Item: SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SolarWinds Security Event Manager is used to collect, review, and analyze system logs from servers, workstations, and network devices. Used by one department, it solves the problem of having to go through long log files trying to find and make sense of an event. It also helps with reporting for compliance purposes.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Graphs showing important events
First-time setup and addition of new devices is easy and organized
Performance is excellent

Cons

Reporting could allow for more customization
Better integration with other products of SolarWinds line
More alert options

Return on Investment

Reduce downtime by identifying failure cause quickly
Managers have high visibility on the operation of the devices
Saves time of network administrators and support

Alternatives Considered

I find Tripwire Log Center to be adequate and stable but it lacks the graphics and the unified UI that you can have with SolarWinds products. It is also not as simple to set up and operate. One more advantage that SolarWinds products have is the THWACK forum, a big user base and plenty of documentation.

Other Software Used

RedSeal, Tripwire Enterprise, Qualys Cloud Platform (formerly Qualysguard)

Likelihood to Recommend

SolarWinds Security Event Manager is best suited for environments with many devices that need to be secured and are high availability, where any down time needs to be resolved quickly and the cause of a failure needs to be investigated and determined with good degree of precision. It's also suited for environments that need to be kept in compliance according to several standards. Many standards and policies require the keeping and review of logs for several years back.

Comments

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SolaWinds SEM--Worth every penny!