Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Fortinet FortiSIEM vs IBM Instana Observability 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.1
Fortinet FortiSIEM delivers security improvements and customer satisfaction, leading to positive financial outcomes despite no explicit ROI measurement.
Sentiment score
6.0
IBM Instana Observability boosts efficiency with quick issue identification, reduces costs, and improves response times and application performance.
The platform has resulted in time saved and reduces mean time to response, making it a great platform.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Integrated Solutions
It provides a single pane of glass from which I can see what is happening with all the servers in my infrastructure, which saves time.
UNIX/LINUX, ENTERPRISE SERVER AND STORAGE ADMINISTRATOR at Fidelity Bank Plc
It made a notable difference from when we were almost blind to being able to respond to calls immediately.
Software engineer at EJADA
If we have a monitoring tool, we can save our transactions and see the performance of the application using MTTR and MTTD.
Technical Manager, Consulting at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
Fortinet FortiSIEM's customer service is seen as professional but has mixed reviews on response times and support accessibility.
Sentiment score
6.4
IBM Instana support is mixed, with varied responsiveness, reliance on local teams, and average ratings between five and six.
Local tech support is available, however, for more critical or technical issues, we depend on the OEM directly, especially when it comes to on-prem solutions.
IT Solutions Product Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
There is a knowledgeable, though small, team of support engineers around the world.
Network Engineer at Laminar Communications Pty Ltd
The customer support for Fortinet FortiSIEM is excellent.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Integrated Solutions
They are very slow to respond and integrate new features.
DevOps engineer at Yara International
IBM support for Instana is responsive and helpful.
UNIX/LINUX, ENTERPRISE SERVER AND STORAGE ADMINISTRATOR at Fidelity Bank Plc
We did have experiences where a significant issue arose during implementation, often involving compatibility problems with JavaScript libraries used by IBM Instana Observability.
Technical Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Fortinet FortiSIEM scales well, accommodating different business sizes but faces challenges with licensing, architecture, and configuration complexities.
Sentiment score
7.5
IBM Instana Observability excels in scalability for enterprises, supporting microservices, with positive user reviews and efficient growth handling.
At any point in time, when network devices increase or there is a change in the infrastructure, we can add more workers and collectors to expand our infrastructure setup.
IT Solutions Product Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Fortinet FortiSIEM is highly scalable.
Network Engineer at Laminar Communications Pty Ltd
Fortinet FortiSIEM's scalability is excellent, and it is also easy to configure, maintain, and operate.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Integrated Solutions
More innovations are coming in every day, so it is scalable and more applications are becoming container-based.
UNIX/LINUX, ENTERPRISE SERVER AND STORAGE ADMINISTRATOR at Fidelity Bank Plc
IBM Instana Observability demonstrates scalability, especially in dynamic, distributed environments such as microservices and Kubernetes.
Technical Manager, Consulting at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.2
Fortinet FortiSIEM is reliable and stable, handling updates well, with users rating its performance highly despite occasional bugs.
Sentiment score
8.4
IBM Instana Observability is rated high in stability, with users consistently praising its reliable and steady performance.
It stabilizes itself in an appropriate time, so its uptime is good.
IT Solutions Product Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
These issues may cause unusual errors and user interface issues.
Network Engineer at Laminar Communications Pty Ltd
Some stability issues occur, but Fortinet's technical support team provides assistance.
Network Engineer at Ogma Consulting
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiSIEM needs improvements in integration, user interface, support, cost, and features like AI and automated responses.
IBM Instana Observability needs enhancements in log management, AI models, user interface speed, support, and cost monitoring.
Recently, they revised it to a subscription-based, all-inclusive license.
IT Solutions Product Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
The built-in APIs in Fortinet FortiSIEM are somewhat lacking and could be improved for better integration with external ITSM products.
Network Engineer at Laminar Communications Pty Ltd
Fortinet FortiSIEM should broaden its remediation part to include more features for incident management.
Network Engineer at Ogma Consulting
I had many false positives with IBM Instana Observability. Then I fixed the filters and it became more accurate on the errors reported.
Software engineer at EJADA
One main issue I found with IBM Instana Observability was the customer support, which was very poor when we needed some features to be enabled or integrated into IBM Instana Observability sensors.
DevOps engineer at Yara International
It is not open-source, and I have to be a partner to get more access to the products.
UNIX/LINUX, ENTERPRISE SERVER AND STORAGE ADMINISTRATOR at Fidelity Bank Plc
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiSIEM provides flexible pricing that can be cost-effective, but costs may increase with additional modules and scalability.
IBM Instana offers competitive pricing in India, with a straightforward model and simple implementation despite varying cost perceptions.
Setting it up for oneself as an enterprise-licensed product can be quite expensive.
Network Engineer at Laminar Communications Pty Ltd
Windows agent licenses cost around 3,000 Rupees per device per year.
Network Engineer at Ogma Consulting
The revised model is subscription-based and more flexible.
IT Solutions Product Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
I find the cost of IBM Instana Observability to be very affordable compared to competitors because the pricing mechanism is based on the host that we monitor, unlike other competitors such as DataDog and Dynatrace, whose pricing is based on other factors.
Technical Manager, Consulting at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It is not that costly, especially since we only use two instances.
Software engineer at EJADA
I think the pricing is good and I do not think it is high.
DevOps at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiSIEM provides automation, analytics, and integration with a user-friendly interface for efficient threat detection and network monitoring.
IBM Instana Observability enhances performance with real-time insights, APM trace capabilities, and integration features to improve operational efficiency.
It provides extensive logging and record-keeping for internal networks, cloud applications, and services as well as perimeter physical network security.
Network Engineer at Laminar Communications Pty Ltd
I find the real-time monitoring and correlation capabilities effective for security alerts.
Network Engineer at Ogma Consulting
Reliability and scalability have helped me in my work, especially because the license for Fortinet FortiSIEM is excellent from a cost perspective, and we can add more collectors as we expand.
Cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK For Integrated Solutions
IBM Instana Observability has positively impacted my organization by making it easy to observe the entire infrastructure under one platform, which was the biggest advantage of onboarding onto IBM Instana Observability.
DevOps engineer at Yara International
IBM Instana Observability has impacted my organization positively in that it has helped me find out what the issue is in real-time because of its one-second granularity and its ability to identify issues as quickly as possible.
UNIX/LINUX, ENTERPRISE SERVER AND STORAGE ADMINISTRATOR at Fidelity Bank Plc
With multiple servers and multiple applications, IBM Instana Observability allows us to resolve issues very quickly because we immediately know that a disk is full, the storage is full, or the database is down.
Technical Lead at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiSIEM
Ranking in AI Observability
5th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (7th)
IBM Instana Observability
Ranking in AI Observability
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (25th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the AI Observability category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiSIEM is 1.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Instana Observability is 1.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AI Observability Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiSIEM1.1%
IBM Instana Observability1.3%
Other97.6%
AI Observability
 

