We performed a comparison between IBM Security QRadar and ArcSight ESM based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Features: IBM Security QRadar users say the solution provides extensive information and helpful leads for locating pertinent data. QRadar stands out with its comprehensive network visibility and strong SIEM capabilities. ArcSight ESM is praised for its well-designed dashboard, real-time reporting, and threat intelligence capabilities that leverage AI and correlation tools. Users also like ArcSight’s seamless integration and effortless management. QRadar could improve its rule deployment and lower its false positive rate. Users would also like expanded storage capacity, streamlined user management, and a more mature architecture. ArcSight ESM users have recommended improvements in training, speed, and data administration.
Service and Support: Some customers of IBM Security QRadar have had trouble connecting with knowledgeable support staff and experienced delayed responses. Some ArcSight ESM users have found the support to be responsive and helpful, while others have faced issues with slow response times and a lack of expertise.
Ease of Deployment: IBM Security QRadar's initial setup can be complex for users without expertise, and the difficulty may vary depending on the size of the data set. Some said that ArcSight ESM is straightforward to set up, while others noted that integration with other systems can be challenging and requires specialized knowledge.
Pricing: IBM Security QRadar can be costly because users need to buy new hardware to upgrade. Users consider the pricing of ArcSight ESM to be reasonable and affordable.
ROI: IBM Security QRadar delivers a high return on investment, improving security through its advanced user behavior analytics. ArcSight ESM yields an ROI by helping clients achieve compliance objectives and prevent incidents.
"The most valuable features are its threat handling and detection. It's a powerful tool because it's based on machine learning and on the behavior of malware."
"The automation rules and playbooks are the most useful that I've seen. A number of other places segregate the automation and playbook as separate tools, whereas Microsoft is a SIEM and SOAR tool in one."
"The machine learning and artificial intelligence on offer are great."
"In Azure Sentinel, we have found, they do have a store in their capability. AI and intelligence features. We found that to be very helpful for us because some other things we do need to integrate again or find another vendor for the store"
"Microsoft Sentinel comes preloaded with templates for teaching and analytics rules."
"It is quite efficient. It helps our clients in identifying their security issues and respond quickly. Our clients want to automate incident response and all those things."
"The UI of Sentinel is very good and easy to use, even for beginners."
"It has a lot of great features."
"The out-of-the-box rules that help us configure functioning rules within the environment are valuable."
"ArcSight is customizable. You can integrate just about anything. I also like the ease of use."
"The most useful features are directories, price, and live reporting."
"ESM has valuable features for event prediction and security analysis."
"We use ArcSight ESM for log analysis and security alerts. It warns us of threats and then helps us conduct a forensic investigation of a cyber attack or internal incident after it happens."
"The tool is good for correlation and aggregation. We use it as a collection platform."
"Stable solution with good customer service support."
"I am satisfied with the solution's stability."
"We can easily monitor many things using this tool."
"There are other third-party plugins that we can use."
"This is a good tool to have because it gives you the ability to track what is currently happening in your environment."
"It is really helpful to us from the compliance point of view."
"Most of our clients are interested in automation. The automation part is good because they are able to detect threats and vulnerabilities in real time. It's very fast."
"QRadar, Splunk, and ArcSight are SIEM solutions with built-in AI/ML features. They can do the complete investigation and alert the admin about what is happening. They can also do the root cause analysis. There are many other features that come with QRadar. It has a more granular log, so you can integrate with various non-IT as well as IT-based components. You can get unstructured data to the SIEM data, and you can identify more what is happening in the network or what is happening in the central head office. You can also identify what is happening between your remote offices. You can also use it to identify what the users in the field are doing on their devices and how things are moving. From the integration point of view, it is very centric. It gives complete control centrally. If a user is not connected to the system, whenever he comes online, we can see the policy updates over the Internet, and we can ensure that the data that is supposed to be protected is protected."
"The most valuable features would have to be the products' ability to customize vulnerability management settings."
"The most valuable thing about QRadar is that you have a single window into your network, SIEM, network flows, and risk management of your assets. If you use Splunk, for instance, then you still need a full packet capture solution, whereas the full packet capture solution is integrated within QRadar. Its application ecosystem makes it very powerful in terms of doing analysis."
"They should integrate it with many other software-as-a-service providers and make connectors available so that you don't have to do any sort of log normalization."
"It would be good to have some connectors for third-party SIEM solutions. Many customers are struggling with the integration of Azure Sentinel with their on-premise SIEM. Microsoft is changing the log structure many times a year, which can corrupt a custom integration. It would be good to have some connectors developed by Microsoft or supply vendors, but they are not providing such functionality or tools."
