We use it for vulnerability management and report generation mostly. I am trying to solve the issue wherein the stakeholders can get automated vulnerability reports to their mailbox.
Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Automated reporting enhances vulnerability management capabilities
Pros and Cons
- "I like the automated report generation and vulnerability report generation."
- "Using this product, we now have a vulnerability management cycle wherein VMDR plays a major role."
- "The response time of technical support takes a while."
- "The response time of technical support takes a while."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Using this product, we now have a vulnerability management cycle wherein VMDR plays a major role. It has greatly increased the capability on the detection aspect of the vulnerability and improved our scope and visibility on all other endpoints.
What is most valuable?
I like the automated report generation and vulnerability report generation.
What needs improvement?
I don't have any improvement requests on top of my mind right now. The response time of technical support takes a while.
Buyer's Guide
Qualys VMDR
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Qualys VMDR. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
It's been more than two years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability as nine out of ten. It's quite stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
My rating for the technical support for Qualys is six out of ten. The response time takes a while.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I personally didn't use a different solution before Qualys.
How was the initial setup?
Although I was not present during the initial deployment process, it's pretty straightforward. It's just an agent installation, which automatically connects it to the cloud platform, so the implementation won't take as long.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Qualys VMDR to the other stakeholders because it already has its place in the market, and it's very reliable.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Nov 11, 2024
Flag as inappropriateIT Team Lead at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Efficient risk assessment with critical vulnerability prioritization and an easy setup
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the QID part, especially of CentralList, which makes it easy to assess new critical vulnerabilities."
- "Support could be improved since the response can be slow."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case for Qualys VMDR is for infrastructure vulnerability management. It assists devices, including all infrastructure devices like serverless network devices and development environments.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution has improved the organization significantly because it helps in assessing and prioritizing risk. Based on the results from Qualys, I can prioritize remediations with the remediation teams, thereby reducing the volume of vulnerabilities.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the QID part, especially of CentralList, which makes it easy to assess new critical vulnerabilities. It saves a lot in assessing and prioritizing risks to the organization.
What needs improvement?
Support could be improved since the response can be slow. There is always room for improvement to align with the latest content and technologies.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used the solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. Anytime there is downtime or maintenance, Qualys ensures that we are well-informed with priority communications.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability would be rated nine or nine point five out of ten. We have high satisfaction with this aspect.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support response can sometimes be slow, leading to a rating of eight or nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used a different tool. I switched to Qualys as it didn't have the same feature set.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. Deployment took two to three days.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment was done by a different team, so I do not have specific details about the implementation team size.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have used RapidSky before Qualys.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Qualys VMDR because it ensures comprehensive coverage, including aspects like vulnerability management and PCI, providing good inputs and improvements over time.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Oct 21, 2024
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Qualys VMDR
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Qualys VMDR. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Head: Cloud Platform Security at BCX Namibia
Helped us quickly remediate vulnerabilities thanks to its automation and ease of use
Pros and Cons
- "The biggest benefit is from a security operations perspective, where we are able to drive our security posture upwards by remediating any discovered vulnerabilities."
- "If anything, I would like to see the user interface modernized a bit more."
What is our primary use case?
Our use cases are primarily on-premises vulnerability management and remediation, external attack surface management and vulnerability scanning.
How has it helped my organization?
The benefits I've seen are twofold. The biggest benefit is from a security operations perspective, where we are able to drive our security posture upwards by remediating any discovered vulnerabilities. We can also automate the remediation process. The other big benefit is executive reporting because it's very easy to produce trends over time to report on risk.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are vulnerability detection, patching capabilities, and remediation. Cloud security posture management is also very valuable. I find these features valuable because getting a unified view of your cloud security posture across different environments is not always easy. For example, you might have most of your resources sitting in Azure, but you might have a couple of workloads in AWS. Naturally, there are different tools that report on that, so it's invaluable to have those pulled into a single dashboard so you can drive your remediation from a single platform.
What needs improvement?
If anything, I would like to see the user interface modernized a bit more. Also, there are a lot of various modules, and if they could be consolidated into fewer options, it would make the buying experience easier.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with Qualys VMDR for the last three years or so.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We haven’t faced any issues, the solution is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Because the management sits in the cloud, you don't have to worry about management appliances or anything like that on-premise, so the solution is very scalable. You can split your assets into asset groups and delegate management to different teams. Around 1,000 users are using Qualys in my organization across 60 locations.
How are customer service and support?
We've had very few technical issues, and the customer support team has quickly resolved issues we've had.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
In the first step, Qualys provisions your cloud-based management instance. From there, you get a small, lightweight agent deployed by deployment technology like Microsoft Intune, in our case, SCCM, or any deployment technology.
