We use Splunk Enterprise Security to monitor the network. We use the solution wherever there's a problem with the cell phone tower.
Monitors the network and provides easy visibility into problems
Pros and Cons
- "The solution's most valuable feature is the dashboard, which allows us to see everything on the same page and provides easy visibility into problems."
- "Sometimes, the data does not match what we're looking for, or the tool contains incorrect data."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
When we see a problem, Splunk Enterprise Security provides many details you can use to diagnose and determine what needs fixing.
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable feature is the dashboard, which allows us to see everything on the same page and provides easy visibility into problems.
Splunk Enterprise Security has helped us find security events in our on-premises environment.
It has helped improve our organization's ability to ingest and normalize data. Splunk does a good job of identifying and solving problems in real-time.
We have reduce our alert volume by 80%.
The solution provides relevant context to help guide our investigations. Splunk provides pretty detailed information. Based on that information, we can assign it to different teams.
It has helped speed up our security investigations by 40%.
Splunk Enterprise Security has helped reduce our mean time to resolve. In most cases, we're able to solve issues in less than 45 minutes.
What needs improvement?
Sometimes, the data does not match what we're looking for, or the tool contains incorrect data.
Buyer's Guide
Splunk Enterprise Security
September 2026
Learn what your peers think about Splunk Enterprise Security. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2026.
915,287 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for two months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Splunk Enterprise Security is a very stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution provides good scalability.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support team responds quickly every time we contact them.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment with the solution because it has reduced the time it takes to fix our problems.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Security Consultant at Sitael
Is flexible, and provides good actionable intelligence, but is expensive
Pros and Cons
- "Splunk Enterprise Security offers two valuable features: the Common Information Model and arrangement modules."
- "While Splunk offers SOAR as a separate product, integrating it into the next version of Splunk Enterprise Security as a unified solution would be beneficial."
What is our primary use case?
Splunk Enterprise Security is used for security monitoring. It helps manage the governance of the security monitoring from the start of an incident to the resolution.
How has it helped my organization?
Splunk Enterprise Security offers excellent visibility across multiple environments. It's a flexible platform with virtually no limitations.
The actionable intelligence provided by the threat intelligence management feature is good.
Splunk Enterprise Security does a good job analyzing malicious activities and detecting breaches.
Splunk Enterprise Security helps us detect threats much faster than before.
Depending on the client and their configuration, Splunk Enterprise Security can help reduce their alert volume by under 50 percent.
Splunk Enterprise Security helps our clients expedite security investigations. It achieves this by streamlining the process of finding evidence and incident logs within Splunk's data module.
What is most valuable?
Splunk Enterprise Security offers two valuable features: the Common Information Model and arrangement modules. The CIM helps standardize data for efficient searches, while arrangement modules automate incident log processing by enriching them with contextual client information.
What needs improvement?
While Splunk offers SOAR as a separate product, integrating it into the next version of Splunk Enterprise Security as a unified solution would be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Splunk Enterprise Security for 2 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Splunk Enterprise Security is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Splunk Enterprise Security is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support experience is moderate. It can take a long time to resolve issues, and I often need to explain the problem to multiple support representatives. Ideally, I would have a single point of contact assigned to my ticket throughout the entire process.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Splunk Enterprise Security involves moderate complexity. Deployment time can vary significantly, ranging from one hour to one month, depending on the environment's complexity.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Splunk Enterprise Security is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Splunk Enterprise Security 7 out of 10.
I suggest integrating SOAR with Splunk Enterprise Security.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. consultant
Buyer's Guide
Splunk Enterprise Security
September 2026
Learn what your peers think about Splunk Enterprise Security. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2026.
915,287 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Cyber Security Trainer and Programmer at Freelancer
Quickly identifies threats, secures our environment faster, and reduces alert volumes
Pros and Cons
- "The Splunk queries are valuable."
- "I would like the ability to view logs for specific instances and not have to pull the logs for the entire Cloud environment in Splunk."
What is our primary use case?
We use Splunk Enterprise Security to teach our students about security awareness in a more positive way. We can show them how these tools work and the benefits they bring. This will help them understand the importance of using Splunk Enterprise Security, not just for our clients, but for ourselves as well.
How has it helped my organization?
The Splunk dashboards are user-friendly.
I would rate Splunk's threat topology an eight out of ten. The threat topology provides a complete map so we can investigate security incidents quickly.
To effectively utilize Splunk for malicious activity analysis, a comprehensive understanding of the different event types and their functionalities is crucial. This involves examining specific events associated with potential malware, such as changes in system behavior. By gaining clear visibility into these events, we can identify the malware's goals within our environment and stop it.
Splunk helps us detect threats within three minutes.
We realized the benefits of Splunk within eight months. Splunk Enterprise Security helped secure our environment faster than other security solutions.
Splunk has helped reduce our alert volume.
What is most valuable?
The Splunk queries are valuable. There are a lot of query options available in Splunk compared to Sumo Logic.
What needs improvement?
It is difficult to monitor multiple cloud environments using Splunk.
I would like the ability to view logs for specific instances and not have to pull the logs for the entire Cloud environment in Splunk.
As the number of environments monitored by Splunk increases, the resource demands also grow, potentially slowing down the system.
Splunk's threat intelligence system gets a seven out of ten. There are frequent delays in updates, which can take up to three months for Splunk to make available.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Splunk Enterprise Security for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of Splunk Enterprise Security ten out of ten.
