinel (formerly Azure Sentinel) is designed as a birds-eye view across the enterprise. It is presented as a security information and event management (SIEM) solution for proactive threat detection, investigation, and response.

What is Sumo Logic?

Sumo Logic is a log management offering from the San Francisco based company of the same name.

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Features

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

Security Information and Event Management is a category of security software that allows security analysts to look at a more comprehensive view of security logs and events than would be possible by looking at the log files of individual, point security tools

7.7
Avg 7.8
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Product Details

What is SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)?

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (previously know as Log & Event Manager) is presented by the vendor as a powerful and award-winning SIEM. It is an on-prem deployed tool that collects, consolidates, and analyzes logs and events from firewalls, IDS/IPS devices and applications, switches, routers, servers, operating system logs, and other applications.

The main applications are threat detection, automated incident analysis and response, and compliance reporting for IT infrastructure.

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) Features

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Features

  • Supported: Centralized event and log data collection
  • Supported: Correlation
  • Supported: Event and log normalization/management
  • Supported: Deployment flexibility
  • Supported: Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools
  • Supported: Custom dashboards and workspaces

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) Screenshots

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SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) Video

Security Event Manager - Overview

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows
Mobile ApplicationNo

SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) Downloadables

Frequently Asked Questions

SolarWinds LEM is security information and event management (SIEM) software.

Splunk Enterprise Security (ES), LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform, and ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer are common alternatives for SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM).

Reviewers rate Host and network-based intrusion detection highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(119)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Easy Configuration Process: Many users have expressed their positive experiences with the configuration process of SolarWinds, noting that it is easy and straightforward. This indicates that the product provides a user-friendly interface for making necessary adjustments, making it convenient for users to set up and customize according to their needs.

Excellent Customer Support: Several reviewers have praised the expertise and effectiveness of SolarWinds' customer support team in resolving issues. They have found the assistance provided by the support team to be valuable in addressing any concerns or difficulties they encountered while using the product.

Efficient Log Collection and Normalization: Users appreciate the centralized log collection and normalization feature offered by SolarWinds. This functionality streamlines the monitoring and analysis process by efficiently collecting logs from various sources and normalizing them into a consistent format. This allows for easier management and analysis of log data, saving users time and effort.

Confusing User Interface: Users have expressed dissatisfaction with the confusing user interface of SolarWinds SEM, which has made tasks difficult to accomplish. Many reviewers have specifically mentioned that they struggled to navigate and understand the UI.

Limited Reporting Capabilities: Users have found the reporting capabilities of SEM to be limited and not intuitive. They have suggested the need for a better report generation tool that offers more flexibility and customization options.

Poor Integration with Other Products: Several users desired better integration between SEM and other products in the SolarWinds line, such as NPM. They mentioned difficulties in achieving seamless integration, which hindered their ability to effectively manage their network infrastructure.

Users have provided several recommendations based on their experiences with SolarWinds Security Event Manager. The three most common recommendations are:

  1. It is important to have a detailed plan before deploying the tool. This will help meet expectations and ensure effective usage.

  2. Users highly recommend SolarWinds Security Event Manager as a reliable security solution. It provides comprehensive log monitoring and is particularly useful for tracking equipment, communication lines, and backup programming.

  3. Before making a decision, users suggest evaluating whether SolarWinds Security Event Manager meets the specific requirements of your company. Consider factors such as company size, data protection needs, scalability, user intuitiveness, ease of installation, and cost-effectiveness.

It's worth noting that while some users find the software easy to use and understand, others mention concerns about its pricing and suggest exploring alternative options like PRTG or OpManager.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-1 of 1)
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Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SolarWinds Security Event Manager is utilized by the Information Technology department. Individuals on multiple IT teams have email alerts set up to notify them about events that require action. Additionally, the Security Event Manager is also utilized when there is a need to look at the logs to identify the root cause of a problem. For example, user account lockouts at a time the user wasn't in the office. It addresses multiple business problems by letting us know when something requires our attention.
  • Easy to utilize--the rules are straightforward and pre-configured. You just have to customize them to fit your environment.
  • Great customer service, which is incredibly useful when you want help with better utilizing the SEM.
  • Easy and clear filters when looking for specific information without your environment.
  • The SEM can be rather slow--an increase in CPU and RAM appeared to fix this problem fairly easily though.
  • The SEM has lately required reboots for us fairly often. This is something we are currently working with support to resolve.
  • The SEM could release additional graphic options to help better display data to management.
The SolarWinds Security Event Manager is great for people who want to be able to either view logs or set up emails for certain actionable events. However, it would be less helpful in a situation where you want your SEM to be taking action on specific items. There are some actions that can be taken by the SEM, but they constitute a rather short list in comparison to other SEM tools.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (6)
61.66666666666667%
6.2
Centralized event and log data collection
80%
8.0
Correlation
70%
7.0
Event and log normalization/management
80%
8.0
Deployment flexibility
80%
8.0
Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools
N/A
N/A
Custom dashboards and workspaces
60%
6.0
  • Able to keep our systems with a higher uptime, due to being able to resolve issues faster.
  • Able to be alerted on key issues, making us more proactive.
  • Able to research issues more easily in one central location.
I have additionally used Netwrix Auditor, which has some similarity with SolarWinds SEM. I use both hand in hand, but typically use the SEM first since it is easier to manage. With Netwrix custom searches are more complex than customer searches in the SEM. The SEM makes it easy to save custom filters, which makes future similar research very easy.
No
  • Price
  • Product Reputation
Our IT team has a few products with SolarWinds so the SEM was the first product considered. The brand reputation is the main factor that lead to purchasing the SolarWinds Security Event Manager. Additionally, the price is always a factor that is taken into close consideration at our company.
5
Information Security and Systems Team are the main users of the SEM. A few other teams get alerts from the SEM, but aren't in the SEM interface or familiar with the platform. Only a handful of employees actually handle the management and configuration of the SEM in our environment. But a good amount of our IT team has alerts set up for them.
3
Supporting the SEM has required working with the command line a little bit and being able to enter the back end of the SEM. Having a team member willing to do that, is essential when it comes to things like needing to reboot the SEM or upgrade it. However, most things are handled by one person and then escalated as needed.
  • Filters to check for issues (that you don't want email alerts for)
  • Email alerts for major issues that require user action
  • Automation of actions based on certain alerts
  • Checking for failing service accounts
  • Being able to review account logon failure reasons
  • Alerts that we didn't plan on putting in SEM
  • Research problems to find who caused a specific change
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.
No
We have just regular support, which is enough to resolve issues. I turn to the SolarWinds Thwack community for a lot of things. There is lots of documentation and informative information there that can prevent even needing to open a support ticket. I always check documentation, Thwack, and then open a support ticket if those options didn't answer my questions.
No
I watched a SolarWinds webinar and months later the SolarWinds rep is still willing to help me out with any questions. Every once in the while, I will send him a quick question regarding configuration or a new feature of the product. He always replies fast and gives great detailed answers.
The support for SolarWinds SEM is pretty good. Most issues are easily resolved and the support team will work with you until the issue is fully resolved. Sometimes it takes a while to receive initial help, but once you get in contact with the support agent, it typically is a pretty decent process.
  • Search function
  • Setting up filters
  • Monitoring node status
  • Setting up alerts
  • Reducing alert noise
After learning best practices of the SEM it is fairly easy to use and manage. Just the initial configuration and revision process can take some time. After about a month of using the SEM, I was able to navigate through most aspects of it with no problems. It just takes some hands on practice to best utilize the SEM.
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