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IBM X-Force Exchange vs USM Anywhere comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

IBM X-Force Exchange
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.6
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) (15th)
USM Anywhere
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
115
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (40th), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (32nd), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (50th), Compliance Management (15th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Security Software solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM X-Force Exchange is designed for Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) and holds a mindshare of 1.6%, down 1.7% compared to last year.
USM Anywhere, on the other hand, focuses on Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), holds 1.0% mindshare, down 1.1% since last year.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM X-Force Exchange1.6%
Recorded Future7.9%
CrowdStrike Falcon5.1%
Other85.4%
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
USM Anywhere1.0%
Splunk Enterprise Security7.4%
Wazuh7.3%
Other84.3%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

IM
IT Infrastructure Security Lead at South Consult
Speed threat assessment ,security investigations leveraging on real time actionable threat intel integrated to your Security Intelligence Platform
The most valuable features I found include : The ability to add a vulnerability report Support for STIX and TAXII Threat Feed Manager- While viewing X-Force reports, users can enrich IP, URL and malware reports using threat intelligence So suppose you're investigating an a possible threat and you just found that there is an offense that is saying, one of your users had access to some honey port defined address You can quickly leverage X-Force to help you by doing an X-Force exchange look-up quickly. If you have an aspect of interest, such as an email, file , vulnerability data for, you can leverage X-Force to understand this in-depth.
Kris Nawani - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder/Director at Bangkok MSP Company Limited
Offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software
USM Anywhere is used for threat detection and investigation. It provides a solution with built-in threat intelligence and various other investigation tools The solution offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software, as it is maintained by the vendor. It helps in saving…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is you have the expertise of human experience directly involved. There is a team of experts."
"This product has helped to increase staff productivity."
"It's quite integratable so you can actually integrate and get IP malware and URL information. It also gives you some form of intelligence into what you're trying to investigate or what you're trying to understand."
"The solution has all the features that we need, however they do not work correctly."
"The asset management of nodes has been a large help in terms of being able to track applications with more detail and have changes made being monitored into one source."
"Having everything in a central place has been helpful."
"Ease of deployment across various environments."
"The most valuable features of AT&T AlienVault USM are the ease of management and knowledge of what is on the network of my customers. It's easy to understand the problems, and management our alarms and events."
"The vulnerability scanning is helpful to identify the areas that need patching or fixes installed."
"The AlienVault solution has enabled us to create a SOC on a budget with smaller than usual staff requirements, offering a wider range of solutions for our customers."
"What I find the most valuable about USM Anywhere is its compliance. It shows a list of all the administrators logged on and does it quite well. There are no whistles and bells, it's reliable and simple to use."
 

Cons

"We would like to have more AI capabilities to detect threats and improve its productivity from a cybersecurity standpoint."
"I would like to see better integration with other systems, solutions, and vendors."
"You have to look for the new information from X-Force. X-Force will provide it but you have to look for it. We need clearer visibility."
"The one thing I continue to dislike about the USM is the limitation on reports."
"We would like more plugins. This being the main point of improvement which would benefit the users."
"USM Anywhere relies a lot on the community putting the data in. Often, you'll right-click on the attack, but nothing will be found. That's a weakness of it."
"Adding a parsing interface for the customers would make AT&T AlienVault USM better."
"The only room for improvement I can mention is the initial installation procedures. I found that the online installation instructions for the product were missing important details, they lacked necessary steps."
"It should be able to communicate with other security solutions to stop threats."
"The reporting and dashboards have room for improvement."
"AlienVault needs to continue to integrate with other third-party technologies that clients want to have monitored."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cost is clearly a consideration, but the important thing is what we do with the data and how we protect it."
"One of the fastest ways to cut costs is reducing staff, and this product can reduce staff by 70 percent."
"​The price point is good.​"
"QRadar, ArcSight and Splunk are some of the most expensive SIEM products out there in the market and not everyone has the budget to buy them. In such cases, AV USM is a very cost effective alternative."
"It is a product that is priced in a medium range, making it neither a cheap nor a costly product."
"It allows you to do a lot with a small price tag... The pricing is the best on the market."
"The price of this solution is reasonable, which is one of the reasons why we selected it over other solutions."
"Use an MSSP instead. It is much cheaper."
"The pricing is a good value. The key thing is that for the new product, the licensing of it, is subscription-based and it's based on data. Clients need to be really careful when thinking about that, because odds are they're going to need to put a lot more data into it than what they initially estimate, which is going to drive their subscription costs up."
"They charge a license based on the storage. ATT AlienVault USM is a less expensive solution than IBM QRadar."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
12%
Educational Organization
5%
University
5%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Performing Arts
7%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business64
Midsize Enterprise29
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for IBM X-Force?
It's a threat intelligence platform, and we aim to enhance its intelligence by integrating additional security solutions.
What advice do you have for others considering IBM X-Force?
It falls under the category of AI-embedded threat intelligence, which makes detection more efficient by reducing the rate of false positives and improving the overall detection rate. When the threa...
What do you like most about AT&T AlienVault USM?
The most valuable feature of the solution is the ease of deployment that it provides to users. The integrations that the product has with third-party applications are useful.
What needs improvement with AT&T AlienVault USM?
There are scalability issues due to a 60 TB limit, which restricts its use for large customers like banks. It is also limited when used with bigger products and has complex password requirements.
 

Also Known As

X-Force Exchange, X-Force
AT&T AlienVault USM, AlienVault, AlienVault USM, Alienvault Cybersecurity
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Abel & Cole, Bank of Ireland, Bluegrass Cellular, CareerBuilder, Claire's, Hays Medical Center, Hope International, McCurrach, McKinsey & Company, Party Delights, Pepco Holdings, Richland School District, Ricoh, SaveMart, Shake Shack, Steelcase, TaxAct, Taylor Morrison, Vonage and Zoom
Find out what your peers are saying about CrowdStrike, Recorded Future, VirusTotal and others in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP). Updated: December 2025.
880,954 professionals have used our research since 2012.