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IBM Watson for Cyber Security vs NetWitness Platform comparison

IBM and NetWitness are both solutions in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category. IBM is ranked #57, while NetWitness is ranked #29 with an average rating of 8.0. IBM holds a 0.3% mindshare in SIEM, compared to NetWitness’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of NetWitness users who would recommend it.
IBM Watson for Cyber Security
Read 4 IBM Watson for Cyber Security reviews
  • 413 Views
  • 201 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
NetWitness Platform
Read 37 NetWitness Platform reviews
  • 1,008 Views
  • 554 Comparison Views
75% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

NetWitness Platform and IBM Watson for Cyber Security compete in the cybersecurity landscape. IBM Watson for Cyber Security positions itself as a more comprehensive solution due to its advanced AI-driven capabilities and quicker ROI, despite higher pricing.

Features: NetWitness Platform offers an extensive and customizable alerting system, deep packet inspection, and robust threat intelligence integration. IBM Watson for Cyber Security features advanced AI-driven threat detection, cognitive analytics, and extensive data integration from various sources.

Room for Improvement: NetWitness Platform can benefit from an enhanced correlation engine, improved scalability options, and more intuitive navigation. IBM Watson for Cyber Security could improve the complexity of initial setup and offer better customization options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: NetWitness Platform is considered straightforward but may experience delays in initial setup and requires extensive configuration. Customer service is positively rated but could be faster. IBM Watson for Cyber Security's deployment can be complex, needing dedicated support, but it has highly-rated comprehensive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: NetWitness Platform offers good value with lower initial setup costs but slower ROI realization. IBM Watson for Cyber Security is more expensive upfront but provides quicker, significant ROI due to advanced capabilities and effective threat mitigation.

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To learn more, read our detailed IBM Watson for Cyber Security vs. NetWitness Platform Report (Updated: June 2025).
Buyer's Guide
IBM Watson for Cyber Security vs. NetWitness Platform
June 2025
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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 Watson for Cyber Security
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
57th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetWitness Platform
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
29th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (37th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of IBM Watson for Cyber Security is 0.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetWitness Platform is 0.6%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

Elena Stefanovska - PeerSpot reviewer
Knowledgeable support, reliable, and useful compliance policies
IBM Watson for Cyber Security can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud and it is used as a SIEM solution The most valuable features of IBM Watson for Cyber Security are ease of use and out-of-the-box reports and compliance policies. Additionally, if there are aspects that are missing IBM add…
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MOTASHIM Al Razi - PeerSpot reviewer
It is a stable solution, but they should make the user interface easier to understand
The solution's initial setup takes work. We have to organize multiple paths and many features. The deployment process takes less than a week. But it takes a month to complete if we want to make the solution smarter by integrating it with various devices. I rate the process as a six out of ten.
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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 features of IBM Watson for Cyber Security are ease of use and out-of-the-box reports and compliance policies. Additionally, if there are aspects that are missing IBM add them in the next release."
"The customer support is very good."
"The most valuable feature of this product is innovation, where the research and upgrading of technology never ends."
"IBM Watson for Cyber Security is very stable."
"It gives the ability to investigate into network traffic in the Net and the organization what we couldn't do before."
"What we are mainly using are the RSA concentrator, RSA Decoder, Archiver, Broker, and Log Decoder."
"The newer 11.5 version that my team is using has found it to have good mapping."
"Incident management is its most valuable feature."
"The packet capture aspect of it is a valuable feature because it is quite different from a traditional SIEM solution that only carries out investigations based on captured logs."
"Possibility to investigate incidents based on logs and raw packets, such as extracting files sent over the network"
"It's fully scalable. There is no limit. Of course, the license limits per day the number of terabytes. In my opinion, it's very flexible."
"Setting up NetWitness is straightforward. There are multiple connectors, including standard and specialized connectors. One purpose of the connectors is the enhanced capability integrate the custom applications. NetWitness comes with E6 appliances and application images that we use for the initial configurations and for the OS stack information. From there, you can consider the correlation rules, integrate the different log sources, and easily create correlation rules and backlog reports."
More NetWitness Platform pros
 