Featured Reviews

SY
Network Engineer at Ogma Consulting
Comprehensive monitoring boosts security, yet incident management features need expansion
Fortinet FortiSIEM should broaden its remediation part to include more features for incident management. Currently, to manage repetitive incidents or for remediation, I need to use a separate software called FortiSOAR. Additionally, the search functionality in FortiAI should be improved to provide more precise results, making it easier for me to understand what actions need to be taken.
FranciscoGálvez - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Observability has improved collaboration and predicts failures across distributed services
From my perspective, IBM Instana Observability is quite technical. Compared to some competitors, it offers an abundance of information about system performance but lacks planning or capacity planning information. You do not receive reports with recommendations; instead, it provides only the technical layer. Other companies, like Compuware, give more functional information about your environment, while IBM Instana Observability provides only limited functional insights. This means you often must interpret the data independently. Unlike other tools that can offer recommendations to save resources or costs, IBM Instana Observability does not provide that functionality. On the bright side, it is much more affordable than some other options, but it isn't complete. If you want full functionality with IBM Instana Observability, you also need to acquire other products for additional insights in monitoring areas, such as networking monitoring tools or similar products. For instance, we often recommend Turbonomic, which provides complementary insights. One potential feature that could improve IBM Instana Observability is the ability to translate KPIs into monetary terms. It would be interesting to have a product that integrates IBM Instana Observability with Turbonomic, as Turbonomic can utilize data from IBM Instana Observability to inform you about unnecessary spending and suggest whether you can consolidate servers or optimize containers for quicker response times. Implementing some level of simulation or capacity planning would greatly enhance the current capabilities of IBM Instana Observability.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which AI Observability solutions are best for your needs.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiSIEM?
Fortinet FortiSIEM needs to provide better API integrations to users.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiSIEM?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Fortinet FortiSIEM is wonderful, as it offers an excellent license compared to other vendors.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiSIEM?
Fortinet FortiSIEM is great overall. Performance could be enhanced, but I do not wish to elaborate on needed improvements.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Instana Observability?
I would evaluate the implementation process of IBM Instana Observability as not complex at all because you pay the license, and IBM takes care of everything. The only problem we occasionally face, ...
What needs improvement with IBM Instana Observability?
From my perspective, IBM Instana Observability is quite technical. Compared to some competitors, it offers an abundance of information about system performance but lacks planning or capacity planni...
What is your primary use case for IBM Instana Observability?
I usually recommend IBM Instana Observability for companies in the academic environment, as I have been working in a consultancy company for the last three years, where one of our customers built t...
 

Also Known As

FortiSIEM, AccelOps
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

FortiSIEM has hundreds of customers worldwide in markets including managed services, technology, financial services, healthcare, and government. Customers include Aruba Networks, Compushare, Port of San Diego, Cleveland Indians, Infoblox, Healthways, and Referentia.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiSIEM vs. IBM Instana Observability and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.