ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager comparison

Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) 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.
765,234 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
"The Identity Behavior tab furnishes us with the entire history linked to each IP or domain that has either accessed or attempted to access our system.""Sentinel is a SIEM and SOAR tool, so its automation is the best feature; we can reduce human interaction, freeing up our human resources.""Investigations are something really remarkable. We can drill down right to the raw logs by running different queries and getting those on the console itself.""The analytics has a lot of advantages because there are 300 default use cases for rules and we can modify them per our environment. We can create other rules as well. Analytics is a useful feature.""We’ve got process improvement that's happened across multiple different fronts within the organization, within our IT organization based on this tool being in place.""Microsoft Sentinel provides the capability to integrate different log sources. On top of having several data connectors in place, you can also do integration with a threat intelligence platform to enhance and enrich the data that's available. You can collect as many logs and build all the use cases.""The automation rules and playbooks are the most useful that I've seen. A number of other places segregate the automation and playbook as separate tools, whereas Microsoft is a SIEM and SOAR tool in one.""Its inbuilt Kusto Query Language is a valuable feature. It provides the flexibility needed to leverage advanced data analytics rules and policies and enables us to easily navigate all our security events in a single view. It helps any user easily understand the data or any security lags in their data and applications."

More Microsoft Sentinel Pros →

"ArcSight ESM allows us to find if someone is doing an administrative operation at inappropriate times of day or trying to do something they're not allowed to.""We do consulting and I get feedback from our clients that the product really helped them with compliance, especially with GDPR.""It prevented my users from getting infected by ransomware. It can also pinpoint the story behind every virus or network attack to our environment.""It gives better overall visibility. Before, we didn't have a unified system for managing security alerts. ArcSight introduced various alerts, giving us a better visibility of potential problems.""This process has helped to improve our organization because we have centralized the intra-group security equipment logs.""The most valuable features of ArcSight ESM are the dashboards, ease of management for anyone, and simple for teams to provide reports related to cyber security. There are a lot of good features that are provided.""The feature that I have found the most useful is that it can be deployed to the cloud.""Very good real-time reporting with a good dashboard."

More ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) Pros →

"The out of the box reports and dashboard. It was easy to trim down these windows to something we could quickly use.""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 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.""It's extremely easy to deploy.""SolarWinds is effective for server, network, and log monitoring. It's also good for IP address management. We also have a patch manager, but we're still working on getting that operational.""SolarWinds is easy to configure, and it provides timely alerts.""The most valuable feature is the reporting."

More SolarWinds Security Event Manager Pros →

Cons
"The KQL query does not function effectively with Windows 11 machines, and in the majority of machine-based investigations, KQL queries are essential for organizing the data during investigations.""Sentinel provides decent visibility, but it's sometimes a little cumbersome to get to the information I want because there is so much information. I would also like to see more seamless integration between Sentinel and third-party security products.""I would like to see more AI used in processes.""The dashboards can be improved. Creating dashboards is very easy, but the visualizations are not as good as Microsoft Power BI. People who are using Microsoft Power BI do not like Sentinel's dashboards.""They could use some kind of workbook. There is some limitation doing the editing and creating the workbook.""If we want to use more features, we have to pay more. There are multiple solutions on the cloud itself, but the pricing model package isn't consistent, which is confusing to clients.""I think the number one area of improvement for Sentinel would be the cost.""Not all information shows up in Sentinel. Sometimes there are items provided in 365 and if you looked in Sentinel you would not see them and therefore think they do not exist. There can be discrepancies between Microsoft tools."

More Microsoft Sentinel Cons →

"HPE ArcSight has a quite steep learning curve.""Administration of ArcSight is not an easy job. The admin needs to be well experienced in it to identify the root cause and fix it.""The first limitation is with the ArcSight Data Storage Manager (ADSM). ArcSight's total capacity is currently capped at 12 TB. This becomes an issue if a customer needs a longer real-time data retention period, such as exceeding 90 days or reaching a year or even ten months. Increasing the disk space beyond 12 TB is not currently possible.""I would like to have a feature that gives us an entire report listing what devices are integrated.""The weakness in this system comes about because, with so many different logs, it is possible that the security analyst will lose information.""ArcSight ESM could improve by adding more features and documentation. There needs to be more documentation.""When we need to consume old events, we have to wait for a long time. ArcSight should improve the database capability to reply to queries faster. It would also be interesting if they implemented network visibility. For example, they could add a feature like NetWitness with a model just for looking through the packets.""They need to develop NetFlow appliances that can be installed in the customer network on span ports, collect NetFlow, and send it to ArcSight without relying on the devices' NetFlow capability and their position in the network."

More ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) Cons →

"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.""It is a very technical program. They can simplify it so that it isn't so hard to deal with.""The solution's technical support is okay, but we don't have an SLA, and sometimes the response times are very slow.""We'd like more customization capabilities.""There are no multiple dashboards which would allow you to see information side-by-side.""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.""The product should improve the ease with which you can create event alerts. They are not as hard now but you need to have an easier way.""The company had to use a third party for the implementation of the solution."

More SolarWinds Security Event Manager Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It comes with a Microsoft subscription which the customer has, so they don't have to invest somewhere else."
  • "It is a consumption-based license model. bands at 100, 200, 400 GB per day etc. Azure Sentinel Pricing | Microsoft Azure"
  • "Good monthly operational cost model for the detection and response outcomes delivered, M365 logs don't count toward the limits which is a good benefit."
  • "I have had mixed feedback. At one point, I heard a client say that it sometimes seems more expensive. Most of the clients are on Office 365 or M365, and they are forced to take Azure SIEM because of the integration."
  • "It is kind of like a sliding scale. There are different tiers of pricing that go from $100 per day up to $3,500 per day. So, it just kind of depends on how much data is being stored. There can be additional costs to the standard license other than the additional data. It just kind of depends on what other services you're spinning up in Azure, or if you're using something like Azure log analytics."
  • "I am just paying for the log space with Azure Sentinel. It costs us about $2,000 a month. Most of the logs are free. We are only paying money for Azure Firewall logs because email logs or Azure AD logs are free to use for us."
  • "Sentinel is a bit expensive. If you can figure a way of configuring it to meet your needs, then you can find a way around the cost."
  • "Azure Sentinel is very costly, or at least it appears to be very costly. The costs vary based on your ingestion and your retention charges."
  • More Microsoft Sentinel Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "HPE ArcSight pricing might be more expensive than other SIEM solutions, but in my opinion it has powerful features and great flexibility in developing complex use cases."
  • "ArcSight is pretty expensive compared with its competitors. I believe that is fine as it provides value."
  • "Aggregation can help a lot in pushing down licensing costs."
  • "​It is best to be an institutional buyer and directly contact the sales team, as they can provide over-the-top discounts for bulk orders.​"
  • "Thanks to Micro Focus's licensing model, as an MSSP, we are able to see a complete return on our investment almost immediately."
  • "Customers without a ton of resources to dedicate to deployment may be better served by a managed ArcSight service."
  • "The pricing is great compared to others."
  • "The cost of the solution is not very high, although hiring a qualified analyst to work with the product is expensive."
  • More ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) 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 →

    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions are best for your needs.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Comparison Review
    Vinod Shankar
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Yes, Azure Sentinel is a SIEM on the Cloud. Multiple data sources can be uploaded and analyzed with Azure Sentinel and… more »
    Top Answer:It would really depend on (1) which logs you need to ingest and (2) what are your use cases Splunk is easy for… more »
    Top Answer:We like that Azure Sentinel does not require as much maintenance as legacy SIEMs that are on-premises. Azure Sentinel is… more »
    Top Answer:In my market, a lot of financial companies had or have an ArcSight installation. Just because in former times it was… more »
    Top Answer:It gives better overall visibility. Before, we didn't have a unified system for managing security alerts. ArcSight… more »
    Top Answer:The pricing model is expensive compared to open-source alternatives, especially as your needs grow.
    Top Answer:The solution helps you monitor database instances, application instances, other customer application things, Linux… more »
    Top Answer:The cost is exorbitantly high. The trial version lasts for thirty days, but I found a subscription plan priced at four… more »
    Top Answer:One of the drawbacks of being so flexible is that it is also a fairly complicated software application to install… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Azure Sentinel
    Micro Focus ArcSight, HPE ArcSight, ArcSight
    SolarWinds LEM, Solarwinds SIEM, TriGeo, Log and Event Manager
    Learn More
    Overview

    Microsoft Sentinel is a scalable, cloud-native, security information event management (SIEM) and security orchestration automated response (SOAR) solution that lets you see and stop threats before they cause harm. Microsoft Sentinel delivers intelligent security analytics and threat intelligence across the enterprise, providing a single solution for alert detection, threat visibility, proactive hunting, and threat response. Eliminate security infrastructure setup and maintenance, and elastically scale to meet your security needs—while reducing IT costs. With Microsoft Sentinel, you can:

    - Collect data at cloud scale—across all users, devices, applications, and infrastructure, both on-premises and in multiple clouds

    - Detect previously uncovered threats and minimize false positives using analytics and unparalleled threat intelligence from Microsoft

    - Investigate threats with AI and hunt suspicious activities at scale, tapping into decades of cybersecurity work at Microsoft

    - Respond to incidents rapidly with built-in orchestration and automation of common tasks

    To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

    ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is a powerful SIEM solution for analyzing, collecting, correlating, and reporting on security event information. ArcSight ESM analyzes information from all of your data sources while helping your organization maintain high security. In addition, the solution is very customizable and enables users to create their own company-specific rule sets to automatically trigger instant alerts.

    ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) Features

    • Real-time threat detection
    • Visualization and reporting capabilities
    • Patented log management
    • Personalized dashboards
    • Scalable event monitoring
    • Seamless integration with your existing SOC tools
    • Behavior profiling
    • Data and user monitoring
    • Application monitoring
    • Analytics
    • Deployment/support simplicity

    ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) Benefits

    Some of the benefits of using ESM include:

    • Real-time information: ArcSight ESM can correlate data from any source in real-time to detect incidents before they become a breach.
    • Compliance: Optional compliance packs enable packaged reports for PCI, SOX, and IT Governance.
    • Security analytics: With ArcSight ESM, you can build and maintain a security operation center (SOC) through big data security analytics.
    • Integration: ArcSight ESM allows you to integrate SOC with network operations, service desk, CMDB, business intelligence, Hadoop, email security, application security, threat feeds, and more. 
    • Speed: ArcSight ESM provides excellent speed of event collection with patented log management tools. 
    • Advanced detection: ArcSight ESM can detect unusual or unauthorized activities as they occur, preventing business disruptions. 
    • Decrease threat exposure: By implementing ArcSight ESM, you reduce threat exposure because the solution detects threats in real time.  
    • Operational efficiency: ArcSight ESM makes it possible for you to automate responses with ArcSight’s native SOAR, which saves your organization time, and therefore increases your operational efficiency.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) users.

    A Head of Professional Services at a computer software company says, “The simplicity of the solution is the most valuable aspect of the product. The product is quite mature. It's been around for a long time. The integration is easy for the most part.”

    A Managing partner at a tech services company states that the solution is “Good at consolidating logs, fairly stable, and can scale.” 

    PeerSpot user Abbasi P., Vice President Derivatives Ops IT at a financial services firm, explains, “The user interfaces are quite good and speedy, and I like the consoles too. The typology and the setup are also good.”

    A Chief Technological Officer at a tech services company says, "It is a very useful tool for intelligence building because it has many use cases and many rule sets."

    An Associate Vice President at a consumer goods company comments, “We primarily use the solution for its technology including its independent logs, and those types of things. The solution offers very good monitoring. The product's log management and event management capabilities are excellent. There are a lot of really good analytical components. It helps us focus on analysis.”

    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
    Microsoft Sentinel is trusted by companies of all sizes including ABM, ASOS, Uniper, First West Credit Union, Avanade, and more.
    Lake Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Bank AlJazira, Banca Intesa, and Obrela.
    NetSuite, EasyStreet, Legacy Texas Bank, and Energy Federal Credit Union, to name a few.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm33%
    Comms Service Provider19%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Insurance Company5%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Government9%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company21%
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Government11%
    Educational Organization11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization67%
    Computer Software Company5%
    Government4%
    Financial Services Firm3%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise47%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise60%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise54%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise63%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business65%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise23%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business10%
    Midsize Enterprise71%
    Large Enterprise20%
    Buyer's Guide
    ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is ranked 11th in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 93 reviews while SolarWinds Security Event Manager is ranked 21st in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 24 reviews. ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is rated 7.8, while SolarWinds Security Event Manager is rated 7.6. The top reviewer of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) writes "Allows for monitoring logs according to industry standards within ESM but has a total capacity capped at 12 TB, limiting real-time data retention periods". 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". ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is most compared with Splunk Enterprise Security, ArcSight Intelligence, Trellix ESM, IBM Security QRadar and Elastic Security, whereas SolarWinds Security Event Manager is most compared with ManageEngine Log360, Splunk Enterprise Security, IBM Security QRadar and Microsoft Defender XDR. See our ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) 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.