We worked with BCX Namibia and the Qualys team in South Africa while deploying the solution. It took two weeks to deploy the solution. The solution is not difficult to maintain because the management component is cloud-based and is taken care of by Qualys. Any agent upgrades that might be necessary are very seamless.
What was our ROI?
We have seen an ROI using Qualys. Most breaches nowadays are because of a vulnerability that is exploited. By virtue of being able to identify and remediate these vulnerabilities, I believe we are significantly driving our cybersecurity risk downwards.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is very competitive, especially because Qualys is integrated and does vulnerability management and remediation patching in one solution, so there's no need for a separate patching solution. You can also get very granular with the amount of IP addresses you can cover. You can go from as few as 16 IP addresses to many more. And the Qualys team is also willing to work with organizations to make the solution make commercial sense. The prices are fixed. We have a yearly subscription model based on the number of IP addresses we’re scanning.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated vulnerability management in Microsoft Defender, but we found the reporting and functionality lacking compared to Qualys. And then the Microsoft licensing costs were also a bit of a dealbreaker.
What other advice do I have?
If you're considering implementing Qualys in your organization, work with a strong pre-sales partner. Evaluate the product, make sure it does what you need, make sure you buy the features that you need, and make sure to use the training and onboarding material that Qualys has made available on its website so you can leverage the solution's full capability from the start. I rate Qualys VMDR a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Security Expert at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
The solution is efficient, with easy implementation, and simple to use
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of the solution is the external channel."
- "I would like to have CSPM, a continuous scan-like cloud added to the solution."
What is our primary use case?
Qualys VM is used for vulnerability scans for the internet and applications using application exchange. There are many applications. We also use the solution for asset management per team, and the network scan to discover the devices on our network.
How has it helped my organization?
We have an excellent relationship with the vendor, so we use the solution in our company and in two other companies. We have a communication program. Japanese people can't speak English, but most of the tools have only English support, Qualys VM offers support in other languages which are essential for our company.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of the solution is the external channel. The cloud-based channel within the AWS, which we implement accordingly.
The vulnerability cycle feature of the solution is valuable.
What needs improvement?
I would like to have CSPM, a continuous scan-like cloud added to the solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
We have 25,000 storage devices that are currently using the solution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used an AWS scanner but switched to Qualys VM because of the Japanese support and the cost.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
Qualys environment is implemented very easily, within one or two months. However, setting up the standard devices, such as opening a firewall, and preparing the network can take up to four or five months. The entire deployment takes about six months.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed in-house.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution an eight out of ten.
The maintenance is not difficult and we don't have any problems or concerns.
Implementation of the solution is very easy, using the solution is very easy, and it is very efficient.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Information Security Engineer at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
Efficient automation feature and provides us with a comprehensive security solution
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is automation."
- "Qualys VMDR is basically susceptible to false positives, and false negatives."
What is our primary use case?
Qualys VMDR is a vulnerability management and detection response tool. It belongs to the first generation of vulnerability assessment tools. It enables us to manually identify vulnerable keys and fix them. It is built as a cutting-edge continuous platform where we can detect and protect. With this product, we can respond to specific vulnerabilities, going beyond just using artificial intelligence features. We have implemented VMDR across our cloud, physical interfaces, endpoints, and log servers. It's a good digital product for our organization.
How has it helped my organization?
It has improved our organization in many ways. We needed to have a security solution that focuses on different types of things. We discussed budgeting for the cloud and the need for an alternative to taking care of malware. Additionally, we have to consider various attacks. Therefore, Qualys VMDR is a great tool that helps us improve.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is automation.
What needs improvement?
Qualys VMDR is basically susceptible to false positives, and false negatives. We receive a lot of false positives in there. VMDR can be considered a complex solution, especially for enterprises with limited resources or organizations. It requires extensive knowledge as an engineer. So, when using this tool, you need to utilize other tools to remediate the false security issues.
So maybe it should also have the ability to automatically identify and address false positives. In additional features, an automated process for remediating false positives. We might be looking for new types of signatures that can help us identify and address specific issues.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Qualys VMDR for one last year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
It took us one month to set up.
What was our ROI?
I have seen an ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is very reasonable, so you can definitely go with all the endpoints it offers.
What other advice do I have?
Just consider the licenses we have within VMware. They could replicate some of these features, which are used for premium customers. So, it might be useful to include those features in the subscription plans.
Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Security Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Excellent continuous monitoring, helpful technical support, easy to scale, and simple to install
Pros and Cons
- "The most recent is VMDR, which provides a comprehensive overview of how to detect, patch, and remediate specific vulnerabilities."
