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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
36
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (38th), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (39th)
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (14th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (12th)
 

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 1.0%, up 0.3% compared to last year.
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, on the other hand, focuses on Firewalls, holds 2.2% mindshare, up 0.8% since last year.
Log Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NetWitness Platform1.0%
Splunk Enterprise Security6.8%
Wazuh5.4%
Other86.8%
Log Management
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series2.2%
Fortinet FortiGate16.0%
OPNsense8.9%
Other72.9%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2256927 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Information Security, Cyber Defense and IT Risk Management at HCT. at a transportation company with 201-500 employees
A solid SIEM solution that should improve technical support and online resources to be easier to use
A big problem with the product is that we don't have much professional experience in Israel installing, implementing, and integrating this product. There is not enough of a knowledge base. There is no support for this product in this country, so problems have to be resolved through global technical teams. We like to work locally because of the language, and when the product is only supported outside the country, it's a little difficult to implement and use this product. Moreover, AI is something that must be added immediately. Artificial intelligence is a part of the competitors' products, and it's not been implemented for us.
MuhammadNadeem - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Has supported urgent deployments and enabled inline threat protection but pricing and features could be more flexible
I am not using Palo Alto Networks VM-Series mostly, but based on my experience, there are some deficiencies in Palo Alto Networks VM-Series. Having those features missing, we are not proposing Palo Alto Networks VM-Series to all customers. However, for urgency and for some solutions that customers need for some of their other sites and subdivisions, we are providing the same.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"Their customer service is excellent, one of the best."
"The most valuable features are the threat prediction and network forensics."
"The most valuable feature of RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets are the alerts and correlations tools."
"The most valuable features are its ingestion of logs and raising of alerts based on those logs."
"The most valuable feature is the correlation, as it can report in real-time and monitor the management."
"The product's initial setup phase was not at all difficult."
"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 I like about the VM-Series is that you can launch them in a very short time."
"In the newer version, there are 3850s, all of them are scalable. They fit better into the medium or small businesses."
"Palo Alto is easy to use. The UI is very easy to understand and does not require any certification or highly skilled technician to handle the firewall. It is very user-friendly and straightforward out of the box."
"In AWS, Palo Alto provides us a better view than flow logs for network traffic."
"The most valuable features are the DNS security and threat prevention capabilities."
"The most valuable feature is that you can control your traffic flowing out and coming out, allowing you to apply malware and threat protection, as well as vulnerability checks."
"A solid operating system with all the necessary data center security features."
"App-ID and User-ID have repeatedly shown value in securing business critical systems."
 

Cons

"I believe they could improve their support, there are often delays."
"Advance monitoring and alerting feature is not stable (Event Stream Analysis)."
"The system architecture is complex and sometimes it’s hard to troubleshoot potential problems."
"The system architecture is complex and sometimes it’s hard to troubleshoot potential problems."
"The documentation is not as structured as I would like, personally, and I think that it can be improved and made much more user-friendly."
"The documentation is not as structured as I would like, personally, and I think that it can be improved and made much more user-friendly."
"I cannot say that the solution was stable because it tended to crash."
"The system looks like it is a mix of a bunch of different systems, and nothing looked like it was quite together."
"The solution must improve Zero Trust integration and use cases."
"There are various reports that come with the box or with the VMware, but you can only run them daily."
"The flexible throughput in Palo Alto Networks VM-Series can be improved"
"We have run into some issues with scaling and limitations associated with some of the configurations."
"They made only a halfhearted attempt to put in DLP (Data Loss Prevention)."
"Palo Alto definitely needs to be more competitive compared to other products. The problem that I have faced is that the price of licensing is very high and not very competitive."
"The performance of VM instances has some limitations in terms of threshold and throughput compared to appliances."
"I find it difficult to reach technical support at Palo Alto Networks. Most customers go for partner-enabled support, which involves multiple layers, leading to delays."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The new pricing and licensing mechanisms are fair. I would advise always to get the full solution (i.e., not only Logs)."
"Compared to the competition, the is price is not that high."
"We have a perpetual license, so the total cost of ownership is not very expensive. It's a good investment."
"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."
"In comparison to other SIEM solutions such as Splunk, NetWitness is less costly."
"Our license is for one year."
"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."
"AWS is available as a AMI that you can purchase from the AWS Marketplace. Therefore, you need to purchase the licensing, since it is per AMI. Then, you deploy it on a regular EC2. Then, for on-premise, you can use both Palo Alto's software and hardware."
"I rate Palo Alto Networks VM-Series pricing an eight out of ten."
"Palo Alto is more expensive than other products."
"The product's most valuable feature is pricing."
"Initially, pricing was high. Later on, we were able to negotiate the pricing and get something that fits our budget."
"For licensing, It depends how they want to use the firewall. The firewall can be used only for IPS purposes. If you only want that firewall IPSs, you will only need a license that is called threat prevention. That license, threat prevention, includes vulnerabilities, antivirus signatures and one additional measure (that I can't remember), but it includes three measures and security updates."
"Palo Alto can be as much as two times the price of competing products that have twice the capabilities."
"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."
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Log Management solutions are best for your needs.
894,830 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

VS
Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
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
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Construction Company
8%
Performing Arts
7%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise20
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise24
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What is your primary use case for NetWitness Platform?
I use NetWitness Platform ( /products/netwitness-platform-reviews ) in the financial industry as a good product with excellent capabilities and integration with various devices.
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.
894,830 professionals have used our research since 2012.