IBM Security QRadar Reviews

We analyze all our authentication traffic in QRadar UBA using the solution's AI module to detect and understand uncommon authentication patterns. There is also the rule logic, but we don't use that much. Instead, we mostly rely on AI to do that. In that respect, I wouldn't say we are using the product to the fullest extent because we only have the AI and what the CM is providing. We have a suite of security products, and QRadar UBA is only one source of information that we rely on.

QRadar UBA collects information on 16,000 employees in the company, including when they log in and out or when they launch applications. We have a team of 10 security analysts who go into the solution to check the alarms. IBM has set the solution up so that we only need to react to the alarms. The UBA will flag it if someone does something weird, and our security team will investigate the anomaly to see if that was valid or malicious. 

We are currently on QRoC — short for QRadar for Cloud — so it's the latest and greatest solution. It was originally on a private cloud, but we moved to the public cloud three years ago.

It's hard for me to pinpoint any one feature that's most valuable because it is all about consuming logs and analyzing them. We started using QRadar UBA because we needed something that could analyze Linux authentication information. Other products take care of the Windows platform.

Better algorithms or AI would always be appreciated, but this product does what it's supposed to do. And maybe there is something behind the scenes that could be improved, but I don't know. 

UBA is a plugin for QRadar SIEM. If we're talking about the SIEM solution as a whole, there is a lot I can talk about, but there isn't much to say about UBA as a standalone. I'm not in a position to criticize or comment on the underlying code.

I have been using QRadar UBA for six years.

I haven't had any problems. We have never needed to add more memory or CPU. 

IBM technical support is excellent. 10 out of 10. IBM is highly professional when it comes to security support. IBM's support for other types of solutions isn't quite as good, but the security domain is a different world. I've worked with IBM in other areas, and it's different. Security support is on a tier by itself inside IBM. 

Positive

We are also using a Microsoft solution called Azure Advanced Threat Protection. It provides similar UBA features but only for a Microsoft environment.  Most UBA products do exactly the same thing. I haven't tried many other solutions besides QRadar, Microsoft, and Splunk.

Splunk is brilliant. It does the same thing, but it's slightly more expensive, so we selected IBM. Microsoft's solution is a little cheaper, but it lacks Linux support currently. There are minor differences, but we went with IBM in this case because it has the best support.

IBM did the setup. I called them to ask for UBA, and it was available the next day. They handled all the deployment and maintenance. 

I have not calculated ROI for this product. QRadar UBA is a tiny part of the entire security portfolio. In the context of the SIEM as a whole, the cost is so low that it's hard to defend not doing it.

I have no idea what QRadar UBA costs as a standalone solution because it is bundled with the QRoC security operation center and several other modules that we pay for in a big lump sum. However, I don't think that part is too expensive. It's a plugin to the QRadar SIEM that feeds off the same data. We have X-Force Threat Exchange, so IBM is operating the SIEM for us. I say to them, "I want UBA," and there it is.

I rate QRadar UBA eight out of 10. It's a small product doing exactly what it's supposed to do as an integrated part of our SIEM. It looks good and works well. I don't give it a 10 because it is something we have to request. I would love it if UBA was included out of the box like Microsoft.

Regardless of which solution you use, I recommend user behavior analytics. It provides valuable information to the security team. It doesn't matter whether you use Splunk or Microsoft— you should use a UBA solution. 

We will probably stick with QRadar for the foreseeable future. It depends on the developments in the SIEM market. We will probably continue with IBM because changing SIEM is not something you do lightly. As long as we keep the IBM SIEM, we will continue to use QRadar UBA.

We utilize the product for our Security Operations Center operations. Additionally, we extend its use to our customers, employing it for tasks such as threat hunting, investigation, and triage analysis.

The tool's most valuable feature is log source management. It enables us to connect to various log sources, including content, authentications, or other customized integrations. These integrations can be tailored for use with other platforms that don’t already have built-in IBM add-ons.

Its scalability is also important. It is also compatible with ISO 27001, DSS API, and various certifications.

As part of our security infrastructure, this tool excels in detecting a wide range of attacks. Its responsiveness surpasses that of alternative solutions. Moreover, the user-friendly interface greatly benefits our analysts. The product is helpful in anomaly detection scenarios.

Additionally, we leverage out-of-the-box content and libraries within the IBM ecosystem. Its user behavior analysis helps us to ensure that our customers are protected. 

