The most valuable feature of Splunk is security information and event management(SIEM). Additionally, the solution is easy to use, has useful reports, and good interface.
Product Sales Specialist(Asst.Manager) at Redington India Limited
Knowledgeable support, reliable, and useful reports
Pros and Cons
- "Splunk is stable, and this is why many customers want it."
What is most valuable?
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Splunk within the past 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Splunk is stable, and this is why many customers want it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Splunk is good. Customers can purchase 100 GB now and if they wanted more, they can immediately add an additional 100. The customer will have to only pay for additional licenses.
Buyer's Guide
Splunk Enterprise Security
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about Splunk Enterprise Security. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.
How are customer service and support?
I hear that customers usually have support on time from the Splunk team. Generally, they are satisfied with the response they receive from Splunk.
How was the initial setup?
The total time of the implementation depends upon the customer's requirement. The factors that affect the implementation time are the type of use case, the environment of deployment, one location or multiple locations, number of devices, and applications. The requirements play a large role in the time it might take for implementation. You cannot simply explain in one week or one month.
What about the implementation team?
There are two to three people required for the implementation of Splunk.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of this solution is expensive. However, it has great features. If you want a great solution you need to pay a price matching the features.
What other advice do I have?
If this solution matches the needs of your use case then I would give it a try.
I rate Splunk a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Security Consultant at Microlan Kenya Limited
Efficient, scalable, robust and easy to use
Pros and Cons
- "What is nice about the solution is that it makes it easy to build the queries, search for the events and then do analysis."
- "Endpoint access is the only issue I can think to mention, even though the endpoint access we have with Cisco is fine."
What is our primary use case?
I have some experience with the solution, since I am working with customers who are interested in part time help monitoring their network and have been helping them fine-tune the rules in the solution's platform. The way the primary task works is to watch for and then respond to the threat. Should there be a need, I usually work with a team in fine-tuning the rules on this platform. We are providing the products.
I recently started working primarily on the Playbooks of the Splunk Phantom, so I've been creating some of these to help the customer automate the process of responding to the threats.
What is most valuable?
What is nice about the solution is that it makes it easy to build the queries, search for the events and then do analysis. I recently have become involved in the Playbooks, since it is painful for the client to respond to the threat, be it positive or negative. As such, I currently see the Phantom component of the solution to be of great value. Otherwise, most other features seem to be similar to Netwitness, such as the monitor log, network, and endpoint capabilities. Importantly, the solution lacks endpoint options, as these are currently deployed on Cisco, which is okay, as it works fine with that bad side of the endpoint security. This translates into them building queries, rules and then Playbooks.
The main advantage of the solution is that it provides an easy setup platform in the new environment. When set up afresh, it is also easy to build queries. Historical queries can be used to site for a new event, which makes it easy to use, deploy and understand.
What needs improvement?
Endpoint access is the only issue I can think to mention, even though the endpoint access we have with Cisco is fine.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been engaged in the production environment of Splunk for around a year and have been reading up on it for a long time.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate Splunk as one of the big five platforms. I would give it a high rating based on the efficiency of the platform.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Splunk allows one to easily scale up this platform. One can add more interfaces to that platform if he gets more data.
How are customer service and support?
I usually rely on the Splunk community for information, such as discussions of incidents and other issues which others are facing. I feel the Splunk community to be an excellent source of information for me.
How was the initial setup?
Out of the three platforms I have been dealing with, I feel the initial setup of Splunk to be the easiest. I found it a bit difficult to set up a new environment with RSA Netwitness. Splunk, on the other hand, I have found to be very straightforward and an uncomplex platform.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have been proposing to management to take the solution to be a primary product in our dealings with it. We do not encounter many issues involving the solution. One of the problems I have with the RSA Netwitness platform is its complexity. Splunk is straightforward for us when it comes to views and it provides us the network security posture.
The ability for the solution to work with Cisco shows that the solution can work with other products. The only thing is that when the solution is compared with other vendors, one sees that there is only a single other vendor that has endpoint security like this one, Netwitness platform having its component for the endpoint. This is why an integrated endpoint would be a nice feature, even though the solution works on Cisco.
