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NetWitness Platform vs OpenText Enterprise Security Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 19, 2025

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

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 (38th)
OpenText Enterprise Securit...
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
21st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
97
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of NetWitness Platform is 0.6%, down from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Enterprise Security Manager is 1.1%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Gaurav Ranade - PeerSpot reviewer
Excels at performing regression and correlation on the data
ArcSight is a legacy technology, and many customers want AI-powered technologies integrated with it. That hasn't been done yet, but ArcSight needs to catch up with the newer solutions and technologies available in the market. It can't just rely on the legacy technology from 2010 or 2012. You can't run that in 2024. It's a legacy technology with its own limitations. Customers often face issues that other software or newer solutions can resolve easily. That's the main challenge we face from customers right now. So, the only concerns are that AI needs to be integrated and scalability improved. Those are the main areas to be improved.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"The most valuable features are the packet decoder, log decoder, and concentrator."
"The most valuable features are the packet inspection and the automated incident response."
"The most valuable feature is the hunting ability to work in a CERT."
"The most valuable feature is that we can create our own connectors for any application, and NetWitness provides the training and tools to do it."
"NetWitness Platform is valuable for creating rules that the solution must detect."
"The most valuable features are the threat prediction and network forensics."
"The development of use cases on the SSA console is quite user friendly. This means that the security analyst or the researcher does not have to learn another language."
"Some of the benefits of using this solution are rapid correlation and near-time response on alerts."
"The most valuable feature of ArcSight ESM is its ease of use."
"Usability is the most valuable feature. The accessibility is quite good."
"​It is a vital tool for live monitoring and helps us to understand the traffic alerts of any major issue on the network, thereby reducing hacking attempts."
"SmartConnector: Normalization parses raw logs and converts them into CEF (common event format). This is the core of the product."
"On the positive side, ArcSight ESM's performance was excellent. It was very fast when writing queries. It provided good performance monitoring and had built-in rules to show which rules triggered most often and impacted performance. This performance monitoring was well-implemented."
"It gives better overall visibility. Before, we didn't have a unified system for managing security alerts. ArcSight introduced various alerts, giving us a better visibility of potential problems."
"The filters and the ability to do what you want are the most valuable features. There is nothing that you cannot do in this solution. It has all the features, which makes it very dynamic."
 

Cons

"Its technical support could be better."
"There are instances where you try to run the reports and then it does not give you the desired outcome."
"I believe that integrating the solution with other products such as Oracle would be beneficial."
"The initial setup was complex because it takes a lot of time to complete the implementation."
"More customizability is required, which is something that they need to improve on."
"The initial setup is very complex and should be simplified."
"The system looks like it is a mix of a bunch of different systems, and nothing looked like it was quite together."
"The initial setup is complex. There are other solutions that are easier to implement."
"When we need to consume old events, we have to wait for a long time. ArcSight should improve the database capability to reply to queries faster. It would also be interesting if they implemented network visibility. For example, they could add a feature like NetWitness with a model just for looking through the packets."
"The user interface of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager could improve. It is not very good. Additionally, they could integrate the web interface better."
"The tool should improve its UI. It also should make data more searchable."
"The security area has room for improvement."
"The roadmap is not clear."
"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."
"Customer service during the transition from HPE to Micro Focus was abysmal where it became disruptive to our service delivery."
"The initial setup is very complex. We had to architect a deployment which allowed us to incorporate an ever growing number of customers into our hosted instance of ArcSight."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is a pricey solution; it's not cheap."
"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 product is expensive."
"It’s cheaper to run virtual machines in a VMware environment."
"It provides tools to assist in selecting the appropriate license and usage scenarios."
"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets do not have a subscription model, it's a one-time purchase. There is only a perpetual license."
"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."
"There is a licensing fee and the customer can choose whether he wishes this to be subscription-based or perpetual."
"​It is best to be an institutional buyer and directly contact the sales team, as they can provide over-the-top discounts for bulk orders.​"
"Aggregation can help a lot in pushing down licensing costs."
"ArcSight is pretty expensive compared with its competitors. I believe that is fine as it provides value."
"The cost of the solution is not very high, although hiring a qualified analyst to work with the product is expensive."
"ArcSight can be a little bit expensive because of the area that we work in and the cost. Licensing is mostly on a yearly basis, not monthly."
"The product licenses are inexpensive."
"We have a license to use this solution. The price of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager is expensive."
"There is a license required for this solution."
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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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Government
6%
Energy/Utilities Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about NetWitness Platform?
The product's initial setup phase was not at all difficult.
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.
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.
Which is the best SIEM tool for a mid-sized financial services firm: Arcsight or Securonix?
In my market, a lot of financial companies had or have an ArcSight installation. Just because in former times it was pretty good. Now a lot of them are looking for a more effective solution due to ...
What do you like most about ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)?
We utilize ArcSight ESM for real-time threat detection in our organization. We have custom rules that we've developed on top of the WAN services, along with scheduled licensing activities.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)?
ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is very cheap compared to other tools. It is worth the investment if you are considering the cost.
 

Also Known As

RSA Security Analytics
Micro Focus ArcSight, HPE ArcSight, ArcSight
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Los Angeles World Airports, Reply
Lake Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Bank AlJazira, Banca Intesa, and Obrela.
Find out what your peers are saying about NetWitness Platform vs. OpenText Enterprise Security Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
857,688 professionals have used our research since 2012.