The resilience is good. I have not faced any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of Splunk Enterprise Security nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support team is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. Splunk provides wonderful documentation to help with the deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Splunk Enterprise Security is priced lower than competitors.
Splunk Enterprise Security is a good choice for startup companies because of the lower cost.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Splunk Enterprise Security nine out of ten.
Maintenance is required to address the false positive alerts.
I recommend Splunk Enterprise Security to others.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Lead Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Helps improve our incident response, is robust, and user-friendly
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the custom dashboard feature."
- "Splunk's ability to analyze malicious activities scores an 8 out of 10, but there's room for improvement. By analyzing emerging patterns, Splunk could identify and predict potential threats more effectively."
What is our primary use case?
We currently use Splunk Enterprise Security for security monitoring. Previously, we relied on AWS native monitoring tools. In that setup, logs were forwarded to a Splunk dashboard which was also used by our L1 and L2 support teams to evaluate incoming support cases.
How has it helped my organization?
CloudWatch, the native AWS monitoring tool, offers limited metric detail and a complex navigation experience across different data streams. In contrast, Splunk empowers us to create custom dashboards. This allows our team to quickly access the relevant dashboard and perform root cause analysis during an incident, streamlining our response process. This is how Splunk has been instrumental in enhancing our efficiency.
Splunk dashboards significantly improved our incident response by providing a single view of all relevant information. This allowed us to quickly identify and address issues. Additionally, Splunk's customization capabilities enabled us to tailor dashboards to focus on the specific metrics most critical to our operations. As a result, we could easily create dashboards highlighting high-priority metrics. Splunk's real-time data ingestion allowed for near-instantaneous monitoring. Logs generated in AWS were pushed to Splunk almost immediately through a collector. This enabled us to use the dashboard to investigate these logs in real-time. Furthermore, integrated identity and access management facilitated easy sharing of dashboards with other users.
Splunk itself may not have directly improved collaboration on security issues. However, in the event of an incident requiring investigation by a senior security professional, Splunk simplifies the process. L1/L2 teams and support engineers can easily point to the relevant dashboard connected to the issue. Additionally, these dashboards provide valuable features for further investigation, post-mortem analysis, or what they might call building the analysis or post-mortem report.
Splunk has been helpful for customers in resolving a wide range of issues. Whenever a problem arises, IT staff can quickly identify the root cause using Splunk. This allows for faster issue resolution, which in turn helps businesses retain customers and maintain their overall value.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the custom dashboard feature.
Splunk is robust and user-friendly.
What needs improvement?
Splunk's ability to analyze malicious activities scores an 8 out of 10, but there's room for improvement. By analyzing emerging patterns, Splunk could identify and predict potential threats more effectively.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Splunk Enterprise Security for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate Splunk Enterprise Security's stability 9 out of 10.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Splunk Enterprise Security was able to meet our scalability needs.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used native cloud monitoring. Now, we supplement it with Splunk to benefit from its additional features.
How was the initial setup?
While the initial deployment was simplified by the availability of Splunk connectors in the public cloud, additional effort was required. We had to write the infrastructure as code, build the connector itself, pull the logs, and push them to the Splunk endpoint. These steps, including connection and configuration integration, would equate to moderate effort for a single person.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
For those considering a SIEM solution but prioritizing affordability, Splunk is a strong contender. My experience using Splunk for several years has been positive, with minimal glitches. Additionally, its user-friendly GUI allows new users to contribute immediately. Splunk is also feature-rich, offering a wide range of functionalities out-of-the-box. However, remember that quality often comes at a cost. Considering these factors, Splunk emerges as a cost-effective solution.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Splunk Enterprise Security 8 out of 10.
Splunk did not help us reduce our alert volume because it was not integrated directly for alerting. It was integrated for monitoring. The alerting happened from our native cloud.
Splunk is self-sustainable and doesn't require maintenance.
We have never needed to contact Splunk support because their documentation is good enough for us to resolve the issues ourselves.
Splunk Enterprise Security is a stable, feature-rich, and user-friendly product with a well-designed graphical user interface.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Sr Cybersecurity Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Correlation searches are very helpful, and it has amazing stability and fantastic documentation
Pros and Cons
- "The correlation searches are most valuable just because we are able to do things like RBA."
- "The UI could be better. This is applicable to Splunk in general. I know that a lot of people who get their hands on Splunk are hesitant to use it just because they find it overwhelming. There are a lot of options."
What is our primary use case?
We essentially use Splunk for our Security Operations Center (SOC). All of the notables that we create for the SOC are done in Splunk Enterprise Security. It is our SIEM.
How has it helped my organization?
I cannot put a value on it, but it has been pretty good. Previously, we used to use ArcSight. I used to do incident response when I first joined the SOC, and there were times when I used to sit down and run a search right at the start of my shift, which is at 7 AM, and I used to hope that it would be run by the end of the shift at 7 PM. I used to hope that it would run in 12 hours and not time out. When we got Splunk, it was a game changer. It took seconds to a minute depending on how intense the search was.
We monitor multiple cloud environments. It is easy to ingest data in Splunk. Based on what I hear from our customer success manager, he has customers who have issues ingesting logs, but for me, it is one of the easiest things ever. Their documentation is fantastic.
Splunk Enterprise Security has end-to-end visibility into our cloud-native environments. It is very important for us. When we first got cloud, it was like the Wild West. Anyone could spin up their own cloud infrastructure, and we would not know about it. It was public. We did not know what they were doing with it. Now, we have a better grasp and understanding of what is out there, so Splunk makes it easy for us to keep track of our endpoints that are public-facing.
