We compared IBM Security QRadar and Splunk Enterprise Security across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:
Ease of Deployment: IBM Security QRadar’s setup can be more challenging and time-consuming compared to Splunk Enterprise Security. Some users found both solutions easy to install, but IBM Security QRadar took several weeks or even months, while Splunk Enterprise Security could be set up in just a day.
Features: IBM Security QRadar is praised for its ability to detect threats and its ease of use. It provides customizable rules, real-time network monitoring, and competitive pricing. Splunk Enterprise Security stands out in its ability to capture and analyze various data streams. It offers valuable features like a search function, session reports, and graphing capabilities.
Room for Improvement: IBM Security QRadar could enhance its pricing, threat identification, plugins, and threat detection, EPS challenge, training, and technical support. Splunk Enterprise Security has room for improvement in its search algorithm, licensing model, technical support, AI capabilities, pricing, and machine learning algorithms.
Pricing: IBM Security QRadar’s cost differs based on the organization's requirements and structure. Certain users perceive it as reasonable, while others view it as costly. Similarly, Splunk Enterprise Security's pricing is subjective, as some users find it expensive while others find it reasonable.
ROI: Both Splunk Enterprise Security and IBM Security QRadar are cost-effective solutions with a favorable ROI. QRadar offers user behavior analytics and employee profiling. Splunk enhances security measures and is known for its flexibility and ability to provide global observability.
Service and Support: Both IBM Security QRadar and Splunk Enterprise Security have received varying feedback regarding their customer service and support. Users have commended the staff's expertise and responsiveness for both products. However, there have been complaints about slow response times and a lack of expertise.
Comparison Results: IBM Security QRadar and Splunk Enterprise Security have similarities in terms of setup complexity and value in detection capabilities and user-friendliness. IBM Security QRadar offers a wide range of features, including real network monitoring, security orchestration automated response, and risk scoring for user activity. Splunk Enterprise Security is praised for its search function, session reports, and graphing capabilities, as well as scalability and machine learning capabilities. IBM Security QRadar may have an advantage in features and pricing, while Splunk Enterprise Security may have an advantage in search capabilities and scalability.
"Sentinel improved how we investigate incidents. We can create watchlists and update them to align with the latest threat intelligence. The information Microsoft provides enables us to understand thoroughly and improve as we go along. It allows us to provide monthly reports to our clients on their security posture."
"We didn't have anything similar. So, it really provides value from the incidents and automation point of view. The overview of the security fabric is most valuable."
"It is always correlating to IOCs for normal attacks, using Azure-related resources. For example, if any illegitimate IP starts unusual activity on our Azure firewall, then it automatically generates an alarm for us."
"It has a lot of great features."
"One of the most valuable features is that it creates a kind of a single pane of glass for organizations that already use Microsoft software. So, when they have things like Microsoft 365, it is very easy for them to kind of plug in or enroll those endpoints into the Azure Sentinel service."
"I like the ability to run custom KQL queries. I don't know if that feature is specific to Sentinel. As far as I know, they are using technology built into Azure's Log Analytics app. Sentinel integrates with that, and we use this functionality heavily."
"Microsoft Sentinel enables you to ingest data from the entire ecosystem and that connection of data helps you to monitor critical resources and to know what's happening in the environment."
"The main benefit is the ease of integration."
"Search capabilities are sufficient for most tasks."
"The feature that I find the most useful is that IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics is free of charge. It's a fully free product that can be installed on top of IBM QRadar SIEM."
"We've found the technical support to be very good."
"The most valuable feature is the DSM Editor. The custom parsing tool is very nice, outstanding."
"The interface is good."
"When it comes to QRadar, they can do the correlation and not only in networks but also endpoints. This is one of the good features that we have noticed."
"It does good correlation for events. It does good general analysis, and it has good apps as well."
"The most valuable features are all the implementations, the plug-ins, and the User Behavior Analytics (UBA)."
"I have found the installation can be of medium difficulty to very complex depending on the use case."
"It is easy to use in any environment."
"Its dashboard is valuable. If you have a good knowledge of how to create a dashboard, you can create any dashboard related to cybersecurity. If fine-tuned, the alarms that are triggered for instant review are also very valuable and useful."
"The client site login is pretty extensible and probably cost-effective."
"The data analysis part is good in Splunk, which is something that I like the most. It is also quite easy to use. Its dashboards, visualizations, and analytics are good."
"Splunk is a user-friendly solution."
"The additional vendors we've brought on board, particularly the elastic, have been quite beneficial."
"It has a big user base, so the community is useful."
"We'd like to see more connectors."
"The solution should allow for a streamlined CI/CD procedure."
"If their UI was a bit more streamlined and easy to find when I need it, then that would be a great improvement."
"There is a wider thing called Jupyter Notebooks, which is around the automation side of things. It would be good if there are playbooks that you can utilize without having to have the developer experience to do it in-house. Microsoft could provide more playbooks or more Jupyter Notebooks around MITRE ATT&CK Framework."
"For certain vendors, some of the data that Microsoft Sentinel captures is redacted due to privacy reasons."