Correlation plays a pivotal role in our security strategy. It helps us to analyze logs from different sources. This process helps to correlate logs from endpoints. 

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.

Our current query language (KQL) serves its purpose, but there's room for improvement. Consider introducing a more human-friendly language to streamline analyst training. Analysts could then express queries in a manner akin to human language. This change would expedite processes, making it easier for new analysts to adapt.

I have been working with the product for five years. 

I rate the tool's scalability an eight to nine out of ten. 

Troubleshooting delays have been a recurring challenge. Occasionally, responses take two to three days, leading to escalations. While their website’s knowledge base is commendable, troubleshooting scenarios demand more time. My observation is that they may be understaffed.

Neutral

My company has customers using Splunk and Chronicle SIEM. When comparing Splunk and IBM Security QRadar, they indeed offer similar features, but their business models differ. Chronicle SIEM predominantly operates in the cloud. However, we cannot offer the cloud model if a customer prefers an on-premises solution.

Splunk and IBM Security QRadar both cater to diverse deployment preferences. Splunk boasts a slightly more robust correlation engine than IBM Security QRadar. Splunk tends to be marginally more expensive than IBM Security QRadar.

The number of log sources significantly impacts deployment complexity. The process becomes more complicated for environments with 50 log sources compared to those with fewer sources (e.g., 20 or 10).

Each log source requires a connection to IBM, a task that can take several days or hours, depending on its complexity.

On average, the entire deployment process spans six to eight weeks.

The tool's on-premise version is expensive. However, it is cheaper than Splunk. The hybrid model offers shared instances for customers, which is not expensive. Customers with a limited budget can opt for it. You can get premium support with licenses. However, if you need customized integration, you need to buy it. 

I rate the overall product an eight out of ten. 

I am a system integrator. We have installed it on-premises, on the cloud, in distributed environments, and all other environments for our clients.

We have worked with other solutions, such as LogRhythm and Splunk. Compared to others, IBM QRadar has the best price-performance ratio so that you are able to reserve minimum costs. It starts settling in fast and gets the first results very quickly. It is also very scalable.

There are a lot of things they are working on and a lot of technologies that are not yet there. They should probably work out a better reserve with their ecosystem of business partners and create wider and more in-depth qualities, third-party tools, and add-ons. These things really give immediate business value. For instance, there are many limitations in using SAP, EBS, or Micro-Dynamics. A lot of things that are happening in those platforms could also be monitored and allowed from the cybersecurity risks perspective. IBM might be leaving this gap or empty space for business partners. Some larger organizations might already be doing this.

It would be very nice if IBM can make some artificial intelligence part free of charge for all current QRadar users. This would be a big advantage as compared to other competitors.

There are companies that are going in different directions. Of course, you can't do everything inside QRadar. In general, it might be very good for all players to provide more use cases, especially regarding data protection and leakage prevention. There are some who are already doing some kind of file integrity or gathering some more information from all possible technologies for building anything related to the user and data analysis, content analysis, and management regarding the data protection.

I have been using this solution since 2011.

If the engineers are missing some technical knowledge from IBM documentation, then it might get interesting, but you can always rollback. Usually, when you are implementing innovations, as a system integrator, you usually do less on the test environment, and then you check if this works. If bigger organizations and customers want to do it by themselves, they should really stick to this approach and use a lot of material, community pages, and channels.

There is absolutely no problem with scalability. It works very fine, especially when you are running just clients. It doesn't matter how many variants you have all across the culture. You can practically have different continents. It doesn't matter how many collectors are running. You can easily distribute the current license to multiple users, and all the collectors can upload it without any restrictions.

We have worked with other solutions. Splunk is a long-term trap because it is very expensive, and it gets more and more expensive. It has different times, and it is integrated with different products. When you combine that together with licensing, it obviously fails. You are paying a lot more than QRadar.

LogRhythm has some problems with stability. We were the first partner to do some integrations with LogRhythm, but we had some problems. ArcSight was smaller at the time but not anymore. It is now a competitor. Fortinet is very good for those who are already using some software products from them.

It usually happens within two or three hours, but it also depends on the preparation. If good homework is done, then the initial setup is totally flawless. It is ready very soon. We then try it and wait for maybe a couple of days more. After that, we start fine-tuning, and then we do advanced installations.

For us, such projects usually don't start without any experience with technology and the concepts. When you are buying it, you need to know all the information systems, create a list of tasks and priorities, and understand the use case better. 

