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NetWitness Platform vs SmartEvent Event Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

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)
31st
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (35th)
SmartEvent Event Management
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
53rd
Average Rating
5.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of NetWitness Platform is 0.6%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SmartEvent Event Management is 0.1%, up from 0.0% 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.
Adhi Wahyu - PeerSpot reviewer
Transparent and offers real-time analysis but needs more documentation
The solution provides us with transparency to give us information about what happens in the network. With this information, the administrator can see a lot of things. They can see hacking attempts from the internet that target our servers, and, with that information, they can check the security settings in the server to see if it is strong enough or not, and make sure the servers is safe. They also can see attacks directed to the endpoint. We know which endpoint got infected so we can take action to clean it. The software also has good reporting capabilities. We can create custom reports according to our needs.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It gives the ability to investigate into network traffic in the Net and the organization what we couldn't do before."
"The software is scalable to whatever is required, and you can also put a lot of resources in the cloud."
"What we are mainly using are the RSA concentrator, RSA Decoder, Archiver, Broker, and Log Decoder."
"The most valuable features are the packet inspection and the automated incident response."
"The product has a user-friendly interface and a valuable feature for threat intelligence integration."
"The solution is really scalable for the high-end power, enterprise customer."
"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."
"It gives the capability for the incident response team to correlate logs to identify any kind of problem like malware and incidents in a general sense, both for logs and packets."
"The capability of real-time analysis of security events is useful."
"SmartEvent Event Management is a solid platform overall, and I would definitely recommend it."
 

Cons

"The multi-tenant capabilities are lagging compared to IBM QRadar."
"I believe that integrating the solution with other products such as Oracle would be beneficial."
"An area for improvement would be better automation and more inbuilt use cases."
"I'd like to see improvement in its ease of use. It's basically unusable. It's overly complex."
"The user interface is a little bit difficult for new users and it needs to be improved."
"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 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."
"The initial setup is complex. There are other solutions that are easier to implement."
"They should provide easy to access guides or manuals, maybe videos, about how to manage or use the software effectively and efficiently, to maximize its features."
"The only downside I've encountered with SmartEvent Event Management is occasional lag during video calls, especially with a lot of participants."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our license is for one year."
"The licenses are good but the cost is very expensive."
"In comparison to other SIEM solutions such as Splunk, NetWitness is less costly."
"The product is expensive."
"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."
"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets do not have a subscription model, it's a one-time purchase. There is only a perpetual license."
"The tool is very expensive, so I rate the pricing a ten out of ten. The solution has an annual subscription."
"It provides tools to assist in selecting the appropriate license and usage scenarios."
Information not available
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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
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SmartEvent Event Management?
The product has annual licensing; make sure you really use it well to help you secure the network so you don't waste the license cost.
What needs improvement with SmartEvent Event Management?
The only downside I've encountered with SmartEvent Event Management ( /categories/event-monitoring ) is occasional lag during video calls, especially with a lot of participants. Although it is not ...
What is your primary use case for SmartEvent Event Management?
Our primary use case involves utilizing SmartEvent Event Management ( /products/smartevent-event-management-reviews ) for video conferencing, file sharing, and integration with other productivity t...
 

Also Known As

RSA Security Analytics
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Los Angeles World Airports, Reply
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about NetWitness Platform vs. SmartEvent Event Management and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.