The main advantage of the solution is that it provides an easy setup platform in the new environment. When set up afresh, it is also easy to build queries. Historical queries can be used to site for a new event, which makes it easy to use, deploy and understand.
When it comes to a data platform, there is RSA NetWitness, which may also be a good platform. I have not done much training of my own on Splunk, but have gained much experience through learning and working with clients that I support. This is because the platform is understandable.
I would rate Splunk as one of the big five platforms. I would give it a high rating based on the efficiency of the platform. Clearly, I cannot include Wazuh in the top five categories, as its rating is not up there with Splunk, Qradar and LogRythm.
What other advice do I have?
I cannot think of anything disadvantageous about Splunk, as we are talking about a product that I like. I feel the solution has beautiful features.
The decision to go with Splunk would depend on the business needs of the individual. I know that Splunk has both a cloud and an on-premises option. Sometimes, such as when it comes to conferences, there is no need to move some of the data to the cloud for the purpose of complying with regional requirements. There may be a need to retain some of it and a person might wish for a mixture of on-cloud and on-premises capabilities.
I rate Splunk as an eight out of ten. It is a robust platform and easy to use.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Splunk Enterprise Security
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about Splunk Enterprise Security. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Security Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Reduces alert volumes, speeds up investigations, and handles big data well
Pros and Cons
- "If you want to understand how it can analyze or find out incidents, the visibility is good."
- "We'd like to see a more seamless cloud-based integration."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is primarily for security incident investigation. Whenever a customer wants to monitor the environment for any security incident or events that are occurring, and they want to analyze the incident when virtual issues happen, that's when we propose Splunk. Otherwise, it's difficult to understand what kind of security event is arising in the environment.
What is most valuable?
The primary feature that is the most valuable is the correlation feature, which helps you analyze the data. If there's a lot of telemetry data at some point, Splunk can take advantage of it. It can handle a large volume of data.
Now, with big data, AI, and all those things, the amount of security data that is generated is too high. Generally, the other SIMs face trouble when handling big data. However, Splunk itself is a very strong solution for handling lots of data. It helps the SOC team analyze data very well, and it does not crash on handling a large amount. That's a key benefit.
Our customers usually monitor multiple cloud environments. It's not very difficult. There are two ways we use Splunk. One is that they can be multiple cloud environments. The second is that it can be an on-prem and a cloud environment. We are mapping it to our one solution.
Splunk is very flexible and it's integratable with other solutions
If you want to understand how it can analyze or find out incidents, the visibility is good. The best visibility would always be in the on-prem environment. Then, the cloud, since Splunk is not a native cloud solution like Microsoft's Sentinel, is used. We don't see a lot of challenges if we do a hybrid kind of setup, however.
I'd assess Splunk's insider threat detection capabilities to help find unknown threats or anomalous user behavior at an eight out of ten. Splunk itself uses another agent or another module to do it. Splunk does the job. It's not that it will not do the job; however, it will require more refining than other solutions in the market.
My team uses the Splunk Mission Control, topology, and attach framework features, which are really helpful. We've used it for multiple customers. We take their existing SOC or detection use cases and try to map them to the framework. From a security point of view, it obviously makes a solution more superior. With Splunk, you can catch more security incidents. From a best practice standpoint also, it is a good thing as we can configure the solution, and, according to that configuration, the entire performance is better in terms of security.
It's very useful for assessing malicious activities or detecting breaches. It's a robust solution.
We've been able to help customers detect threats faster. It might be 5% to 10% faster in some cases. And since we can analyze large volumes of data, we're not missing any particular data point or data set. That gives us an advantage.
Splunk helps reduce alert volume. You can reduce your alert volume based on your configuration, and it's highly customizable, so it can help you reduce alerts by a lot. It's helped us improve the quality of incidents we receive.
It's helping customers speed up security investigations somewhat.
It improves the resilience of a company thanks to its ability to quickly analyze data.
What needs improvement?
While it's costlier than other solutions, it's highly stable.
The security orchestration response requires a bit of improvement.
We'd like to see a more seamless cloud-based integration.
