IBM Watson for Cyber Security vs Splunk Enterprise Security comparison

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Microsoft Logo
31,886 views|17,713 comparisons
92% willing to recommend
IBM Logo
639 views|400 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
Splunk Logo
24,689 views|20,244 comparisons
92% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Watson for Cyber Security and Splunk Enterprise Security 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 Watson for Cyber Security vs. Splunk Enterprise Security Report (Updated: May 2024).
770,141 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
"Sentinel has features that have helped improve our security poster. It helped us in going ahead and identifying the gaps via analysis and focusing on the key elements.""One of the most valuable features of Microsoft Sentinel is that it's cloud-based.""What is most useful, is that it has a good connection to the Microsoft ecosystem, and I think that's the key part.""We have no complaints about the features or functionality.""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.""Sentinel's most important feature is the ability to centralize all the logs in one place. There's no need to search multiple systems for information.""It is easy to implement (turn on) - does need a skilled analyst to develop queries and playbooks.""Another area where it is helping us is in creating a single dashboard for our environment. We can collect all the logs into a log analytics workset and run queries on top of it. We get all the results in the dashboard. Even a layman can understand this stuff. The way Microsoft presents it is really incredible."

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"The most valuable feature of this product is innovation, where the research and upgrading of technology never ends.""The most valuable features of IBM Watson for Cyber Security are ease of use and out-of-the-box reports and compliance policies. Additionally, if there are aspects that are missing IBM add them in the next release.""IBM Watson for Cyber Security is very stable.""The customer support is very good."

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"I like Splunk's data aggregation and search capabilities.""From my experience, the visual aid that it provides is most valuable. There are charts and other means to provide information.""Splunk has improved our operations by giving us access to more information and allowing us to deploy more use cases.""Splunk's visualizations make it easy for users to understand the data.""The most valuable features are how stable and easy to use Splunk is.""Out-of-the-box, it seems very powerful.""Recently, Splunk upgraded to version 9.0.02, which includes excellent data dashboards and visualization effects.""Positive features include replication capabilities, software development kits, and the architecture."

More Splunk Enterprise Security Pros →

Cons
"Add more out-of-the-box connectors with other SaaS platforms/applications.""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.""The solution should allow for a streamlined CI/CD procedure.""They should integrate it with many other software-as-a-service providers and make connectors available so that you don't have to do any sort of log normalization.""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.""They can work on the EDR side of things... Every time we need to onboard these kinds of machines into the EDR, we need to do it with the help of Intune, to sync up the devices, and do the configuration. I'm looking for something on the EDR side that will reduce this kind of work.""Given that I am in the small business space, I wish they would make it easier to operate Sentinel without being a Sentinel expert. Examples of things that could be easier are creating alerts and automations from scratch and designing workbooks.""The product can be improved by reducing the cost to use AI machine learning."

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"This is an expensive product, so making it more cost-effective would be an improvement.""In the future, I would like to see threat intelligence included.""They need to continue to build the AI capabilities.""The dashboard could improve in IBM Watson for Cyber Security."

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"Professional support is great, but too expensive.""Splunk is very expensive. The license is based on the volume of the logs ingested. I was responsible for managing the contract with our service integrator. I don't know the precise details of the competing solution, but I have heard that Splunk is more expensive than others. I don't know what the going rate is on the market, but I think there are at least two competitors that are less expensive. We have experienced a few issues with our service providers in terms of log filtering and ingestion, so we continue to pay a bit more per day for our logs.""The monitoring aspect of Splunk could be improved. We have to do some queries to get as much information as CrowdStrike or other solutions provide. If you run a big query, you will see a delay. That is the only concern we have because it will take some time if you query large data sets.""It needs more formatting control without having to be an admin.""It would be nice if they had a wizard to construct searches, including more complex searches that include math or statistics.""Over time I will have more requirements and I can foresee the solution could improve the search algorithm to run and output the data faster.""Splunk should have more regional data centers in the Middle East.""The threat detection library needs to increase the frequency at which the playbooks are updated."