"The learning curve could be improved. I am still learning it. We were able to implement the basic features to get them up and running, but there are still so many things that I don't know about all its features. They have a lot of features that we have not been able to use or apply. If they could work on reducing the solution's learning curve, that would be good. While there is a training course held by Microsoft to learn more about this solution, there is a cost associated with it."
"The playbook development environment is not as rich as it should be. There are multiple occasions when we face problems while creating the playbook."
"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."
"I would like to see the update process simplified."
"IBM QRadar could improve the plugins and threat detection."
"Right now, if you look at the compatibility, if you need to deploy QRadar in a physical appliance you have only two choices of server, their own or a Lenovo server. In today's world, you cannot keep something tied to such a big brand. Clients want to be able to use whatever type of server they want."
"They need to improve their threat intelligence feed and they need to improve their user behavior analytics modules."
"Needs better visualization options beyond the time series charts and a few other options that they have."
"The solution lacks some maturity."
"A lot of information that we receive for the devices is IP-based, but it would help if we could have a default dashboard in which we can add more details about the assets for which we are receiving the information. For example, if it is a Windows or Linux device, we only get the IP for that particular device. We don't really get the name and other details of that particular device. For that, you have to drill down into your own asset management system. It would be good to have a place where we can probably add this information so that we don't have to look into other tools."
"The architecture could be improved. I got stuck for a long time trying to understand the architecture, as it is quite challenging."
"Splunk could enhance its services by providing more comprehensive professional assistance aimed at optimizing our investment."
"More training on PetaData using artificial intelligence techniques to identify the events which are not normal and exceptions that would help the organization identify threats and malware on the go with results."
"Its interface could be improved."
"The product was designed for security and IT with business intelligence needs, such as PDF exporting, but this has not been the highest priority. While the functionality is there, it could be developed more."
"The ingestion happens quickly, so you can run up the data costs if you use the default settings. It isn't a problem for government agencies in the Saudi market, but many of the corporations in India are small or medium-sized enterprises that cannot afford that kind of ingestion system."
"There are new services which are coming up. If Splunk can catch up with the speed of Amazon, and with the integration, instead of us waiting for another year or so, that would be good."
"The cluster environment should be improved. We have a cluster. In the Splunk cluster environment, in the case of heavy searches and heavy load, the Splunk cluster goes down, and we have to put it in the maintenance mode to get it back. We are not able to find the actual culprit for this issue. I know that cluster has RF and SF, but it has been down so many times. There should be something in Splunk to help users to find the reason and the solution for such issues."
"We would like more integrations with other cloud products, not just AWS, e.g., Azure."
IBM Security QRadar is ranked 4th in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 198 reviews while Splunk Enterprise Security is ranked 1st in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 240 reviews. IBM Security QRadar is rated 8.0, while Splunk Enterprise Security is rated 8.4. 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 Splunk Enterprise Security writes "It has a drag-and-drop interface, so you don't need to know SQL or Java to construct a query ". IBM Security QRadar is most compared with Wazuh, LogRhythm SIEM, Elastic Security, Sentinel and Fortinet FortiSIEM, whereas Splunk Enterprise Security is most compared with Wazuh, Dynatrace, Elastic Security, Datadog and Azure Monitor. See our IBM Security QRadar vs. Splunk Enterprise Security report.
See our list of best Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) vendors and best Log Management 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.
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, remember that any EDR/XDR should integrate to the SIEM/SOAR and a strong threat intel source.
If you consider SOC outsourcing take your time and find one you can integrate like a virtual team member. They are only as good as their depth of knowledge in your business and your on-prem SOC.
Apache Metron, ELK, OSSIM, Splunk and Qradar (in cost/benefit order for starters).
I have no experience with Rapid 7 or InsightIDR.
IBM Qradar works great but is not easy to install. If it is running it is a great tool. Also depending on the budget, Riverbed security is a tool to consider. Costs are lower than QRadar and easier to implement.
Or you can use our SaaS solution with QRadar and a lot more built-in. One holistic solution for your complete IT environment.
@Evgeny Belenky, I found Stellar to be quite intriguing.
I would also recommend McAFee’s new console for centralizing and coordinating a well-deployed enterprise solution.
COMODO MDR
Disclaimer: ICE Consulting offers SOC as a Service to our Clients.
For SOC Tools we use Securonix and other in-house developed solutions. Securonix provides an all in one package (SIEM, UEBS, & NTA) that we believe is competitively priced for the Small to Mid Market. Their Customer Service seems better than most and they are always highly rated in the Gartner MQ reports. Set-up is not difficult, but is time consuming for the first time, afterwards each client deployment we have added has seemed to get easier and quicker.
Please contact several vendors and ask for demos, talk with the vendor engineers to ensure the solution will workfor your needs... We evaluated Rapid7, AlienVault (ATT Cybersecurity), QRadar, LogRythm, and Securonix before deciding on Securonix.
Also take your time in evaluating and re-evaluating the products, I took us about about 18 months and over $30K of working with what was utimately the wrong product for us, before moving to Securonix.
Make sure training for the use of the service is included. We have been able to provide entensive training to out team through the vendor and would not have been able to get out SOC offering off the ground without it.
Good Luck!
COMODO SOC covers your entire network and also your email. It is very easy to deploy and is very effective for reports.
I prefer the COMODO SOC solution because it is a very good and easy to deploy product.