Splunk Enterprise Security has helped reduce our mean time to resolve. As compared to ArcSight, it has saved at least three to four hours per incident. We utilize a SOAR platform. We do not use Splunk SOAR. We use a different SOAR platform, but with the combination of Splunk Enterprise Security and our SOAR platform, we are able to cut down our mean time to resolve. The time saved varies depending on the case. A normal case would probably take less than ten minutes per investigation. A critical P1 case would take more time, but a normal day-to-day case would take less than ten minutes for our analysts to do their work. A normal case is where a user clicks on a phishing link in an email, or your EDR solution says something happened and there is a threat actor in your environment moving laterally trying to access data.
What is most valuable?
The correlation searches are most valuable just because we are able to do things like RBA. One of the things that we started pretty recently is our insider threat program, and it has been pretty good, especially using RBAs as our framework for the insider threat.
What needs improvement?
The UI could be better. This is applicable to Splunk in general. I know that a lot of people who get their hands on Splunk are hesitant to use it just because they find it overwhelming. There are a lot of options. If you open Google.com, you just have a search bar. You just search and hit "go," but when people look at Splunk, they are just overwhelmed. I see that with our analysts. Even after training, if they do not use it every day, which they should be doing, they kind of lose it.
Its learning curve is a bit steep. It is hard for users to use it. For individuals who know how to use it, it is fantastic. It is great. For example, if you are a Splunk Cloud customer, and you had an outage or there is a maintenance window, those individuals who are power users would know immediately when it happens or they would know that there is a maintenance window coming up because they are the experts. They are the SMEs on their teams, and they are the ones creating value using Splunk. Individuals who do not know how to use it are intimidated.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Splunk Enterprise Security since 2017. It has been about six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Its stability is amazing. It is always up. It is fantastic.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is awesome. When we first purchased Splunk Cloud, our ingest rate was about one terabyte or one and a half terabyte. We moved from the ingest-based license to the workload-based license three or four years ago, and now, we ingest about 10 to 12 terabytes. It is handling that just fine as if nothing has changed.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate their support a six out of ten because there are times when someone picks up a support case, but they do not know what they are doing. I have to guide them. It is like, "I have already done the research. This is what needs to be done. There you go. Do it." I expect a little bit more from support in terms of having the knowledge upfront.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had on-premises ArcSight. We had one guy run it for our enterprise. Our enterprise has roughly over 130,000 people. We are a global company, and we had one guy run the entire infrastructure. We could tell when he took days off because it would not work. When we moved to Splunk, we went to Splunk Cloud immediately. We were one of the first Splunk Cloud customers or one of the bigger ones. That is what I was told when we made the switch.
I do not know whether we have seen any cost efficiencies by switching to Splunk Enterprise Security because I was not there during the ArcSight days per se. I was there at the very tail end, but I would assume that we have seen cost efficiencies just because ArcSight was only used by the security team, whereas Splunk is used enterprise-wide, not just by the security team. It should be cheaper for us. The value is there. It is cross-functional.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in its deployment.
What was our ROI?
Its time to value was about a year. It took us about a year because back in 2017, we were making that conversion from an on-premise ArcSight deployment to a Splunk Cloud deployment. We had to make sure that everything that was being sent to ArcSight was sent correctly to Splunk. We had to make sure that everything was in a common information model format and that we could rebuild the content.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Splunk Enterprise Security is cheaper than competitors, but I do not know whether it is just our contract.
Everyone says that Splunk, in general, is expensive. I have talked to many peers within our industry, and I know a lot of individuals who are moving away from Splunk just because of the price. That is one of the reasons why we are looking at other competitors to see if anyone is doing something better than Splunk and has a cheaper rate.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have looked at other competitors. We recently looked at CrowdStrike's LogScale solution. It feels like Splunk to me. I cannot say how we would reproduce what we have done in Splunk on the infrastructure side or backend. Our environment is uniquely different. Technically, I am the only person who runs Splunk for our entire organization, similar to the way the previous person ran ArcSight for the organization. If I were to compare apples to apples, Splunk to me is still number one in that category.
Splunk's community is the biggest benefit. It is so easy to go to Slack and hit someone up. There is a good chance that you will find someone out there who has run into the exact same issue that you are having. Their documentation is fantastic. Because I am the only one who runs it for our organization, it is easy for me just to Google it, find the document, and just follow it. It is as simple as that. It gets a little dicey with XDR and all the other things that are happening in the market, such as using a data lake. Instead of putting our eggs in one basket or using Splunk, we might use something like Snowflake.
What other advice do I have?
I get introduced to new ideas by attending the Splunk Conference. In the year before last, someone did a talk about business email compromises. Within our company, we did something similar, and we did it about nine to ten months before the talk. I listened to the talk to see if we were doing anything different from what they were doing. I found out that we were doing the exact same thing essentially. I thought, "We could have done a talk like this too." These talks are very helpful. For example, they showcased the attack analyzer, and currently, we are looking for an automated online sandbox, just like the attack analyzer. We have been looking at cloud-based sandboxes that are out there. Being able to see it hands-on and how it interacts with Splunk makes it much easier for us to make that decision.
Overall, I would rate Splunk Enterprise Security a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
CSO at Altera
Has enhanced our organization by offering increased visibility and provides quick search results
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features include agility and Splunk Enterprise Security's ability to quickly search for alerted items, as well as the capacity to create custom alerts using the SQL language employed by Splunk."
