IBM Security QRadar vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager comparison

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21,075 views|12,899 comparisons
91% willing to recommend
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2,981 views|1,121 comparisons
80% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Security QRadar and SolarWinds Security Event Manager based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed IBM Security QRadar vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager Report (Updated: May 2024).
771,862 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Providing real-time visibility for threat detection and prioritization - QRadar SIEM provides contextual and actionable surveillance across the entire IT infrastructure.""The solution is relatively easy to use.""We get events and make the correlation, or rules. In IBM, we can implement our customer's rules. We can have very clear status threats and severity of antigens.""It protect us from multiple authentication values, unauthorized access and antivirus threats.""It is suitable for large companies with critical infrastructure. For our clients, robustness, availability at a high level, and the level of references and experiences connected to the solution are important.""The visibility it gives you into your infrastructure has been great.""I really like the feature we have with the logs, that if there are any credit card numbers being used, like a PII, you can just use rejects and you can mask it. This is a really good feature in QRadar.""IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson is a stable solution."

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"The solution helps me to go back in time and search for different events. For example, if you wanted to know who activated an account; you could go back in time and find out.""SolarWinds is easy to configure, and it provides timely alerts.""The graphical user interface is very user-friendly. SolarWinds is a hybrid solution so you can use it across many platforms.""This tool is simple to use.""SolarWinds' stability is fine. I don't think we've had any software issues.""Some of the rules are most valuable because you can be notified about various things, such as spyware or things that are going on in the internal network.""The most valuable feature of this solution is the visibility into both attempted and failed logins.""The out of the box reports and dashboard. It was easy to trim down these windows to something we could quickly use."

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Cons
"There should be easier and wider integration opportunities. There should be more opportunities for integration with CTI info sharing areas. On platforms where you exchange CTI, there should be more visibility connected to what we share, what we can reach, or what options are connected to CTI info sharing. This is one area where they could add value because we cannot integrate it easily with QRadar. If a client has a legacy or already existing solutions for CTI, we cannot ask them to forget it because we cannot guarantee that QRadar is able to deliver everything connected to this area.""For the common needs of clients to fulfill requirements, a real integration with Blueworks Live (BPA modeling tool also from IBM) and a more suitable BPM on cloud solution for midsize customers.""When it comes to what could be better, it is always what others are trying to do and what is the roadmap. It can have more integration. It should have more flexible RESTful APIs for integration with applications. These are the things that are always in demand for any of the SIEM solutions, not only for QRadar. Integration is ever-evolving. Nowadays, different versions of mobile handsets are there and data is getting scattered. Users are using their personal handsets to keep the data of the organization. So, it should have a more flexible integration, irrespective of the flavor of the firmware and iOS or Android version. It should have an API that can seamlessly get integrated. It should also provide more flexible control and a more advanced or analytical view to see what exactly is happening across the globe or network. From wherever a user is connecting and accessing the enterprise data, it should give real-time visibility and predictive visibility about what exactly is happening. These things are already there, but there should be more advanced control in terms of managing the security.""The technical support is poor. Mostly because when I open a PMR for IBM, I am stuck with Level 1 staff. As an engineer, nothing that I am bringing them does not require Level 2 or Level 3 support.""AI is superb but need improvements.""IMB should reduce the pricing, or reduce some of the features for a more economical solution for the customer.""The solution is highly used here in Pakistan and in many sectors, they could improve it by having more SIEM connectors.""The modularity could be improved."