Their mobile features for iOS and Android could be improved in terms of quality of performance.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for three and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a highly stable product even for large customers with diverse environments. For companies that have huge amounts of data even, it does not crash. It's the preferred option when a lot of data is involved. It offers good resilience and improves performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I'd rate the scalability seven out of ten since it is not cloud-native.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is good. We purchase premium support services.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the initial setup of the solution.
The solution is deployed wherever your appliance is. You deploy it where your software team wants to monitor from. Typically, that's headquarters or a company's security center. Splunk then has agents that help devices connect across geographies. For example, while Splunk may be primarily in the UK, it can cover devices via agents across Europe, and the agents can monitor other environments.
We have between two to five people who handle maintenance activities, depending on the client.
What other advice do I have?
There is a threat intelligence management feature. However, customers don't use it in our case. Typically, customers want something superior in that nature.
Price is a major concern for most customers, big or small. However, price should not be the determining factor when seeking a solution. Users need to think about performance and quality. They need something that will help them prevent security incidents, and they need a product that will be stable. If you can monitor your environment better, you can prevent incidents that may lead to financial loss - and when incidents happen, companies can spend far more dealing with an extended phishing attack than they would on a service like Splunk that will protect them effectively. When it comes to security, while it's not necessary to have the most expensive solution on the market, you should at least seek out a solution that's best suited to your company and its needs.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. It's a great option for enterprise-level companies. However, a smaller customer with a smaller budget may not be a good match. They may not need such a powerful solution in any case. That said, if a customer is about to grow a lot, I might suggest Splunk as a primary option. I'd advise potential users to look at the environment size and complexity, consider the budget, and then decide if Splunk makes sense.
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: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: reseller
Last updated: Jun 16, 2024
Flag as inappropriateCTO at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Reduces alert volume and remediation time, but pricing and learning curve for ML should be better
Pros and Cons
- "We can extract the metrics we want on the dashboards. We are able to react to the incidents."
- "There is a learning curve in order to start using machine learning. We have been trying to do it for three years, and we have not managed anything. It is too complex."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Splunk Enterprise Security for collecting and analyzing logs. We are keeping up with the SLAs with Splunk Enterprise Security.
How has it helped my organization?
Splunk Enterprise Security has helped reduce our alert volume. There is about 30% reduction.
Splunk Enterprise Security improves our organization’s ability to ingest and normalize data, but it requires lots of effort from our side. Splunk Enterprise Security can do that, but we also need to put effort into it. It is good enough to achieve that.
Splunk Enterprise Security has helped reduce our mean time to resolve. We have seen a reduction because doing this manually through queries is crazy. It helps to find out the root cause and things like that. It is helpful.
We have an on-prem environment. Our information security team is using the data security features. Its security features are satisfactory.
What is most valuable?
It is pretty good. We can extract the metrics we want on the dashboards. We are able to react to the incidents. We are also able to monitor the service. In addition to the incident response, we can also do investigations, fraud detection, and other things like that.
What needs improvement?
We have this issue of data versus pricing. Its pricing can be better. There should also be a more flexible licensing model.
There is a learning curve in order to start using machine learning. We have been trying to do it for three years, and we have not managed anything. It is too complex.
Its ability to identify and solve problems in real-time could be better. We would like to have pattern recognition. There should be some kind of pre-made model to help detect something. For example, at the time of the incident investigation, there should be an option to ask questions, such as if anything changed. It is pretty hard to find out the patterns that are occurring currently because you have to have deep knowledge about your log content. There should be an option to ask a question like, "What has changed as compared to a week ago?" We should be able to specify a time frame and compare.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Splunk altogether for probably five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It has not failed over the last year. There were no failures, so it is pretty good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is quite good if you are willing to invest in the new design and do the manual work. You have to deploy new servers and things like that. In terms of architecture, it is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Based on the few problems that we have had, I would rate them a seven out of ten. For an issue, we did not get the answer we needed within the timeframe we were expecting. They took more time, and some IT guys were disappointed. The experience varies from case to case.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were not using any similar solution previously. We were only collecting logs through open-source means. We went for Splunk Enterprise Security because we needed visibility into the logs. It was the primary requirement.