- "Qualys currently does not have any features for scanning SCADA, IoT, and Industrial Control Systems."
What is our primary use case?
Qualys' main function is to scan IT systems. It does the scanning of computer systems.
What is most valuable?
Continuous Monitoring is excellent because it is entirely dependent on the agent, and the Agent Scan, is also quite good.
I also like the asset tagging, asset grouping features, and the dashboard, because we can customize and create our own dashboard. That's quite good.
The most recent is VMDR, which provides a comprehensive overview of how to detect, patch, and remediate specific vulnerabilities. That is also an excellent module.
What needs improvement?
The dashboard itself could be improved, while we can customize it, they can create different tabs where we can see the trending vulnerabilities, how many there are, or how many have been fixed, as in the most recent scan report, so that trend analysis is a little easier.
Aside from that, the solution itself is fairly generic in nature. What they can do is pretty much customize everything and provide a relevant solution for everything. For example, because Qualys has a Cloud Agent that scans a system's entire inventory. As a result, they can test their use cases to determine whether or not a vulnerability has been confirmed. If they can do so, they can also provide us with a straightforward solution to a specific problem rather than a generic one. That could be one area where they can improve.
Qualys does not currently have an IoT, SCADA vulnerability assessment, they can significantly improve their IoT, SCADA, and ICS (Industrial Control Systems) vulnerability assessment technique. When you compare with Tenable SC it has more features than Qualys VM.
If you see power grids, large oil stations, they fall under SCADA and Industrial Control Systems. These systems are very different from standard IT systems. Qualys currently does not have any features for scanning SCADA, IoT, and Industrial Control Systems.
I believe they can improve on the addition of devices. Assume I have two lakhs of devices that cannot all be added at the same time. For example, if I have two lakhs of devices, and two lakhs of those devices have a Cloud Agent, adding all of those devices at once is not easy. We have to add it 1,000 at a time, which takes a long time when there are two lakhs of assets to add. If we do 1,000 at a time, we'll have to do it for around two lakhs, which is quite difficult.
They can increase their frequency of working faster, similar to the time constraint they currently have. The second thing they can improve is the addition of assets. They can almost completely automate the process of adding assets, or they can increase the maximum number of assets that can be added in one go. They are only allowed to add 1,000 assets. If I want to add two lakh assets, it will be extremely difficult to do so by adding 1,000, at a time.
That is a fairly technical issue. Most of the false positives reported by Qualys or the inability to detect a cumulative patch update, if any, are the few things that they can improve and incorporate.
As I previously stated, it would be extremely beneficial if they could implement scanning, vulnerability scanning of IoT systems, Industrial Control Systems, and SCADA devices.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Qualys VM for approximately four years.
We have been using multiple Qualys modules, such as VMDR, Cloud Agent, AssetView, and Continuous Monitoring. The most recent version that we are using is 4.14.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's reasonably steady. When we say stable version, there is also room for improvement in that Qualys will not be able to handle large amounts of data at once. When you do billions of scans, such as a scan for millions of devices, it becomes extremely slow, and gathering data and populating the report becomes extremely tedious.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is quite good. We can pretty much rely on the tool. It is easy to scale.
If the organization grows, we can pretty much scale it to most of the areas. The only problem is that they must primarily work on Industrial Control Systems and lightweight devices such as CCTV cameras, and lightweight devices. As a result, they are required to work in that field, otherwise, it is pretty good.
Based on my previous experience, there were approximately 300 or more users using Qualys in organizations with a population of more than two lakh people. Currently, I see that approximately 400 users are using it, and the size of the organization is significantly larger than the previous one.
We use this solution daily.
How are customer service and support?
Technicals support is pretty good. Since I've been working in this, they've been friendly and straightforward, and we were able to get the most out of them.
We have suggested areas for improvement, and they have been working on them. They always make a good impression on us.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
As a consultant, I've worked on a variety of projects in a variety of organizations.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is simple and straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We initially had assistance from the vendor, but once we had a good understanding of it, we scaled it in our organization.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Because I've been using Qualys for quite some time, I was looking for a comparison of several solutions such as Tenable SC, Rapid7, InsightVM, and Tenable Nessus. I was curious to know if there were any other tools that were better than Qualys.
I was looking for more information about Tenable SC and wanted to compare it to Qualys in more detail, with parameters such as, how the false positives are detected in Tenable SC and how good it is in comparison to Qualys. In a similar manner, in comparison to Qualys, we learn about its usability, interface, and how user-friendly it is. Those are the few things I was looking for, and I'm still looking for more information about Tenable right now.
What other advice do I have?
They have the ability to improve SCADA. SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, and IoT stands for Internet of Things scanning.
Recommending this solution would depend on the organization, the requirements, and the devices they have.