Cons

"They need to continue to build the AI capabilities."
"The dashboard could improve in IBM Watson for Cyber Security."
"In the future, I would like to see threat intelligence included."
"This is an expensive product, so making it more cost-effective would be an improvement."
"The initial setup was complex because it takes a lot of time to complete the implementation."
"The product's licensing models are complex to understand. This particular area needs improvement."
"It should have a monitoring feature. It would help us analyze the current state of attacks faster from a single platform."
"If we have the ability to run a dynamic analysis through malware in the same suite, it would be great to have a sandbox solution to analyze malware through dynamic analysis."
"The log system is a bit complex and has room for improvement."
"There is no support for this product in this country, so problems have to be resolved through global technical teams."
"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets can improve the threat level aspect, it is lacking compared to other solutions. Whenever any hacking activity or any other threat factor occurred they used to provide the coverages very fast when comparing RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets. I heard the other three solutions, from a discussion with my team members who had experience in other solutions, they used to say that. Whenever any issues happened across the globe RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets are a little bit slow improving those detection mechanisms."
"I believe that integrating the solution with other products such as Oracle would be beneficial."
More NetWitness Platform cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM Watson for Cyber Security is very simple to license and is priced well."
"The price of this solution should be lower, although I understand why IBM charges a premium price."
"The product is expensive."
"The tool is very expensive, so I rate the pricing a ten out of ten. The solution has an annual subscription."
"We have yearly licensing costs. The license fee can be based on the volume of EPS. Some organizations may have, as a gentlemanly gesture, 10,000 EPS and get a 3,000 EPS license but actually use 5,000 EPS."
"We are on an annual license for the use of the solution."
"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets do not have a subscription model, it's a one-time purchase. There is only a perpetual license."
"Many clients are not able to purchase the packet capability because there is a huge amount of data, and the cost depends on the number of EPS (Events per second), as well as the number of gigabytes of data per day."
"The new pricing and licensing mechanisms are fair. I would advise always to get the full solution (i.e., not only Logs)."
"The NetWitness Platform may be affordable only for enterprise-level customers, as it may not be within the budget of small and medium-sized businesses."
More NetWitness Platform pricing and cost advice
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Comparison Review

VS
Feb 26, 2015
HP ArcSight vs. IBM QRadar vs. ​McAfee Nitro vs. Splunk vs. RSA Security vs. LogRhythm
We at Infosecnirvana.com have done several posts on SIEM. After the Dummies Guide on SIEM, we are following it up with a SIEM Product Comparison – 101 deck. So, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think by posting your comments below. The key products compared here are…
Read full review
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
8%
Real Estate/Law Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
17%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about NetWitness Platform?
The product's initial setup phase was not at all difficult.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetWitness Platform?
The pricing is comparable to others, and I consider the cost to be intermediate. Specific cost details are unknown to me.
See all answers
What needs improvement with NetWitness Platform?
There is currently no need for improvement in the SIEM ( /categories/security-information-and-event-management-siem ), though there could be potential enhancements by integrating with AI.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

IBM Security QRadar vs IBM Watson for Cyber Security Logo
IBM Security QRadar vs IBM Watson for Cyber Security
Compared 60% of the time
Splunk Enterprise Security vs IBM Watson for Cyber Security Logo
Splunk Enterprise Security vs IBM Watson for Cyber Security
Compared 40% of the time
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Splunk Enterprise Security vs NetWitness Platform Logo
Splunk Enterprise Security vs NetWitness Platform
Compared 23% of the time
IBM Security QRadar vs NetWitness Platform Logo
IBM Security QRadar vs NetWitness Platform
Compared 22% of the time
Elastic Security vs NetWitness Platform Logo
Elastic Security vs NetWitness Platform
Compared 14% of the time
Trellix Network Detection and Response vs NetWitness Platform Logo
Trellix Network Detection and Response vs NetWitness Platform
Compared 9% of the time
RSA enVision vs NetWitness Platform Logo
RSA enVision vs NetWitness Platform
Compared 9% of the time
More NetWitness Platform Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
June 2025
IBM Watson for Cyber Security reportDownload IBM Watson for Cyber Security product report
Buyer's Guide
NetWitness Platform
June 2025
NetWitness Platform reportDownload NetWitness Platform product report
 

Also Known As

No data available
RSA Security Analytics
 

Overview

Watson for cyber security can draw security intelligence from millions of security blogs, online forums and white papers - so you can see threats unseen by other systems.
IBM

NetWitness Platform is an evolved SIEM and threat detection and response solution that functions as a single, unified platform for ALL your security data. It features an advanced analyst workbench for triaging alerts and incidents, and it orchestrates security operations programs end to end. In short: NetWitness Platform is all you need to run an intelligent SOC.

NetWitness
 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Los Angeles World Airports, Reply
Buyer's Guide
IBM Watson for Cyber Security vs. NetWitness Platform
June 2025
Free Report: IBM Watson for Cyber Security vs. NetWitness Platform
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We monitor all Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.