We are also using Elasticsearch. We have two parallel systems.
Splunk Enterprise Security is better in terms of query language and the capability to do great searches, whereas Elasticsearch has a little bit less functionality. It is more complicated for end-users to use. However, Elasticsearch is better in terms of pricing because they do not charge based on the daily ingestion amount. You can put whatever amount into the system. Elasticsearch also has lots of additional logging capabilities. It has file beats and metrics beats capabilities, so you can use it more widely. You can also get end-to-end visibility because you can make integrity checks with it. It helps with IT operations as well. They can include these capabilities in Splunk Enterprise Security.
How was the initial setup?
Its deployment was not very complicated. It was easy.
The hard part comes after you have deployed it. You have to educate people to start using it and understand the relevant information in your logs. The configuration itself is pretty simple, but field extractions and tagging are complex.
What was our ROI?
We are just using it and doing our queries and dashboards. We have not been calculating the ROI. It has been quite easy. We invest and create our dashboards and reports. Sometimes, when a dashboard becomes too complex or too expensive, we start to think about alternatives. Other than that, we have not thought of ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing can be better. We are already considering Elastic because Splunk is too expensive.
You have to pay based on per-day ingestion. There should be a more flexible model for the use cases where one day you have a huge amount, and on other days, it is quite less.
What other advice do I have?
Splunk Enterprise Security provides end-to-end visibility into an environment, but it is not our use case currently.
Splunk Enterprise Security does not really provide the relevant context to help guide our investigations because, in our country, Splunk is not represented, so it is pretty hard to get the relevant information.
Overall, I would rate Splunk Enterprise Security a seven out of ten. Its pricing is not good, and the learning curve for machine learning is not good. However, the parts that are working are working very well.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: May 21, 2024
Flag as inappropriateProject manager at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Excels in providing advanced threat detection, real-time monitoring and comprehensive security analytics
Pros and Cons
- "The technical support is among the best in the market."
What is our primary use case?
We employed Splunk Enterprise Security for one of our projects. Integrating it into our environment involved opening network ports and making necessary connections.
How has it helped my organization?
We had the opportunity to assess visibility in various environments, including on-premises. On-premises visibility has proven to be both satisfactory and advantageous.
What is most valuable?
We use the threat intelligence management feature.
We have been considering implementing certain frameworks, such as MITRE ATT&CK or threat topology features.
It contributes value by enhancing resilience, crucial for adopting a Security Information and Event Management solution. Site resilience is imperative for our organization, meeting a key security requirement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with it for three years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It provides good scalability capabilities.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is among the best in the market. While we didn't have extensive interactions with the support team, we are satisfied with it. It offers support services locally in my country. I would rate it ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
The integration and initial setup of Splunk were managed with the assistance of local support.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate it eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Good visualization, reliable, scales well, and has good support
Pros and Cons
- "The additional vendors we've brought on board, particularly the elastic, have been quite beneficial."
- "The configuration had a bit of a learning curve."
What is our primary use case?
We are currently using it with SIEM, and SOAR which is Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response.
Splunk is primarily used for security, incident response, and security analytics.
How has it helped my organization?
Using Splunk, give us the visualization we need, we can easily observe things such as user behavior analytics, irregular traffic, frequency, and any spikes in unusual activity inside the network.
What is most valuable?
The additional vendors we've brought on board, particularly the Elastic, have been quite beneficial.
It's a solid platform.
What needs improvement?
Other than the pricing modules, I have no issues with the product itself.
The configuration had a bit of a learning curve.
I would like to learn more about the Cloud solution, but I'm aware that it's lacking some core applications.
If they could bring on more vendors, you would be able to monitor a larger number of applications. We could have visualization with other applications we have with the infrastructure in our organization.
For how long have I used the solution?
I did a POC, but we have recently procured it. We did a rudimentary setup to get an understanding of how it works. We are into our sixth month of using it now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Splunk is a very stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is quite scalable.
In our organization, we have 10 users, who use this solution but we have plans to increase our usage.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support has been quite helpful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The previous solution was limited in its functionality.
We were looking at the additional controls that enterprise security may have, as well as visualization, to gain greater visibility.