A lot of such innovations or implementations initially can be done by one person, two persons, or maybe a team of five dedicated administrators who later on will be using this technology or solution. You need to understand that there are different roles of people who are working with cybersecurity and threat management, such as an analyst, a simple technical maintenance performer, an administrator, a user behavior analyst, etc.

It is not something like a next-generation firewall, next-generation intrusion prevention, or the most complex tool that you have got, which you can install and configure and then see if it runs smoothly. It is a completely different story in QRadar or any similar technology. These solutions or technologies have to be managed continuously. 

The biggest mistake that innovations people usually make is that they don't plan the total cost of the technology tools for a period of five years, especially because they don't know what kind of new threats are coming out. Despite that, IBM is very early in doing some kind of new content packs and including data enforcement, etc. When new threats are coming in, you effectively need to adjust. The more complex use cases you have, the more complex the responses will be. You might have different systems or you might be working in different time zones.

When buying, people think that 70% to 80% percent of the initial purchase is the total they are going to spend within next year at this time, and then every next year, they will spend like 20% or 25% on the technical support, maintenance, development of the system, etc. When you are talking about a huge, complex, and central cybersecurity threat management system, it is more likely that you are implementing a document management system and some complex CIP systems, etc. The cost of the license and the cost of the hardware initially can make up around 20%, 30%, or less percent of the total budget that is needed for quality management of such solutions for a longer period of time. 

Some people think that if they buy this for 100,000 pounds or euros, the next year, they can buy just annual subscriptions for 25,000 or 20,000. You may have some internal costs for the license, etc. If you are buying for, let's say, 100,000, you might have to make your budget for 200,000 more, because it needs to have certain people who are doing everything with the solution. You need to train them and send them to the IBM international technology academies and events such as Visor to know about its management and maintenance. You probably also need to do some certification, so you need to go for a course for implementation. A lot of internal work should be done to adjust the solution with other departments, and those other departments usually don't like such central, overseeing, and controlled solution. They, later on, learn that they can get a lot of different, useful reports out of it without doing additional work. 

I would rate IBM QRadar an eight out of ten. Every technology has some weaknesses and strengths. It has a lot of points to improve, but based on everything that we have seen in the market and from other customers, this is, so far, at least in Europe, the best solution.

I’m working with the on-prem version of IBM Security QRadar. We initially deployed it with the help of IBM’s professional services for a client, but now we handle deployments ourselves. The process is quite straightforward for us because we gained knowledge from our first implementation and used the available documentation. Deployment takes a couple of hours the first time, including configuration and integration with third-party devices. I usually work with a colleague, so two people handle the deployment. Our environment is well-suited for this, and we’re using it on a virtual appliance. The experience has been smooth and efficient.

We are promoting QRadar to various financial institutions, including banks and microfinances, as a superior option compared to other vendors like Fortinet. While some institutions are using other solutions, we are encouraging them to switch to QRadar for better security.

We monitor tweets and other activities on the IBM Security QRadar portal. Once, we noticed unusual traffic patterns, like tweets triggering alerts, and we blocked that traffic. We also detected some security issues on the APM through the portal, which was a great experience. As for integration, we’ve successfully integrated QRadar with other security products like Cisco, Fortinet, and Check Point. Initially, we worked with IBM’s professional services to guide us through the integration process, and after that, we were able to follow their steps to integrate third-party devices ourselves.

QRadar has a significant impact on operational costs for clients. For example, we’re recommending QRadar to several banks due to its effectiveness in handling high traffic and preventing scams. The banks we’ve worked with are very satisfied and are encouraging others to deploy QRadar as well.

I think QRadar is great overall. We’ve had a positive experience with it and recommend it for deployment. However, there are areas for improvement. The technical support is good, and the documentation is valuable, but it could be enhanced, especially regarding integration with other systems.

In terms of support and updates, QRadar’s capabilities are crucial for maintaining high security standards. Network and software administrators can monitor all traffic effectively, which reassures clients and drives further adoption.

I have been using IBM Security Qradar for last one years.

As for licensing costs, I haven't seen the exact figures, but it is considered somewhat costly. On a scale from one to ten, where one is very expensive and ten is very cheap, I would rate it a six—it’s costly but worth the money.

Overall, I would rate IBM QRadar as a ten.

