Sematext Synthetics vs Splunk Enterprise Security comparison

Sematext Synthetics provides the ability to actively monitor APIs, Web URLs, websites, and user journeys/click flows from multiple locations around the globe. Synthetic monitoring helps you ensure the availability and performance of your APIs and websites. Synthetics will help you identify downtime and performance issues by simulating user requests and interactions with your web page.

No agent installation is required and there is no need to change your application code.

Sematext Synthetic Benefits

• Fix performance issues before they affect your end users
  Synthetic monitoring allows you to simulate user interactions at different locations worldwide. Synthetic performance monitoring monitors all your APIs, web applications, and mobile apps, no matter how many users they are. With Sematext, you can customize Dashboards and Alerts to monitor critical infrastructure aspects and trigger them when they malfunction. This will help you spot problems before they arise.
  

• Benchmark your website
  Synthetic monitoring solutions let you look at your APIs from different places during the day. Then you can use this data as a baseline for benchmarking since it helps you figure out what needs to be improved, and lets you compare your service to the competition.
  
• Test your scaling capabilities
  A website and application are built to respond quickly to users, but your server needs to be ready when traffic spikes unexpectedly. You can run artificial tests to determine how your server will behave under load with synthetic performance monitoring. Once you have this data, you can decide what steps to take to scale gracefully.
  
  
• Test new product features before launching
  If you're launching new features, synthetic monitoring lets you run a full test suite before releasing them during peak hours, which is a great tool to have. You'll be able to see how the application reacts under load and whether any of the recent changes will impact a 3rd party API you might use.
  
  
• Monitor third-party APIs and critical business processes
  If you don't use any third-party tools in your business, you run into a number of problems related to their availability. You need to keep an eye on them and get an alert the second things start to slow down. Monitoring API metrics is not enough to ensure your users get the best experience possible. Make sure your application works as expected, including logging in, searching, and checkout.
  
  
• Ensure SLA compliance
  Whatever side of the SLA you are on – the key is to make sure everyone in the contract adheres to the contract. To understand the performance limitations of your application and set realistic expectations, you should use synthetic monitoring tools if you're a service provider. Customers want to know that the vendor can fulfill his promises.
  
  
• Reduce MTTR
  With synthetic monitoring software like Sematext Synthetics, you can lower your MTTR by sending out alerts before the issue becomes a problem. In addition to being notified sooner, you'll also learn what's causing the problem and how to fix it.

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Just some of the things you can do with Sematext Synthetics

• Monitor & track the availability & performance of APIs
• Monitor SSL certificate expiration time
• Monitor websites and track various web performance metrics like page load time, paint metrics, etc.
• Monitor website uptime
• Monitor individual resource performance in a website by domain, type, and response code
• Create public status page showing the availability of your selected web services and share it with your customers
• Identify slow resources
• Monitor third-party resources performance
• Investigate slow pages & identify bottlenecks using a waterfall chart
• Create user journeys with custom assertions based on the content of the webpage
• Collect and track custom metrics from your sites
• Benchmark against competitors
• Create custom dashboards and alerts based on gathered performance metrics
• Debug downtime with end-to-end visibility of application performance
• Get alerted when things fail via multiple alert channels like email, Slack, Pagerduty, webhooks, etc.
• Monitor websites behind firewalls and on private networks with Private Locations
• Check out the full product update.

At Sematext, we’ve also had the need to monitor application availability. We use Synthetics actively to monitor our own applications and it has helped us uncover issues with our APIs on multiple occasions.

Where to go from here?

Sign up for a free trial and try it for yourself. Pricing starts at $2 per month for HTTP monitors and $7 per month for browser monitors. We have pay-as-you-go pricing if your usage changes or fixed plans if you can estimate your usage. 

Splunk Enterprise Security delivers powerful log management, rapid searches, and intuitive dashboards, enhancing real-time analytics and security measures. Its advanced machine learning and wide system compatibility streamline threat detection and incident response across diverse IT environments.

Splunk Enterprise Security stands out in security operations with robust features like comprehensive threat intelligence and seamless data integration. Its real-time analytics and customizable queries enable proactive threat analysis and efficient incident response. Integration with multiple third-party feeds allows detailed threat correlation and streamlined data visualization. Users find the intuitive UI and broad compatibility support efficient threat detection while reducing false positives. Despite its strengths, areas such as visualization capabilities and integration processes with cloud environments need enhancement. Users face a high learning curve, and improvements in automation, AI, documentation, and training are desired to maximize its potential.

• Log Management: Efficiently manages and organizes a vast amount of logs for better data handling.
• Rapid Data Search: Quickly retrieves relevant data for fast decision-making.
• Flexible Dashboards: Customizable dashboards provide clear data visualization.
• Comprehensive Threat Intelligence: Offers detailed insights to preemptively defend against threats.
• Real-Time Analytics: Analyzes data in real-time to enhance response times.
• Integration with Third-Party Feeds: Streamlines information flow from multiple sources.

• Efficient Incident Response: Enhances the ability to respond promptly to threats.
• False Positive Reduction: Minimizes incorrect threat alarms, making monitoring more efficient.
• Threat Detection Speed: Accelerates the identification and evaluation of security threats.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Potential savings through better licensing options and operational efficiency.
• User Adaptability: Enhancements in documentation and training resources aid in overcoming the learning curve.

In specific industries like finance and healthcare, Splunk Enterprise Security is instrumental for log aggregation, SIEM functionalities, and compliance monitoring. Companies leverage its capabilities for proactive threat analysis and response, ensuring comprehensive security monitoring and integration with various tools for heightened operational intelligence.