We performed a comparison between IBM Security QRadar and ArcSight ESM based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Features: IBM Security QRadar users say the solution provides extensive information and helpful leads for locating pertinent data. QRadar stands out with its comprehensive network visibility and strong SIEM capabilities. ArcSight ESM is praised for its well-designed dashboard, real-time reporting, and threat intelligence capabilities that leverage AI and correlation tools. Users also like ArcSight’s seamless integration and effortless management. QRadar could improve its rule deployment and lower its false positive rate. Users would also like expanded storage capacity, streamlined user management, and a more mature architecture. ArcSight ESM users have recommended improvements in training, speed, and data administration.
Service and Support: Some customers of IBM Security QRadar have had trouble connecting with knowledgeable support staff and experienced delayed responses. Some ArcSight ESM users have found the support to be responsive and helpful, while others have faced issues with slow response times and a lack of expertise.
Ease of Deployment: IBM Security QRadar's initial setup can be complex for users without expertise, and the difficulty may vary depending on the size of the data set. Some said that ArcSight ESM is straightforward to set up, while others noted that integration with other systems can be challenging and requires specialized knowledge.
Pricing: IBM Security QRadar can be costly because users need to buy new hardware to upgrade. Users consider the pricing of ArcSight ESM to be reasonable and affordable.
ROI: IBM Security QRadar delivers a high return on investment, improving security through its advanced user behavior analytics. ArcSight ESM yields an ROI by helping clients achieve compliance objectives and prevent incidents.
"The in-built SOAR of Sentinel is valuable. Kusto Query Language is also valuable for the ease of writing queries and ease of getting insights from the logs. Schedule-based queries within Sentinel are also valuable. I found these three features most useful for my projects."
"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."
"Free ingestion for Azure logs (with E5 licence)"
"It is able to connect to an ever-growing number of platforms and systems within the Microsoft ecosystem, such as Azure Active Directory and Microsoft 365 or Office 365, as well as to external services and systems that can be brought in and managed. We can manage on-premises infrastructure. We can manage not just the things that are running in Azure in the public cloud, but through Azure Arc and the hybrid capabilities, we can monitor on-premises servers and endpoints. We can monitor VMware infrastructure, for instance, running as part of a hybrid environment."
"The solution offers a lot of data on events. It helps us create specific detection strategies."
"The most valuable feature is the UEBA. It's very easy for a security operations analyst. It has a one-touch analysis where you can search for a particular entity, and you can get a complete overview of that entity or user."
"I like the KQL query. It simplifies getting data from the table and seeing the logs. All you need to know are the table names. It's quite easy to build use cases by using KQL."
"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."
"Some of the benefits of using this solution are rapid correlation and near-time response on alerts."
"SmartConnector: Normalization parses raw logs and converts them into CEF (common event format). This is the core of the product."
"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."
"Feature-rich solution which provides better network visibility for improved security"
"For the typical malware or intrusion, this solution assists us by identifying the symptoms based on network traffic from the application servers."
"ArcSight ESM provides us the flexibility to write our own passwords and customize the solution. It lets us search and log a variety of SmartConnectors. It has 480-plus SmartConnectors."
"ESM has valuable features for event prediction and security analysis."
"This process has helped to improve our organization because we have centralized the intra-group security equipment logs."
"Senses, tracks, and links significant incidents and threats."
"The timeline and machine learning features are great."
"It's a state-of-the-art product for security information and event management (SIEM)."
"The interface is good."
"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."
"The most valuable features are the versatility of this solution and the variety of things you can do with it."
"It is a bit easier to use than other products, such as Splunk or ELK Elasticsearch."
"The ability to add extensions is the most valuable feature. For example, extensions that provide valuable test ports."
"The solution should allow for a streamlined CI/CD procedure."
"In terms of features I would like to see in future releases, I'm interested in a few more use cases around automation. I do believe a lot of automation is available, and more is in progress, but that would be my area of interest."
"Sometimes, it is hard for us to estimate the costs of Microsoft Sentinel."
"There is room for improvement in entity behavior and the integration site."
"The troubleshooting has room for improvement."
"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."
"One key area that can be improved is by building a strong integration with our XDR platform."
"When it comes to ingesting Azure native log sources, some of the log sources are specific to the subscription, and it is not always very clear."
"The onboarding process for this solution could be better. It also needs a better GUI."
"Could benefit from a more modern interface."
"I would like for them to integrate mobile devices. Integration or any kind of functionality which will act as a substitute for IBM so that we can really track our mobile devices as well as look at SIEM."
"When I asked our networking juniors for a comparison between LogRhythm and ArcSight, they said that both platforms are almost the same. It is just that LogRhythm is more modern with a digital platform, which probably gives it some advantage over ArcSight. ArcSight is a very old and mature product that is running on an old platform. It is an old legacy platform. In terms of new features, it just requires platform upgrades so that it becomes lighter and easily adaptable, specifically in the cloud. It would be a good thing if they can also make reporting easier."
"The customer experience could be improved."
"The tool should improve its UI. It also should make data more searchable."
"The solution could be more stable."
"The initial setup could be more straightforward."
"Technical support is good, but not great."
"The price of IBM Security QRadar is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"IBM QRadar has outdated technology, and this is its area for improvement. When you try to implement an analytic expression, it's not updated. The solution doesn't support newer technologies, and it doesn't update regularly. For example, around the world, others implement new technologies, while IBM updates later than others."
"Certain updates—especially when using Azure—don't apply directly. Our engineering team must invest additional effort to implement these updates. However, the tool's cloud-based version poses no issues. However, upgrading the product can sometimes be challenging for on-premises instances."
"QRadar needs to be more specialized, along the lines of what other SIEM solutions are."
"There was some complexity in the initial setup due to bandwidth issues."
"The features that could be improved include the licensing model and the dashboards and all those presentations. Overall, the user experience part can be improved."
"The solution is difficult to understand in the beginning and has complex management configurations that can be improved."
More ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) Pricing and Cost Advice →
ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is ranked 12th in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 93 reviews while IBM Security QRadar is ranked 4th in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 198 reviews. ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is rated 7.8, while IBM Security QRadar is rated 8.0. 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 IBM Security QRadar writes "A highly stable and scalable solution that provides good technical support". ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is most compared with Splunk Enterprise Security, ArcSight Intelligence, Trellix ESM, Elastic Security and LogRhythm SIEM, whereas IBM Security QRadar is most compared with Splunk Enterprise Security, Wazuh, LogRhythm SIEM, Elastic Security and Sentinel. See our ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) vs. IBM Security QRadar report.
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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.