Our company includes 20 senior engineers and analysts who use the solution to detect viruses on Windows servers and critical assets.

We also track user activity such as connections during travel. 

We have many use cases and playbooks in our portfolio. 

Our company uses the solution as our main CM to detect malicious activity. There are many campaigns targeting Europe and other countries so it is important that we remain vigilant about suspicious activity inside our organization. 

The solution uses rules to identify suspicious activity that needs to be investigated. We conduct advanced forensic investigations based on the solution's output, including collecting logs from devices and correlating them for processing by a security analyst. 

Blocks of predefined conditions can be used to configure detection rules without having to write complicated script. 

Real-time detection is quite efficient and valuable. Other products such as Splunk focus only on running searches to detect a particular behavior.

The Vulnerability Manager module is useful and quite efficient. 

The dashboard and reports are not user-friendly or efficient so are of little help with threat hunting activity. We deal with large data sets so need to have great visibility for detection of malicious activity and indicators for cybersecurity. 

For example, the dashboards for Power BI and Splunk are very efficient and it is easy to observe suspicious activity. 

I have been using the solution for five years.

The solution is stable and easy to use if deployed well.

On occasion, you might get an error when running advanced analytics but reboots are not needed. 

The solution is scalable and it is easy to add appliances or expand your license. 

Engineers used technical support regularly between 2016 and 2019 and found them to be very helpful and responsive. If a situation was urgent, technical support intervened immediately. 

I rate technical support an eight out of ten. 

Positive

I used the solution, switched to Splunk, then switched back to the solution. 

The ease of setup is based on the complexity of your environment and network architecture.

The initial setup is not complicated and should go smoothly if you set all predefined requirements prior to installing the solution.  

It took us two weeks to prepare all requirements and a few hours to deploy which included installing all resources. 

Documentation for the installation process is pretty straightforward. 

An in-house team that handles integrations was responsible for implementing the solution. Myself and other cybersecurity analysts participated with the team.

A team of three engineers handle ongoing maintenance for our large environment. 

The solution has a licensing model that is based on events per second so it scales to need and budget. 

At the time of deployment, we were premium partners with IBM so received advantageous pricing. 

The on-premises solution and its license are not impacted by the number of users so it is easy to add staff. 

In my experience, Splunk is efficient because it is customizable. You can create scripts to detect multiple behaviors based on scheduled jobs. 

I rate the solution a seven out of ten because it is difficult to write script for advanced detection cases and the dashboard is insufficient. 

When it sends the log source, QRadar generates a lot of noise and false positives. LogRhythm logs when the alarm rules are disabled, so it doesn't generate any noise when sending the log source. I think LogRhythm's one, this one too. QRadar, we have to cure it all the time. It's only this advantage with QRadar.

I would also like to see more integration with other vendors. IBM doesn't integrate well with products from China, like Huawei. Many Middle Eastern customers are switching to Huawei from American vendors like Cisco because of the price. In most RFPs, Huawei wins because it costs less. 

IBM needs to integrate better with Huawei. I opened one case with IBM, and they told me to submit a request for enhancement so they could write the correct DSMs to integrate with Huawei. We were very disappointed. Customers who want to implement QRadar or LogRhythm need to consider all the other components. The environment needs to be homogenous to avoid problems due to a lack of integration.

My old company used QRadar, so I still use it sometimes when I consult for them. They get stuck on a few things. I also worked on vulnerability discovery. Right now, my current customers are migrating from QRadar to LogRhythm.

QRadar is built around Red Hat Linux, which is highly robust.

IBM's support for QRadar could be improved. Sometimes it takes them two days to reply to a low-priority case. However, it tasks them about 1.5 hours to respond to a more serious case. Sometimes our customer service will think it's a priority one case, so he asks me to open it as priority one, then IBM reduces it to two or three. 

We don't have any security appliances from Huawei, but they have the best technical support. We have engineers everywhere with CRM, and they call you after the problem is resolved. IBM closes the case, and that's it. It's a very restricted environment. 

QRadar is reasonable compared to LogRhythm.

I rate IBM QRadar nine out of 10. If you're going to use QRadar, you have to be familiar with it and know all the components. IBM offers free appliances, like data nodes, that offload many processes from the collectors and the processors. 

Every engineer must understand the overall portfolio to add some value to the solutions. If a solution isn't integrated with other solutions, they are only collectors. You need to tune the rules and be up to date with the Mitre Att&ck framework all the time.

