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NetWitness Platform vs USM Anywhere comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

NetWitness Platform
Ranking in Log Management
22nd
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
22nd
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
USM Anywhere
Ranking in Log Management
42nd
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
31st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
115
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (53rd), Compliance Management (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of NetWitness Platform is 0.6%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of USM Anywhere is 0.9%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

MdZaman - PeerSpot reviewer
Really scalable for enterprise customers
The solution should have more integration capabilities with different platforms. The API is nearly open and scalable, so the solution can integrate with many platforms. The solution has more than 200 log sources in the scalability to support, but this is its limit. Installation is pretty easy. However, there are a couple of modules involved, so it is not as easy as it could be. We are talking about a distributed module, not a single-module type. This is what makes things a bit complex, instead of easier. I rate it as a seven out of ten on its installation and configuration capabilities.
Kris Nawani - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software
USM Anywhere is used for threat detection and investigation. It provides a solution with built-in threat intelligence and various other investigation tools The solution offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software, as it is maintained by the vendor. It helps in saving…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Setting up NetWitness is straightforward. There are multiple connectors, including standard and specialized connectors. One purpose of the connectors is the enhanced capability integrate the custom applications. NetWitness comes with E6 appliances and application images that we use for the initial configurations and for the OS stack information. From there, you can consider the correlation rules, integrate the different log sources, and easily create correlation rules and backlog reports."
"In my opinion, the solution's most valuable feature is its capacity to monitor network traffic, logs from devices within the network, and network captures. This capability extends beyond logs to include full network capturing."
"The most valuable features are the packet decoder, log decoder, and concentrator."
"Offers a good wireless feature."
"Performance and reporting are very good."
"The most valuable features are its ingestion of logs and raising of alerts based on those logs."
"The development of use cases on the SSA console is quite user friendly. This means that the security analyst or the researcher does not have to learn another language."
"The packet capture aspect of it is a valuable feature because it is quite different from a traditional SIEM solution that only carries out investigations based on captured logs."
"The best thing about AlienVault USM is it being a “Jack-of-All Trades” solution. It provides SIEM, HIDS/NIDS, FIM, NetFlow, Asset Management, Vulnerability Management, etc., under one USM platform. None of the commercial SIEM vendors like ArcSight, McAfee, etc., can boast of such a diverse feature set."
"Every activity on the firewall is recorded, and notifications are sent with this solution."
"Vulnerability scanning helped out shortcomings of what was not patched in the past and what needed to be patched. This assisted with fine tuning the environment for compliance."
"The most valuable feature is vulnerability management because it gives you insight into your environment to know what systems need to be updated or patched."
"It has powerful threat detection, incident response, and compliance management."
"The most valuable feature in AT&T AlienVault USM is the reporting."
"The AlienVault solution has enabled us to create a SOC on a budget with smaller than usual staff requirements, offering a wider range of solutions for our customers."
"In terms of monitoring, my best feature would be the monitoring of components across the network. It monitors the respective nodes and any new node that comes onto the network and provides reports. The reporting dashboards are really helpful for management in terms of making decisions around patch management."
 

Cons

"Technical support could be improved."
"I'd like to see improvement in its ease of use. It's basically unusable. It's overly complex."
"Log aggregation is an issue with this solution because there are a huge number of alerts in a single instance."
"Health monitoring of the event sources and devices."
"I believe that integrating the solution with other products such as Oracle would be beneficial."
"More customizability is required, which is something that they need to improve on."
"We have encountered issues with unresolved crashes."
"The user interface is a little bit difficult for new users and it needs to be improved."
"It would be nice to see some machine learning and monitoring of the configuration in network devices."
"I've been using it just for my own personal upskilling in terms of how the product works. At the moment, it is pretty straightforward and simple, and it is working how it is supposed to. The feedback would come once it is deployed to customer sites. They'll be using it on a more frequent basis, and that's when the feedback would come in terms of the areas in which they're facing issues or are looking for simplicity."
"The UI and overall processes need a little bit more love. This shows in the error banners that come up when you select certain things. There isn't a day that goes by that the UI doesn't error out and I can't view events for an alarm."
"Pay attention to false-positive event automatic correlations."
"Plugins could be better utilized, as some of them do not recognize all logs."
"I think plugin management should be self-service on AlienVault USM. The other product is self-service but on the USM side. You have to submit a ticket then AT&T creates and updates the plugins."
"We would like more plugins. This being the main point of improvement which would benefit the users."
"AlienVault must improve their correlation feature. Some of the events do not match with the correlation rules and some of the correlation events are false-positive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a perpetual license, so the total cost of ownership is not very expensive. It's a good investment."
"Compared to the competition, the is price is not that high."
"The product is expensive."
"The tool is very expensive, so I rate the pricing a ten out of ten. The solution has an annual subscription."
"This is a pricey solution; it's not cheap."
"It is cheap."
"In comparison to other SIEM solutions such as Splunk, NetWitness is less costly."
"It’s cheaper to run virtual machines in a VMware environment."
"The price of this solution is reasonable, which is one of the reasons why we selected it over other solutions."
"They are a little more expensive than Microsoft."
"Negotiate the best package for your environment."
"Use the AlienVault team. They are helpful and the documentation that they provide is second to none."
"It has good pricing."
"Pricing is very competitive with other products and you get much more functionality from AlienVault."
"I don't know exactly, but I know it is based on the number of logs and the retention duration, such as 30 days or something like that. So, the smallest package is about 500 a month for 30 days of logs. There is a virtual machine. You need resources for it. It is a log collecting VM. They provide the software, and you just have to load a virtual machine. So, you're going to incur some CPU RAM and storage for wherever this log collecting appliance is running, which typically is in our cloud and on our platform for the customer."
"They charge a license based on the storage. ATT AlienVault USM is a less expensive solution than IBM QRadar."
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Comparison Review

VS
Feb 26, 2015
HP ArcSight vs. IBM QRadar vs. ​McAfee Nitro vs. Splunk vs. RSA Security vs. LogRhythm
We at Infosecnirvana.com have done several posts on SIEM. After the Dummies Guide on SIEM, we are following it up with a SIEM Product Comparison – 101 deck. So, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think by posting your comments below. The key products compared here are…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
17%
Government
6%
Insurance Company
6%
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about NetWitness Platform?
The product's initial setup phase was not at all difficult.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetWitness Platform?
The product price was reasonable for my region and the market.
What needs improvement with NetWitness Platform?
From an improvement perspective, the NetWitness Platform needs to release new features and improve in areas like log correlation. The tool needs to have easier integrations with the cloud. Building...
What do you like most about AT&T AlienVault USM?
The most valuable feature of the solution is the ease of deployment that it provides to users. The integrations that the product has with third-party applications are useful.
What needs improvement with AT&T AlienVault USM?
There are scalability issues due to a 60 TB limit, which restricts its use for large customers like banks. It is also limited when used with bigger products and has complex password requirements.
 

Also Known As

RSA Security Analytics
AT&T AlienVault USM, AlienVault, AlienVault USM, Alienvault Cybersecurity
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Los Angeles World Airports, Reply
Abel & Cole, Bank of Ireland, Bluegrass Cellular, CareerBuilder, Claire's, Hays Medical Center, Hope International, McCurrach, McKinsey & Company, Party Delights, Pepco Holdings, Richland School District, Ricoh, SaveMart, Shake Shack, Steelcase, TaxAct, Taylor Morrison, Vonage and Zoom
Find out what your peers are saying about NetWitness Platform vs. USM Anywhere and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.