- "Splunk could enhance its services by providing more comprehensive professional assistance aimed at optimizing our investment."
What is our primary use case?
We use Splunk Enterprise Security as the main SIEM system for our operation center. We use it for monitoring detection, and alert management.
We implemented Splunk Enterprise Security to help detect attacks on our network.
How has it helped my organization?
Splunk Enterprise Security is highly flexible, allowing us to create whatever we desire. This exemplifies its inherent power. The visibility it offers is notably robust. We can craft it to our needs and even utilize various frameworks within Splunk, prepackaged for security purposes. We possess distinct applications hosting diverse dashboards, catering to numerous security products, including those from different vendors.
The effectiveness of Splunk Enterprise Security insider threat detection capabilities, aimed at identifying unfamiliar threats, relies on whether we establish alerts based on the rules we formulate. If we construct rules incorporating user behavior criteria, the system functions optimally. It appears that there is an Extended User and Entity Behavior Analytics add-on available, which requires a separate license in addition to the enterprise security license. This add-on utilizes machine learning and encompasses multiple developed use cases. While it has limitations, it effectively serves the specific use cases it is designed for.
The threat intelligence framework within Splunk is also highly potent. We can ingest, link, and integrate external data feeds. Concerning IOCs, there are numerous pre-configured alerts within the system that rely on a feed of undesirable IPs. If one of these IPs triggers any of the alerts, such as those generated by our firewall's traffic logs, and the IP matches the bad IPs in the threat intelligence feed, the system correlates this information. If the flagged IP is detected within our network or appears in our firewall logs, an automatic alert is generated. We simply need to ingest the external feed. Subsequently, if the system identifies the IP anywhere, we will receive corresponding alerts.
I appreciate the new MITRE ATT&CK feature. I believe it's a valuable addition and reasonably priced. It seems the feature has been largely developed through marketing efforts, utilizing the capabilities of Splunk to display the MITRE ATT&CK map and the associated rules. This is important since MITRE ATT&CK encompasses over a hundred techniques. It presents the information to us based on the MITRE ATT&CK framework to illustrate ongoing activities. However, achieving a comprehensive understanding of each technique within the MITRE ATT&CK framework requires significant effort and adjustments.
Splunk Enterprise Security has enhanced our organization by offering increased visibility. If any adverse incidents occur, we are promptly informed. Even without configuring the custom rules, Splunk provides effective out-of-the-box rules that help prevent attacks. Consequently, it effectively halts these attacks. In fact, we have been able to detect and thwart potential attacks in their initial stages. This exemplifies the benefits it provides us.
Splunk Enterprise Security has helped to speed up our security investigations. We are now able to complete our investigations within three or four days.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features include agility and Splunk Enterprise Security's ability to quickly search for alerted items, as well as the capacity to create custom alerts using the SQL language employed by Splunk. This makes it a highly potent and versatile solution tailored to both user and company needs.
What needs improvement?
Splunk could enhance its services by providing more comprehensive professional assistance aimed at optimizing our investment. This aspect seems lacking as our expenses increase with higher data connectivity, seemingly without much consideration, as this translates to increased revenue for them. The challenge lies in the fact that we don't always require all the amassed data. Oftentimes, clients are uncertain about their actual data needs. Therefore, if Splunk integrated a service dedicated to system optimization and pricing, focusing on essential monitoring data while eliminating less crucial elements, it could potentially lead to cost savings for the customers. This strategic move would demonstrate their commitment to customers beyond just financial gain. It would highlight their genuine intention to provide support, streamline operations, and maximize the potential of this technology for individuals and their respective companies.
Splunk provides automation for large-scale environments where numerous servers are present. Consequently, efficient management of these servers becomes imperative. Currently, our management server operates using a top-down approach. This involves establishing connections from the main management server to every individual leaf and subsequently, to each lower-level server.
However, this architecture lacks inherent security measures. In the current setup, Splunk employs multiple collectors to gather data. Subsequently, this data is relayed upward, filtered, and then once again transmitted to the main management server. Notably, data traffic consistently flows from external sources toward the central management hub. This design enhances security, as even if a hacker were to compromise or gain control of the management server, their influence would be limited. The data originates externally and travels inwards, preventing unauthorized access to the entire system.
In contrast, the proposed approach for managing extensive infrastructures situates the management hub at the core. This central position allows us to establish connections from the hub to the various peripheral components, even if they are located on a secure network. However, this configuration carries significant risks. A security breach at the central hub could potentially grant an attacker elevated permissions. This would enable them to compromise the entire network by gaining access to all Splunk nodes within the company. This architecture is vulnerable and has room for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Splunk Enterprise Security for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate Splunk Enterprise Security's stability a seven out of ten. This is because the system lacks built-in protection against certain issues. It alerts us when there are problems in the system, which we then need to address. However, these issues are not always easily fixable, setting it apart from other systems. For instance, sometimes the system slows down while we're working. This can occur when a new alert is implemented, leading to high resource usage and system instability. We are then required to identify and rectify the specific cause of this problem. This might involve disabling or adjusting the alert to ensure it doesn't negatively impact the system's performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Splunk Enterprise Security's ability to scale is good. I rate the scalability an eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I used QRadar, McAfee, and ArcSight. However, Splunk Enterprise Security is a more modern solution. While ArcSight from HP is powerful, it is an older system with limited flexibility and complex architecture. Many companies implemented SIEM systems before Splunk became available. It seems that most large companies might still be using ArcSight, but other competitors have entered the market since then.