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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 →

  • "The price of this solution should be lower, although I understand why IBM charges a premium price."
  • "IBM Watson for Cyber Security is very simple to license and is priced well."
  • More IBM Watson for Cyber Security Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Pricing and licensing is quite expensive. But for the value the product provides, it seems at par in the market."
  • "Although Splunk is an expensive product, it is designed to be utilized across your organization in order to maximize your ROI and lower your TCO."
  • "It is not cheap."
  • "Splunk Enterprise becomes extremely expensive after the 20GB/month license."
  • "You will eat up whatever you purchase quickly. The level of insights that Splunk empowers is addictive."
  • "Splunk licensing model might seem expensive but with all the gain in functionalities you will have compared to traditional SIEM solutions I think it’s worth the price."
  • "Pricing is pretty fair."
  • "While licensing can be a concern, there are ways to reduce the licensing costs including filtering some events."
  • More Splunk Enterprise Security Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    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:The most valuable features of IBM Watson for Cyber Security are ease of use and out-of-the-box reports and compliance… more »
    Top Answer:IBM Watson for Cyber Security is very simple to license and is priced well.
    Top Answer:The dashboard could improve in IBM Watson for Cyber Security.
    Top Answer:For tools I’d recommend:  -SIEM- LogRhythm -SOAR- Palo Alto XSOAR Doing commercial w/o both (or at least an XDR) is… more »
    Top Answer:Splunk handles a high amount of data very well. We use Splunk to capture information and as an aggregator for monitoring… more »
    Top Answer:Splunk helps us be more proactive. We can take predictive action to identify and block threats so that nothing harmful… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Azure Sentinel
    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.

    Watson for cyber security can draw security intelligence from millions of security blogs, online forums and white papers - so you can see threats unseen by other systems.

    Splunk Enterprise Security is a SIEM, log management, and IT operations analytics tool. The solution provides users with the ability to secure their information and manage their data in the cloud, data centers, or other applications. Splunk Enterprise Security also offers visibility from different areas, levels, and devices, rather than from a single system, thus, providing its users with flexibility. Splunk Enterprise Security can monitor data and analyze, detect, and prevent intrusions. This benefits users as it provides alerts to possible intrusions, helps users to be proactive, and reduces risk factors. 

    Full visibility across your environment

    Break down data silos and gain actionable intelligence by ingesting data from multicloud and on-premises deployments. Get full visibility to quickly detect malicious threats in your environment.

    Fast threat detection

    Defend against threats with advanced security analytics, machine learning and threat intelligence that focus detection and provide high-fidelity alerts to shorten triage times and raise true positive rates.

    Efficient investigations

    Gather all the context you need and initiate flexible investigations with security analytics at your fingertips. The built-in open and extensible data platform boosts productivity and drives down fatigue.

    Open and scalable

    Built on an open and scalable data platform, you can stay agile in the face of evolving threats and business needs. Splunk meets you where you are on your cloud journey, and integrates across your data, tools and content.

    Sample Customers
    Microsoft Sentinel is trusted by companies of all sizes including ABM, ASOS, Uniper, First West Credit Union, Avanade, and more.
    Information Not Available
    Splunk has more than 7,000 customers spread across over 90 countries. These customers include Telenor, UniCredit, ideeli, McKenney's, Tesco, and SurveyMonkey.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Government8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company20%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Government10%
    Energy/Utilities Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise47%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise59%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise53%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise56%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise68%
    Buyer's Guide
    IBM Watson for Cyber Security vs. Splunk Enterprise Security
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Watson for Cyber Security vs. Splunk Enterprise Security and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    770,141 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    IBM Watson for Cyber Security is ranked 45th in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 4 reviews while Splunk Enterprise Security is ranked 1st in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 235 reviews. IBM Watson for Cyber Security is rated 8.0, while Splunk Enterprise Security is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of IBM Watson for Cyber Security writes "An innovative and stable product that is well maintained and always up-to-date". 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 Watson for Cyber Security is most compared with IBM Security QRadar and i-SIEM, whereas Splunk Enterprise Security is most compared with Wazuh, Dynatrace, IBM Security QRadar, Elastic Security and Datadog. See our IBM Watson for Cyber Security vs. Splunk Enterprise Security 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.