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"Under the new system, it is not upgradable the way they say. When you try to do an upgrade, it doesn't really work unless you dump everything and start from scratch. You lose a lot of your nodes. Whenever you set your nodes up and everything else, they don't want to bring those nodes back in, so you have to really go back and restructure all your nodes. I went from version 6.5 to version 6.6 and then to version 6.7. I then went to version 2019, and now it is version 2020. It would be good if we can upgrade without having to delete everything and start from scratch. They can maybe build more KPIs and other things for the dashboard. Some of the other systems already have built-in KPIs. SolarWinds is starting to catch up, but it is not there yet. They can include some of the business or industry standards for tracking the time, that is, the meantime to detect (MTTD) and the meantime to resolve (MTTR). They can also find a way to build a KPI that measures the number of instances of port scans experienced in a week or a month.""It can be difficult for users who are inexperienced with the solution.""Training for this solution needs to be improved, as new employees are sometimes unfamiliar with the product.""The reporting could be more robust. It can be a lot more granular and that will make it a lot more useful in comparison to how it is incorporated at the moment.""I would like to have a more customizable dashboard.""We used the support from SolarWinds Security Event Manager and they are knowledgeable but challenging to get in contact with them.""It is a very technical program. They can simplify it so that it isn't so hard to deal with.""I don't think SolarWinds is scalable enough. It is somewhat limited when I need to deploy it across multiple environments in a distributed architecture."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "found other solutions, with more features at the same cost or less. You don’t have to leave the Gartner Magic Quadrant to beat their price."
  • "Most of the time, it is easier and cheaper to buy a new product or the QRadar box."
  • "IBM's Qradar is not for small companie. Unfortunately, it would be 'overkill' to place it plainly. The pricing would be too much."
  • "IBM's Qradar is not for small companie. Unfortunately, it would be 'overkill' to place it plainly. The pricing would be too much."
  • "Go through a vulnerability assessment review for price breaks. A virtualized solution will also cut down on cost."
  • "It is expensive. It is not a product that I can provide for SMBs. It is a program that I can only provide for really large enterprises."
  • "The maintenance costs are high."
  • "Pricing (based on EPS) will be more accurate."
  • More IBM Security QRadar Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Licensing is on devices, so if you have many, then this may be high."
  • "We do a yearly license renewal. For a year, the solution costs roughly $500,000 USD. There are no costs beyond this yearly fee."
  • "The pricing model would benefit from having package deals with other SolarWinds products."
  • "Licenses can only be purchased in blocks of fifty at a time."
  • "It is in the appropriate mid-range. It is not as expensive as some of the other solutions. It is also not cheap."
  • "The price of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is reasonable."
  • More SolarWinds Security Event Manager Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    771,862 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Comparison Review
    Vinod Shankar
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:It mostly depends on your use-cases and environment. Exabeam and Securonix have a stronger UEBA feature set, friendlier GUI and are not licensed based on capacity (amount of logs and information… more »
    Top Answer:For tools I’d recommend:  -SIEM- LogRhythm -SOAR- Palo Alto XSOAR Doing commercial w/o both (or at least an XDR) is asking to miss details that are critical, and ending up a statistic. Also,… more »
    Top Answer:The event collector, flow collector, PCAP and SOAR are valuable.
    Top Answer:The solution helps you monitor database instances, application instances, other customer application things, Linux servers, IBM servers, and Oracle servers.
    Top Answer:The cost is exorbitantly high. The trial version lasts for thirty days, but I found a subscription plan priced at four thousand five hundred monthly, making it thirty-one thousand two hundred and… more »
    Top Answer:One of the drawbacks of being so flexible is that it is also a fairly complicated software application to install, configure, and maintain. Standardizing the monitoring configuration is difficult, and… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    21,075
    Comparisons
    12,899
    Reviews
    29
    Average Words per Review
    487
    Rating
    7.6
    Views
    2,981
    Comparisons
    1,121
    Reviews
    8
    Average Words per Review
    426
    Rating
    7.8
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    IBM QRadar, QRadar SIEM, QRadar UBA, QRadar on Cloud, QRadar, IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics, IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson
    SolarWinds LEM, Solarwinds SIEM, TriGeo, Log and Event Manager
    Learn More
    Overview

    IBM Security QRadar is a security and analytics platform designed to defend against threats and scale security operations. This is done through integrated visibility, investigation, detection, and response. QRadar empowers security groups with actionable insights into high-priority threats by providing visibility into enterprise security data. Through centralized visibility, security teams and analysts can determine their security stance, which areas pose a potential threat, and which areas are critical. This will help streamline workflows by eliminating the need to pivot between tools.