For a typical IT system, it is very good to go with this solution. Microsoft, Deloitte, and the majority of organizations still use it, it is pretty much good to go. But, once again, it is entirely dependent on how the organization is, what type of devices they have, and what kind of scans they would like to have, it is entirely dependent.
In a broad sense, it is a good solution to go with.
I would rate Qualys VM an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Application Security Engineer at a real estate/law firm with 501-1,000 employees
Quick threat detection and comprehensive vulnerability management with a good knowledge base
Pros and Cons
- "Qualys VMDR provides us with a quick response to threat findings through regular scheduled scanning, which improves our security operations."
- "Qualys VMDR should improve authenticated scanning capabilities."
What is our primary use case?
We use Qualys VMDR to scan our public websites and products, anywhere that is publicly available. We deploy it through Qualys's cloud scanner.
How has it helped my organization?
Qualys VMDR provides us with a quick response to threat findings through regular scheduled scanning, which improves our security operations. It also offers an impressive knowledge base for quick research results and coverage of all vulnerabilities.
What is most valuable?
The knowledge base is the most impressive feature because it provides quick research results and coverage of all vulnerabilities. Additionally, the real-time threat detection feature provides quick responses to threat findings.
What needs improvement?
Qualys VMDR should improve authenticated scanning capabilities. It currently only allows basic authorization tokens and preset parameters. In contrast, Burp's in-built browser works more like a proxy, which makes security testing easier and more accurate. Pricing is also an issue; it's high enough to deter mid-sized to small companies. Moreover, the technical support is slow and tends to just reference documentation rather than providing real technical assistance.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it personally for five years, while my company has been using it for three years.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is slow to respond. Most likely, they just provide reference links for documentation instead of offering in-depth technical guidance. This level of support doesn't compare well to others like Cisco, Juniper, or Avaya, which offer more hands-on assistance.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
What was our ROI?
This goes beyond my scope of responsibilities and is managed by my superior.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing for Qualys products is too high, and the licensing model involves paying for the whole bundle, which may not be affordable for mid-sized to small companies.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are currently looking for alternatives to Qualys by researching competitor products on the market.
What other advice do I have?
For midsize to small-size companies, Qualys might not be the best choice if you don't have enough funding for security due to its high pricing. Qualys VMDR is still recommended for comprehensive vulnerability management but be prepared for slow technical support.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Sep 29, 2024
Flag as inappropriateCloud based service that offers insight into security and the vulnerability management of assets
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the ability to run different capabilities with the same agent. With only one agent, we can have EDR, vulnerability management, compliance and some basic SaaS security capabilities."
- "This solution could be improved by extending the agent capabilities to different operating systems including Mac and Linux. We would also like the capability to easily check for vulnerability in assets in the IOTs."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution to manage compliance and to verify the gap between the policy defined by the company and the ones that are implemented in the system. We also use Qualys for vulnerability management of assets in the cloud or on-prem.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the ability to run different capabilities with the same agent. With only one agent, we can have EDR, vulnerability management, compliance and some basic SaaS security capabilities.
What needs improvement?
This solution could be improved by extending the agent capabilities to different operating systems including Mac and Linux. We would also like the capability to easily check for vulnerability in assets in the IOTs.
They have been adding additional features such as attack surface monitoring and intelligence to help managers detect additional risks. Adding intelligence is one of the most important features that we need.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
For a company with over 100,000 assets, there are challenges with scalability.
How are customer service and support?
We haven't often needed support from Qualys but when we have needed it, they have been quick to respond and resolve our issues.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
If we compare Qualys VM to other vulnerability management solutions like Tenable, Qualys is only for agents. Their on-prem capabilities are pretty limited so it is very easy to manage assets that are cloud connected, but if they are not cloud connected, it is challenging. Tenable is better at managing non-cloud connected agents.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. After the cloud tenant is available and the agents are installed, the first scans can be done in one to two days.
There is maintenance required for the agents but it is completely controlled by the cloud and is done automatically. There is a necessity for human intervention when there is a new agent or new feature that must be tested before it is implemented.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented the solution in-house.
What was our ROI?
Return of investment is difficult to assess because it's a tool that helps to reduce risks but doesn't have a direct feature on ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is a high cost product. Compared to the other solutions, it is around 15 to 20% higher in cost. Qualys VMDR has multiple features in addition to vulnerability management and there is an additional cost for these features.
What other advice do I have?
The initial setup is not straightforward and it's important to have the agent connectivity linked to the cloud and available all the time.
If you have assets that are not connected to the cloud, you will need help from a service provider or integrator because the introduction of passive scanning is not straightforward.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
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Updated: January 2025
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