It is used to dive deep into threat analysis. It is a SIEM solution that can be hooked up with some of the endpoint security or threat discovery solutions such as Forescout, Qualys, Sophos, and MDM. After the endpoint security or threat discovery solution discovers the threat, QRadar takes it further from that point onwards and allows you to go deep into the threat analysis. It has a lot of integrations, such as with CMDB, and it can do the asset classification. It can also tell the CVSS score. These are the capabilities or use cases. 

Integrations are quite a useful and key feature of this solution. It has integration with the CVSS score, which is a central point for all the data and scores about the threats. There is an IBM Bluemix dashboard that is integrated with the CVSS score.

I don't look at only the features and benefits; I also look at the price. It is a bit expensive when compared with other solutions. It is expensive for specific deployment topologies, and the decision-makers go for alternatives like ArcSight. 

It should also have more AI features or capabilities for better threat intelligence. The more it uses machine learning, the better would be the dashboard, analytics, and other things.

I have been using this solution for five years. 

You can scale it easily in the cloud with a given deployment topology. We have somewhere around 50 plus users.

IBM is very strong on the technical support side. They have proper support available across different regions. After the implementation is done, the admin within the organization is in touch with IBM technical support for any day-to-day support requirements.

We have been switching for some time between Micro Focus ArcSight and IBM QRadar.

For cloud deployment, you need to go for IBM Bluemix Cloud, and you can deploy easily on a private cloud. You create the stack and use the Bluemix Cloud formation template. If you have the IBM Bluemix Cloud subscription, you can deploy it easily within maybe half a day or one day. You can create all the resources by using the Bluemix Cloud formation template.

For deployment, you need a small team of two or three because it just needs the team to provision the resources on the IBM Bluemix Cloud. For support, we need a bigger team of around 10 plus people.

It is costlier as compared to the other alternatives available in the market.

I would definitely recommend this solution. It is a good solution with good capabilities like integration with CMDB and CVSS score. The dashboard is also really nice. It can help with threat intelligence, and it also has artificial intelligence. It is a futuristic kind of technology because the more AI-driven a product is, the better are the results. We plan to keep using this solution.

I would rate IBM QRadar a seven out of ten.

I think that the main weakness is the tool's architecture. The tool still provides a secured analytic application, although we have heard for many years that the solution is going to move to a container kind of architecture, which ArcSight, for example, made years ago. IBM Security QRadar's analysis part is sometimes a bit buggy. The interfaces sometimes could give users an inconsistent experience because different developers wrote several different GUIs at different times. Sometimes, the user experience is not so consistent. There were outdated areas of IBM Security QRadar, but you can still find some rudimentary parts that could sometimes be a weakness.

What my company misses at the moment revolves around the fact that the tool had a great feature around risk management, which the tool deprecated several years ago, and I think that it could be helpful in the present. The tool's user and entity behavior analytics application could be improved significantly because our recent experience shows that it is still kind of useless, but the customers and we also need it. More artificial intelligence and machine learning will be helpful in the tool.

I have been using IBM Security QRadar since 2012. My company is a customer, a partner, and a reseller of IBM.

The solution's technical support works, but sometimes, it can take quite a long time to get a solution from technical support. Generally, we are satisfied because we just understand how it works and that you shouldn't expect much from the technical support. It is not so bad, but sometimes it could be longer than you can expect. I rate the technical support a six to seven out of ten.

Neutral

My company has not worked with any other products before IBM Security QRadar. In our organization, we used different SIEM solutions, specifically ArcSight, FortiSIEM, and Rapid7. We repeatedly returned to IBM Security QRadar and didn't continue with any of its competitors.

I think the pricing is quite flexible. As a reseller, we had chances to win bids with IBM Security QRadar against Splunk, ArcSight, and even McAfee with better pricing around six or seven years ago. We won the deals with better pricing. Pricing could be flexible. It could depend on the number of assets used by the enterprise or on the number of events per second, allowing customers to choose what fits him or her the best.

My company is looking for different products in the market since we are upset with the recent news about the deal between IBM and Palo Alto. I think the deal doesn't touch the on-premises IBM Security QRadar, and both companies have only agreed to give Palo Alto the authorization for the cloud version, making it a reason why we continue to use the on-premises version.

I am generally satisfied with the product.

Considering that there is still room for improvement and that the vendor could improve it to be made faster than it is at the moment, it is still a good product.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.