    IBM Security QRadar is built to address a wide range of security issues and can be easily scaled with minimal customization effort required. As data is ingested, QRadar administers automated, real-time security intelligence to swiftly and precisely discover and prioritize threats. The platform will issue alerts with actionable, rich context into developing threats. Security teams and analysts can then rapidly respond to minimize the attackers' strike. The solution will provide a complete view of activity in both cloud-based and on-premise environments as a large amount of data is ingested throughout the enterprise. Additionally, QRadar’s anomaly detection intelligence enables security teams to identify any user behavior changes that could be indicators of potential threats. 

    IBM QRadar Log Manager

    To better help organizations protect themselves against potential security threats, attacks, and breaches, IBM QRadar Log Manager gathers, analyzes, preserves, and reports on security log events using QRadar Sense Analytics. All operating systems and applications, servers, devices, and applications are converted into searchable and actionable intelligent data. QRadar Log Manager then helps organizations meet compliance reporting and monitoring requirements, which can be further upgraded to QRadar SIEM for a more superior level of threat protection.

    Some of QRadar Log Manager’s key features include:

    • Data processing and capture on any security event
    • Disaster recovery options and high availability 
    • Scalability for large enterprises
    • SoftLayer cloud installation capability
    • Advanced threat protection

    Reviews from Real Users

    IBM Security QRadar is a solution of choice among users because it provides a complete solution for security teams by integrating network analysis, log management, user behavior analytics, threat intelligence, and AI-powered investigations into a single solution. Users particularly like having a single window into their network and its ability to be used for larger enterprises.

    Simon T., a cyber security services operations manager at an aerospace/defense firm, notes, "The most valuable thing about QRadar is that you have a single window into your network, SIEM, network flows, and risk management of your assets. If you use Splunk, for instance, then you still need a full packet capture solution, whereas the full packet capture solution is integrated within QRadar. Its application ecosystem makes it very powerful in terms of doing analysis."

    A management executive at a security firm says, "What we like about QRadar and the models that IBM has, is it can go from a small-to-medium enterprise to a larger organization, and it gives you the same value."

    When TriGeo was acquired by SolarWinds, TriGeo SIM became known as SolarWinds Log & Event Manager. This product is a leading Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) product and log management solution, which provides log collection, analysis, and real-time correlation.

    Sample Customers
    Clients across multiple industries, such as energy, financial, retail, healthcare, government, communications, and education use QRadar.
    NetSuite, EasyStreet, Legacy Texas Bank, and Energy Federal Credit Union, to name a few.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm23%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Security Firm6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization18%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Government6%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company20%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Comms Service Provider15%
    Government10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization69%
    Computer Software Company5%
    Government4%
    Financial Services Firm3%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business39%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise45%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise30%
    Large Enterprise50%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business63%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise26%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business9%
    Midsize Enterprise73%
    Large Enterprise18%
    Buyer's Guide
    IBM Security QRadar vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Security QRadar vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    771,862 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    IBM Security QRadar is ranked 4th in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 198 reviews while SolarWinds Security Event Manager is ranked 20th in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 24 reviews. IBM Security QRadar is rated 8.0, while SolarWinds Security Event Manager is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of IBM Security QRadar writes "A highly stable and scalable solution that provides good technical support". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SolarWinds Security Event Manager writes "A comprehensive network security with robust technical capabilities, effective threat response, and centralized management". IBM Security QRadar is most compared with Splunk Enterprise Security, Microsoft Sentinel, Wazuh, LogRhythm SIEM and Elastic Security, whereas SolarWinds Security Event Manager is most compared with ManageEngine Log360, Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk Enterprise Security, Wazuh and Microsoft Defender XDR. See our IBM Security QRadar vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager report.

    See our list of best Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) vendors.

    We monitor all Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.