McAfee attempted to develop a similar system, but it lacked scalability and was better suited for small businesses rather than larger enterprises. QRadar, on the other hand, remains robust, but it lacks Splunk's flexibility. One of Splunk's notable advantages is its ability to generate alerts and then allow users to enter searches and queries to investigate network activities and log data. This process, known as threat hunting, enables users to conduct specific searches, such as identifying individuals who accessed a particular system and the internet between four and five o'clock on a Friday. Splunk promptly provides the desired results, typically within a few minutes, making it a strong choice for this purpose. Additionally, Splunk Enterprise Security features a highly effective filtering mechanism.
How was the initial setup?
I participated in the planning and implementation of Splunk Enterprise Security, as well as the creation of all rulesets and alerts. I am also configuring it to align with our technical framework.
Individuals who market Splunk Enterprise Security often claim that it can be deployed within half a day, which is quite amusing. While it is conceivable to perform the installation in that timeframe, the real complexity arises when we must establish connections with numerous systems. This involves accessing each system external to our main setup, configuring it, and directing the system to send its logs to Splunk. On the Splunk side, we encounter the need to create parsing mechanisms that allow proper data reading. This entails installing applications capable of correctly parsing the data, and addressing issues where parsing is inadequate. We then proceed to work with the data. Although Splunk provides some pre-configured rules, we also need to develop our own rules to identify specific events and potential attacks. The process of rule creation demands a substantial investment in writing rule sets. Additionally, integrating a threat intelligence framework becomes essential. We aspire to leverage the micro-framework we have established. Splunk Enterprise Security undeniably possesses considerable capabilities. Nevertheless, it necessitates continuous effort to unlock its full potential and achieve ongoing enhancements.
The solution's complete implementation may require up to one year. Throughout most of the deployment, we had a team of two members, occasionally expanding to three.
What about the implementation team?
For the implementation, we used two integrators and Splunk Professional Services.
What was our ROI?
Considering the fact that Splunk Enterprise Security aids in thwarting attackers from gaining access to our environment, I would correlate this with a return on investment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Splunk Enterprise Security's pricing is high. Larger companies may afford it, but I believe that in the current market situation, where everyone is facing challenges, financial resources are tight. Even stock market tech companies are embracing cost-saving measures. Expenses are now more constrained compared to a few years ago when companies had greater spending capacity. Companies are reluctant to make hefty payments. While Splunk is cheaper than Microsoft Sentinel, QRadar is priced at half the cost of Splunk.
Splunk Enterprise Security's licensing is typically determined by the data throughput we handle. Additionally, they offer an alternative pricing model which involves payment based on CPU usage. This newer model was introduced as a response to Elastic Security. However, Splunk enforces licensing in either scenario.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Splunk Enterprise Security a nine out of ten.
We do not monitor the cloud environments with Splunk. While we have several cloud environments, we avoid using Splunk for this purpose due to its high cost. To utilize Splunk, it would be necessary to place the Splunk engine in the cloud and gather all the logs from various cloud sources, resulting in substantial expenses due to the large volume of logs. As a result, our primary usage of Splunk is on-premise. Instead, we employ different systems to monitor the cloud, generating alerts through various security mechanisms. These alerts are then processed in Splunk, reducing both data traffic and costs.
Splunk Enterprise Security's capabilities to analyze malicious activities and detect breaches are similar to those of other systems. Its effectiveness depends on the rules we develop within it. To truly maximize its value and tailor it to the organization's needs, a significant amount of additional work and utilization of professional services are required.
The reduction of the alert volume presents a challenge due to the X number of personnel in the security alert center. They can effectively handle only Y alerts per day without experiencing fatigue. When the volume surpasses this limit, they tend to merely open and close alerts without thorough investigation. It's as if they've become weary of the process. Therefore, we must determine the optimal number of alerts per day and adjust the rules accordingly. The primary objective is to achieve a statistically reasonable number of alerts per day. This number should be somewhat higher than the current rate, but not three times greater, as exceeding this threshold would render their efforts ineffective. Conversely, if the number of alerts is too high, the personnel's capacity to take action is undermined, resulting in a lack of meaningful outcomes. Striking a balanced middle ground is imperative. This approach enables us to effectively identify and address crucial matters while ensuring our personnel can thoroughly investigate each alert.
Depending on the goals an organization aims to achieve, if their sole focus is on finding the most economical solution and they do not prioritize comprehensiveness, then QRadar would suffice. However, if they seek instant access to answers, I would recommend Splunk Enterprise Security.
Splunk Enterprise Security is deployed across our entire network.
Maintenance is necessary for the system, and updates are needed periodically. Whenever we acquire a new system, we must connect it to Splunk.
Resilience constitutes a crucial component of Splunk Enterprise Security, contributing significantly to the safeguarding of our system.
I recommend Splunk Enterprise Security for organizations that have the budget, time, and skill to properly utilize the solution. I do recommend paying for Splunk Professional Services.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Consultant at Ernst & Young
Excellent data dashboards, visualization effects, and threat detection
Pros and Cons
- "Recently, Splunk upgraded to version 9.0.02, which includes excellent data dashboards and visualization effects."
- "We will receive alerts only for the administrators and deployment servers, but not for all servers."
What is our primary use case?
We provide services to our clients as a security operations center and we utilize Splunk Enterprise Security for enterprise security purposes, encompassing various use cases based on client requirements. These include network attacks, malware-related attacks, inbound traffic-related attacks, recurrent activities, web-related detections, internal detections related to root flows, and service account-related use cases.
