Item: SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use SolarWinds SEM to monitor all production systems Canada-wide. Often times when troubleshooting devices or applications from a administrative position or help desk it can be very time consuming to pull logs from each device and filter out what you're looking for. By using the SolarWinds SEM tool you can forward all relevant logs and filter out what you don't want to see, which reduces time spent resolving tickets and helps to better locate those pesky problems.

Pros and Cons

Log Filtering
Alerting
Monitoring

SEM does have some efficiency issues, other tools have been able to handle millions of logs per hour but SEM seems to get overloaded quickly.
The UI is slow to respond after the solution has been running for a while.
Some of the logic is fairly limited with the UI, maybe they could improve the usability of the UI.

Return on Investment

Reduced amount of time spent unlocking accounts.
Reduced amount of downtime on critical applications.
Initially SEM is a significant investment to get started, but after it has been fully configured the amount of time spent on operational tickets has been reduced.

Alternatives Considered

Kibana, Nagios Log Server and Prometheus

SolarWinds provides support so when you have problems you don't need to turn to information bases as you can just get a hold of SolarWinds support. I would say another reason for getting SEM is that it is generally easier to configure and easier to learn than the other solutions available, this means that IT staff at any level can easily learn how to start monitoring and alerting using a log-based solution. SEM also does a lot of the leg work for you whereas other solutions you have to get from point A to B on your own.

Support Rating

I have had no issues with SolarWinds Security Event Manager support so far. They have always been able to solve my problems in a timely manner. Unfortunately the more complex the problem is the more difficult it is to get support to resolve it, so you will have to learn a lot about the application either way.

Key Insights

Do you think SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)'s feature set?

Yes

Did SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM) again?

Yes

Other Software Used

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor, SolarWinds Dameware Remote Everywhere, SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

Likelihood to Recommend

SolarWinds SEM is great for alerting when applications are misbehaving, sometimes if an application gets stuck in a logic loop you will immediately know with SolarWinds SEM because you can see the logs generated on that application would have skyrocketed. It also provides useful information to really track down what computers are locking your account out (we all deal with this). SolarWinds SEM will only benefit you if it can see the logs on the device or forward them to SolarWinds SEM.

SolarWinds Security Event Manager Review

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Security Event Manager