Splunk offered us more visibility.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex.
We had some assistance with the actual deployment, but while I was doing the POC, I was working with a vendor. There were things I had to do myself, such as the configuration, which was a bit challenging for me, it was a big learning curve.
What about the implementation team?
For the installation, we received some assistance from the vendor.
What was our ROI?
It's too early to know if there will be a return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing modules could be improved.
The licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis.
There is a standard license with provisions for more. As we are still exploring the functionality, there may be other departments that want to use it.
What other advice do I have?
Those who are interested in implementing this solution should be prepared to dig deep into their pockets.
I would rate Splunk a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Technical Project Manager at Altran
Enables us to pull up reports very easily, take action, and notify stakeholders
Pros and Cons
- "It's very flexible. If you look from the cloud implementation it is there. Reports are made quickly. Unlike other tools, it caters to all kinds of technical information on the front very easily. There's no need to put in any technical information. You can pull on the reports very easily, take action, and notify stakeholders."
- "It does not give us permission to implement on-premise so we implement them on the cloud."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case was really as a client organization, like the government and the IT industries, we are in the telecoms sector. We analyze security reports. We use Splunk to order them and put them in a system and we use the various kinds of integration with Oracle Cloud which is helpful.
How has it helped my organization?
Every tool has a drawback. Some aspects of this solution are secure but getting clean data from the cloud takes time. Looking towards the future, I'm looking for a tool that is the most secure in the cloud environment.
What is most valuable?
It's very flexible. If you look from the cloud implementation it is there. Reports are made quickly. Unlike other tools, it caters to all kinds of technical information on the front very easily. There's no need to put in any technical information. You can pull up the reports very easily, take action, and notify stakeholders.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see them develop integration with the help of a rack rest API. Which is an API that helps to secure communication with oracle cloud and pull down records from there.
This integration is currently missing in current version of splunk. I'm looking forward to see this feature getting implemented in next version of Splunk and so that organizations can get benefit of this feature in future.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is good. It's scalable enough. You can play around with this tool. Scalability is one of the main criteria we look for when considering solutions.
How was the initial setup?
The setup depends on the organization. It is very simple here. You can easily install all of the businesses in the company network. Previously, it was suggested that this solution is not flexible enough. It does not give us permission to implement on-premise so we implement them on the cloud.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We also looked at HP ArcSight and two other solutions.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. I rated it a nine because every tool will have its drawbacks but ultimately it's a very good tool in comparison to HP ArcSight. If we can add on a scalability feature it would significantly improve the solution.
I would advise someone considering this solution to use it at least for a year to get a hands-on and technical understanding because it's a good product. Then decide whether or not to move forward with Splunk - but I would advise to stick with Splunk.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Engineering Manager at Cengage Learning
It is stable and scalable. It is also easy to configure.
Pros and Cons
- "The client site login is pretty extensible and probably cost-effective."
- "It is very stable. We have not had any problems."
- "I would like some additional AI capabilities to provide additional information about things going wrong and things going well."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for logging, essentially for auditing and troubleshooting errors in production and finding out what happened.
I have used the product personally for five years and at my current company for a year and a half.
How has it helped my organization?
I haven't had any problems with it so far.
What is most valuable?
There are a lot of plugins to integrate this. The client site login is pretty extensible and probably cost-effective. Plus, it is easy to configure.
What needs improvement?
I would like some additional AI capabilities to provide additional information about things going wrong and things going well.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable. We have not had any problems.
We had to upgrade when it was on-premise, but then we went to cloud version, which is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is pretty scalability, even though we have a lot of logs. It runs well.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I assume that the pricing is reasonable, because if it was too costly, there are other alternatives. However, with some of the other solutions, you have to spend time on them and manage them yourself. It might also take you three times to get it right. So, Splunk may be more costly upfront, but in the long run, it saves on time and man-hours.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I would consider ELK Kibana a competitor for this solution. If you have time, and you want to do it yourself, you can save a little money going with Kibana. However, Splunk is pretty good and I would recommend an enterprise to switch to Splunk.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Splunk Enterprise Security Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
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Updated: October 2024
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