We are working to secure the enterprise's networks, devices, and infrastructure, as well as enhance overall security. Our goal is to monitor and protect against all types of external cyber-attacks. We will diligently monitor the systems and address any issues at the earliest stage possible.
Splunk Enterprise Security can be deployed both on-premises and in the cloud. We have primarily deployed the solution on Splunk Cloud.
How has it helped my organization?
We utilize Splunk Enterprise Security for monitoring multiple cloud environments. By employing an API, we can deploy various forwarders within Splunk. These forwarders gather logs from diverse cloud sources and other types of sources. Consequently, we have the ability to install an API from the Splunk store, enabling us to seamlessly connect with cloud sources such as CloudWatch, AWS, and other similar platforms. Splunk Enterprise Security offers comprehensive visibility across numerous environments.
Splunk Enterprise Security offers excellent threat detection capabilities to help our organization identify unknown threats. Additionally, we utilize threat feeds that index various anomalies. We have integrated threat intelligence platforms, which provide indicators such as advisories and engagement in case of compromises and attacks. This integration assists us in preventing attacks within our environment. Initially, we can obtain this information through the threat feeds. Consequently, we can restrict and block operating systems either within Splunk itself or through other security tools.
We also utilize threat intelligence. We have access to threat feeds from various sources, such as VPN. The threat intelligence management feature allows us to collect detailed information in the event of a data breach affecting an organization on other websites or within the dark web itself. We receive such information, along with details of any attacks or incidents occurring in different environments worldwide. We can obtain these threat feeds instantly through the cyber news channel mentioned.
The threat topology and MITRE ATT&CK features are integrated, allowing us to obtain the tactics, techniques, and processes necessary to solve any remediation process. By deploying the TTP MITRE ATT&CK framework in any use case, we can acquire a detailed explanation and determine the appropriate course of action to follow. Checking the MITRE enables us to easily resolve and remediate any issues. This helps us address any errors or crashes effectively, by following the simple steps outlined by MITRE. It allows us to easily identify and rectify issues, without the need to involve a senior person if they are unfamiliar with the specific use case. Additionally, it enables us to quickly verify and provide remediation, specifically tailored to the respective team that needs to take action.
Splunk Enterprise Security's ability to analyze malicious activities and detect breaches is advantageous to me. When compared to other tools I have used previously, it involves a straightforward SQL query, allowing me to quickly modify the reports in less than five minutes.
Splunk Enterprise Security has helped us detect threats faster. We can integrate multiple security tools, and we can retrieve logs at any time using simple queries, utilizing various indexes and forwarders. These components handle log parsing and aggregation, enabling us to easily identify all the security rules detected using Splunk. For instance, if we provide a hostname or IP source, we can obtain a list of the security details detected in that specific instance.
Splunk Enterprise Security has helped our organization reduce the threats and breaches from security attacks across various threat factors.
Our clients quickly realize the benefits of Splunk Enterprise Security, which is why they have continued to use it for so many years.
Splunk Enterprise Security has helped us reduce our alert volume. The total reduction in volume depends on the new use cases or devices that are onboarded. Initially, there may be a high alert volume, but we will analyze and work based on those alerts. Through this process, we cannot definitively state the exact percentage reduction, but it does significantly reduce the number of false positives in the environment, thanks to fine-tuning the use cases.
Splunk Enterprise Security has helped accelerate our security investigations. Splunk also offers the Phantom SOAR, although I am not currently utilizing it. However, I am familiar with the Splunk platform, which can automate the process and promptly detect and block various types of actions. We can also easily analyze the Splunk programming language.
Splunk can save our analysts ten minutes of additional time compared to our previous solution when resolving alerts, provided that we have the necessary query knowledge.
What is most valuable?
Recently, Splunk upgraded to version 9.0.02, which includes excellent data dashboards and visualization effects. This upgrade makes it easier for me to implement all the dashboards. I have created a dashboard that showcases all the VPN monthly data in one place, which is a beneficial feature of the new visualization effects.
What needs improvement?
There are deployment servers and other servers, and sometimes Splunk may encounter issues if there are non-reporting devices. We will receive alerts only for the administrators and deployment servers, but not for all servers.
When upgrading Splunk, we encounter certain issues. For instance, it does not accept older versions of the other tools we use. This is the main problem. For example, if we are using a ticketing tool or any other XDR or EDR solutions, we need to upgrade them when we upgrade Splunk. During this process, we will encounter some difficulties, resulting in delays. Ideally, the upgrade process should first accept the current versions and then prompt for an upgrade, allowing us sufficient time to upgrade the other solutions. This helps ensure business continuity, although it may introduce some delays in upgrading all these processes.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Splunk Enterprise Security for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Splunk Enterprise Security is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are satisfied with the scalability of Splunk Enterprise Security. It can increase its capacity and functionality based on our demands.
How are customer service and support?
Splunk technical support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used ArcSight for Level 1 monitoring in my previous company, and my current company was using Splunk Enterprise Security when I joined.
What was our ROI?
We have witnessed a 60 percent return on investment due to the security that the solution offers to our organization.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Unlike other security tools, Splunk provides a fixed amount of gigabytes per day, and we are required to pay for any additional usage beyond that limit, in addition to our monthly cost. I believe this pricing structure is reasonable for medium and large organizations.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Splunk Enterprise Security nine out of ten.
An organization that wants a CM solution but prefers to go with the cheapest option may work for a small organization, but not for medium and large ones. Splunk Enterprise Security is worth the cost for larger organizations.
