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NetWitness Platform vs Palo Alto Networks VM-Series 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

NetWitness Platform
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (37th), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (29th)
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (13th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

NetWitness Platform and Palo Alto Networks VM-Series aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. NetWitness Platform is designed for Log Management and holds a mindshare of 0.3%, down 0.4% compared to last year.
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, on the other hand, focuses on Firewalls, holds 0.9% mindshare, up 0.7% since last year.
Log Management
Firewalls
 

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.
RonnieYazdani - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly CLI and efficient dashboard streamline operations with robust security features
I find Palo Alto Networks VM-Series easy to deploy, and none of my customers have had significant complaints. My customers have high certifications provided by Palo Alto Networks. The friendly dashboard and the ability to easily command and use the CLI make Palo Alto Networks VM-Series a better product. It offers robust solutions, making it valuable to my customers.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"Their technical support responds quickly and are knowledgable."
"Possibility to investigate incidents based on logs and raw packets, such as extracting files sent over the network"
"The product's initial setup phase was not at all difficult."
"NetWitness Platform is valuable for creating rules that the solution must detect."
"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."
"What we are mainly using are the RSA concentrator, RSA Decoder, Archiver, Broker, and Log Decoder."
"It's quite economical compared to other solutions in the market."
"The interface with Panorama makes it very easy to use."
"A solid operating system with all the necessary data center security features."
"The technical support for the solution is very good."
"It has the ability to create Palo Alto VM-series using software."
"The most valuable features of the solution are its stability, ease of implementation, ease of operation, and security."
"With the improved visibility we now have, the traffic is being properly monitored, which means that we are better able to manage it. These are improvements that we saw very quickly."
"The VM-Series reports how much bandwidth a particular IP is using. You don't need to regularly log into a website, like a Cisco command, to see what kind of ACL it's getting. There isn't an ACL use portal event. You can go there and see how much my ACL has been getting me."
"Overall, I give Palo Alto Networks VM-Series a rating of nine out of ten."
 

Cons

"I believe that integrating the solution with other products such as Oracle would be beneficial."
"There is no support for this product in this country, so problems have to be resolved through global technical teams."
"The threat detection capability and centralizing and upgrading capability need to be improved. The threat alert capability needs to be improved as well because there is some lag time at present. They need to work on their database search too."
"Sometimes, it gives me static when integrating Windows-based systems. It should produce a precise log of sorts as to where the problem is. For example, a few days ago because of the McAfee application firewall, I couldn't get access to the particular Windows machine. So, my team and I had to figure out by ourselves that there was a virus responsible for the obstacle. This solution should trigger a meaningful log or message indicating the reason the user or implementer can't get into the machine."
"It should have a monitoring feature. It would help us analyze the current state of attacks faster from a single platform."
"The implementation needs assistance."
"The product's licensing models are complex to understand. This particular area needs improvement."
"I'd like to see improvement in its ease of use. It's basically unusable. It's overly complex."
"Just sometimes it can be a bit sluggish navigating through pages. That is just purely because of Java.​"
"The tool is very costly."
"There are some delays that I have observed when my company communicates with Palo Alto's support engineers."
"There are various reports that come with the box or with the VMware, but you can only run them daily."
"I would like to have automatic daily reporting, such as how many users have connected via SSL VPN."
"In the next release, I would like to see better integration between the endpoints and the firewalls."
"If additional web application firewall capabilities could be integrated into the existing firewall, it would negate the need for additional products."
"Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is a complex product to work with."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive."
"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets do not have a subscription model, it's a one-time purchase. There is only a perpetual license."
"It provides tools to assist in selecting the appropriate license and usage scenarios."
"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."
"The licenses are good but the cost is very expensive."
"The product price was reasonable for my region and the market."
"It’s cheaper to run virtual machines in a VMware environment."
"Compared to the competition, the is price is not that high."
"When you have a client compare box against box, a lot of times Palo Alto is a bit more expensive, but its network firewalls have a very rich ratio."
"Do not buy larges box if you do not need them. Rightsizing is a great task to do before​hand."
"The VM series is licensed annually."
"The pricing and licensing are reasonable."
"Palo Alto is more expensive than other products."
"Based on the customer budget, they can choose from 12-month, 36-month, or 60-month licensing models."
"The pricing for Palo Alto is quite high compared to FortiGate, which is more affordable. I don't have the exact figures as my manager handles that, but from my research, Palo Alto's licensing costs are significantly higher."
"I know Palo Alto is not cheap. They have been telling me, the members of the finance team, it is not a cheap solution. It is a solution whose target is that no matter how big your organization is, small, medium, or large, it is about the maturity of your security team or infrastructure team whom you want to work with."
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Log Management solutions are best for your needs.
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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
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Real Estate/Law Firm
5%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
 

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.
Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls
In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it kind of depends what you value most. PA is good at app control, web filtering a...
How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?
Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the overall cost is reasonable. Azure Firewall offers a solid threat awareness, can...
 

Also Known As

RSA Security Analytics
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Los Angeles World Airports, Reply
Warren Rogers Associates
Find out what your peers are saying about NetWitness Platform vs. Palo Alto Networks VM-Series and other solutions. Updated: September 2022.
861,481 professionals have used our research since 2012.