"Microsoft Defender has a built-in threat expert option that enables you to contact an expert. That feature isn't available in Sentinel because it's a huge product that integrates all the technologies. I would like Microsoft to add the threat expert option so we can contact them. There are a few other features, like threat assessment that the PG team is working on. I expect them to release this feature in the next quarter."
"We'd like to see more connectors."
"It could have a better API to be able to automate many things more extensively and get more extensive data and more expensive deployment possibilities. It can gain some points on the automation part and the integration part. The API is very limited, and I would like to see it extended a bit more."
"I would like to be able to monitor applications outside of the Azure Cloud."
"Given that I am in the small business space, I wish they would make it easier to operate Sentinel without being a Sentinel expert. Examples of things that could be easier are creating alerts and automations from scratch and designing workbooks."
"Sentinel can be used in two ways. With other tools like QRadar, I don't need to run queries. Using Sentinel requires users to learn KQL to run technical queries and check things. If they don't know KQL, they can't fully utilize the solution."
"The centralized dashboard for the hybrid cloud environment needs to be more focused. It needs to be redefined because it's missing most of the information. It should be a little bit easy to use. Currently, integration with various applications and connectors is not that easy. Deployment is easy, but integration is not that easy. ArcSight also has a very high bandwidth consumption to pull the local servers. It should have some kind of better process or ability to transfer files from on-premises to the cloud, from the cloud to on-premises, and from a cloud to another cloud."
"ArcSight ESM needs to improve performance, user interface, and automation."
"Micro Focus does not have a physical presence here in Pakistan, although IBM does."
"Sometimes, it takes ages to get an issue resolved. I have ArcSight experience, so I normally try to fix things on my own or find a workaround, but it's tough to get support when I need it."
"The stability isn't quite perfect. We occasionally run into problems."
"What could be improved in ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is its analytics feature. That feature should be more powerful and have more correlation in terms of AI/ML, though MicroFocus has done a good job in adding analytics to ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) which has become a big draw to customers. What I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is the addition of AI/ML features."
"The initial setup could be more straightforward."
"The correlation engine effectively connects different events, significantly improving our detection reach. However, limitations exist with non-default alerts, where additional costs arise for integration."
"The playbook guide which specifies the rules for security use cases needs to be provided to support in case the organization needs help."
"You can scale IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics, but it has room for improvement."
"Maybe there should be more custom rules in the exchange. Basically, we are using a lot of threat rules, so maybe they'll develop something like that."
"The solution can be improved by lowering the cost and bettering their technical support."
"When it comes to what could be better, it is always what others are trying to do and what is the roadmap. It can have more integration. It should have more flexible RESTful APIs for integration with applications. These are the things that are always in demand for any of the SIEM solutions, not only for QRadar. Integration is ever-evolving. Nowadays, different versions of mobile handsets are there and data is getting scattered. Users are using their personal handsets to keep the data of the organization. So, it should have a more flexible integration, irrespective of the flavor of the firmware and iOS or Android version. It should have an API that can seamlessly get integrated. It should also provide more flexible control and a more advanced or analytical view to see what exactly is happening across the globe or network. From wherever a user is connecting and accessing the enterprise data, it should give real-time visibility and predictive visibility about what exactly is happening. These things are already there, but there should be more advanced control in terms of managing the security."
"Technical support really needs to be improved. Right now, they aren't where they need to be at all."
"The features that could be improved include the licensing model and the dashboards and all those presentations. Overall, the user experience part can be improved."
"Their technical support is not good. We opened a lot of cases and from my experience, they are not complicated issues but it takes forever to get an answer."
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ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is ranked 12th in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 93 reviews while IBM Security QRadar is ranked 4th in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 198 reviews. ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is rated 7.8, while IBM Security QRadar is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) writes "Allows for monitoring logs according to industry standards within ESM but has a total capacity capped at 12 TB, limiting real-time data retention periods". On the other hand, the top reviewer of IBM Security QRadar writes "A highly stable and scalable solution that provides good technical support". ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is most compared with Splunk Enterprise Security, ArcSight Intelligence, Trellix ESM, AWS Security Hub and LogRhythm SIEM, whereas IBM Security QRadar is most compared with Splunk Enterprise Security, Wazuh, LogRhythm SIEM, Elastic Security and Fortinet FortiSIEM. See our ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) vs. IBM Security QRadar report.
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