Splunk Enterprise Security is deployed in a single location where it collects logs from various assets, infrastructure, and security tools. It serves as a monitoring tool, allowing us to view all the logs in a unified platform, including security tools, network scanners, portability management tools, and other infrastructure components such as Windows servers, Mission servers, and devices. Integration of these components occurs through different platforms like SCM or other platforms, enabling us to monitor everything in a single user interface using Splunk.
Maintenance is necessary for updates and patches. Additionally, we must be prompt with deployments as we need to monitor the health checks of the devices reporting to Splunk. It's crucial to remain active in this process to avoid any potential impact, so we should be mindful of that. Two admins are usually enough for maintenance, and if we encounter any issues, we can contact Splunk client support.
Resilience is important to capture all threat activities and threat speeds, such as IOCs, but we primarily focus on the ESF application. We integrate various threat intelligence platforms, including Splunk, which provides threats from different sources.
I recommend Splunk Enterprise Security as long as it fits within the budget.
Splunk Enterprise Security's single pane of glass enables us to easily monitor everything from one centralized location. Additionally, with its simple query language, we can retrieve all the logs in one place and generate reports quickly. This is exactly what security personnel require: fast reports and comprehensive log monitoring. It allows us to efficiently check all the security tools simultaneously.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Principle Security Engineer at a tech consulting company with 10,001+ employees
Provides end-to-end visibility, improved resilience, and saves time
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Splunk Enterprise Security is the threat intelligence integration because essentially having to go out and correlate all the data on our own becomes convoluted."
- "For us, the area that Splunk Enterprise Security can improve is performance optimization."
What is our primary use case?
We use Splunk Enterprise Security to ensure the security of our endpoints, including corporate workstations, tracking proxy logs, and all of the other benefits that Splunk Enterprise Security brings, including observability and visibility into the environment.
We run Splunk Enterprise Security on a single search head, and it talks to about nine separate clusters. It's a hybrid environment of on-prem and AWS. Ideally, we will migrate that to a search head cluster for Enterprise Security for high availability. Then, in the upgrade process, we generally have about two hours of downtime when we upgrade Enterprise Security. Ideally, moving to the cluster environment will allow us to mitigate that entirely. So, we did some assessments earlier in the year. We've gotta do some finalized testing, but we're hoping that will eliminate almost the entire two hours of downtime for our customers when upgrading. Then, it's two hours from start to finish to get the search head back up, and that does not include backfill time or anything like that. It could be a good full workday. So getting that workday back is going to be very important for us, and that's where I think we're gonna end up evolving for the Enterprise Security environment.
How has it helped my organization?
One benefit we have seen using Splunk Enterprise Security is keeping it all integrated, so no jumping between tools during investigations is the biggest benefit from the analyst's perspective. When we're setting up an investigation, it allows them to use one tool versus having to compartmentalize all the tools together, link it together, document it, and ultimately end up in one spot. Using Enterprise Security as it allows for integrated tracking for the investigations.
It's very important that Splunk Enterprise Security provides end-to-end visibility into our environment because not seeing something is a potential risk to the business. Having that visibility also assures the business, all the way up to the C Suite level, that there is coverage. And if not, we at least have that identified as an uncovered portion.
As long as we can point the data into Splunk Enterprise Security, it is easy to identify security events across cloud, on-premise, and hybrid environments. Getting it into Splunk is typically the challenge because it needs to be in a usable format. So once I've got it properly shaped and tagged, the rest trickles down. Generally, there are a lot of good TAs for getting data into Splunk around the cloud providers. So we don't have to customize it as much. It's just about getting it implemented, going through the checklist, and doing our due diligence to make sure we have the coverage we need. We will see events as long as they're flowing into Splunk. Once it gets into the data models in Enterprise Security, it will show up.
As far as ingesting data, Splunk Enterprise Security specifically hasn't helped. We shape and normalize our data to meet Enterprise Security's needs. So, we did that as a preemptive during our initial assessment. What does it come in as? What do we want it to look like? How can Enterprise Security more optimally use it? Will it hit the data models? Will it show up? Things like that. So, a lot of that is already there before Enterprise Security, but then using the data is where Enterprise Security shines. It makes the data more usable across all data sources. We don't have to know what to look for in each data type. We could go to the data model and view it.
We've increased our alert volume a little bit, not in a bad way, but getting new detections. The risk-based alerting has decreased. So what is happening elsewhere in the environment correlates with that event, and those risks are bubbling up to the top, whereas somebody getting locked out isn't as important as an account takeover. It's hard to portray that image with one event, but a series of events on the timeline makes it a little easier.
Splunk Enterprise Security lets us know who owns what hardware, who should access it, and who shouldn't, more specifically, during an investigation or escalation path. So we know there's a problem. Who do we talk to next to start that process and up the chain? We have a lot of that in there as well, which helps.
Splunk Enterprise Security has generally helped reduce our meantime to resolve. How much is hard to say because it depends on the investigation's scope and scale. It does help the analysts get a clearer picture of what's happening everywhere in the environment.
Enterprise Security will automatically correlate those events for us. When an analyst gets assigned to that investigation, it becomes looking at the picture and putting the puzzle together versus having to go through a threat hunt or find those indicators and then identify the account lockouts and takeovers. It's already in one pane of glass, and then that gets us to the meantime to resolution quicker.
It has decreased our mean time to detection, especially for the high critical alerts. When we leverage that risk-based alerting, we can say, alright, multiple events have now happened to propagate this into a larger event instead of trying to correlate that as an individual or a team of analysts. Ad hoc is going to always be slower than automatic. Doing it in the back end means my analysts get there and get the job done quicker.
Splunk Enterprise Security has helped with our organization's resilience. We generally use observability metrics to determine the state of the hardware and the status of the environment at the time, so that has been a good point. It's definitely made us more resilient to figure out what happened post-incident and on what time scale and then go back and try to either remediate or mitigate that wherever possible. The historical context is just as valuable as their live real-time learning context.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Splunk Enterprise Security is the threat intelligence integration because essentially having to go out and correlate all the data on our own becomes convoluted. We don't have the resources, so having that included in the product makes it easier for us.
What needs improvement?
For us, the area that Splunk Enterprise Security can improve is performance optimization. Enterprise Security is so critical that right now, we're working on getting it to a clustered state to have high availability. The challenge there is hardware procurement and utilization. It's very resource-intensive. A type of performance optimization would generally be a huge improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Splunk Enterprise Security for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Splunk Enterprise Security seems stable to me. I haven't seen many issues, so I'm looking to try and test the latest version.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is a mixed bag. So, when we first started Enterprise Security, they told us not to cluster it. Now they're recommending we cluster it. We haven't gone down that road yet. I am looking forward to it. But if they say it can scale, they have customers that have done it. We gotta go through the growing pains of implementing it, rolling it out, and making sure it's ready to go. I think it's possible, but I have no formal experience yet. I am looking forward to it.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We started in Splunk, used it historically, and saw the product's value. It becomes the other data that would not be allowed for business reasons. How can we leverage that to provide value for the business? I know a lot about searchability this year, such as trace logs and metrics. These are generally good, but some trace stacks can be a lot of ingestion against our license. If we could put that in somewhere, that would not be as cost-effective, ideally. The trade-off is performance. Splunk is very performant. It does its job well. It's just a little pricey for the non-business critical logs.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment is generally good. We must stand up the search heads, get them ready, tie them into the index clusters, and then deploy. Generally, we don't expose anything to the customers until it's production-ready. So deploying it was just getting it out there and built, doing some finalized testing to make sure it's ready to be used by the end customer.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented Splunk Enterprise Security ourselves. Through Splunk, we've engaged some professional services to ensure that our plan of attack is moving in the right direction. Professional services have also provided a lot of guidance.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment with Splunk Enterprise Security. Getting that holistic view. Splunk gives us a better picture of what's going on in our environment. Without it, we would have to go hunt for it. It's like Google searching for logs. It's easy, and everybody uses Google. So it's time-tested in the market. It's just about how much data we can get in, how we're storing it, retention, pulling it back, and what goes with that associated.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
While Splunk offers generous developer licenses and obtaining annual licenses is straightforward, the cost is a major consideration. As open-source competitors become more sophisticated, Splunk will need to address this pricing issue in the future.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have not used other SIEM tools in the past, but we are evaluating other tools. We don't want to migrate away from Splunk. We want to replicate it at a larger scale for non-security-based data, such as application and developer data. Anything they want to throw in and search is fine. But at Splunk's current cost, it is generally very expensive to do non-business-critical logs in that environment.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Splunk Enterprise Security eight out of ten. Things that could be better would be further integrations into other security tools. I know a series of threat intelligence feeds can be integrated, and I'm sure they are slated. It's just a matter of getting the resources to integrate them. Splunk Enterprise Security is a solid product. I run it in my home lab as well. It's generally one of the better Splunk apps.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Splunk engineer at MindPoint Group, LLC
Great risk-based alerting, clear dashboards, and decreases false positives
Pros and Cons
- "The risk-based alerting is excellent."
- "The Splunk platform is not unified. We have all of these different tools and they feel a bit disjointed."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case is for failed login attempts. I typically stick to the security use cases.
How has it helped my organization?
The risk-based alerting helped to decrease false positives. We would just get a bunch of email alerts every time a threshold was reached previously and we'd have to investigate them. We'd have to deal with alert fatigue, the standard scenario where no one believes in the alerts anymore. So risk-based alerting has helped us tune out some of the noisier issues and then tune into the alerts, endpoints, and users that are problematic.
What is most valuable?
The risk-based alerting is excellent. It was most helpful in decreasing the amount of false positives that help bubble up the most problematic users and assets for the analysts, and it's fairly easy to implement.
Splunk Enterprise Security provides end-to-end visibility into our environment. It's a ten out of ten for that capability. Everyone wants to know what's happening across their environment. The more difficult part is defining the visibility, as we can't we can't ingest the entire company into Splunk. So, the harder part is not necessarily gaining visibility. It's rather determining what visibility looks like. Oftentimes, it comes down to determining and prioritizing using the highest value.
Splunk Enterprise Security, when set up properly, helps us find any security events across multi-cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments. It helps with investigations and helps us find that needle in a haystack.
While it doesn't necessarily help with data normalization, some pieces determine whether the data is usable and create that usability outside of enterprise security. It does assist in the process.
Splunk Enterprise Security provides us with relevant context to help guide our investigations. The context helps with risk-based learning, which is one of the things I rely on fairly heavily. It also helps reduce false positives and increases visibility to the most problematic endpoints and end users.
The Splunk Enterprise Security Hub has reduced our mean time to resolve; however, how much is hard to quantify. The dashboard is color-coded, and it's easy to read for the analysts. I don't often have to explain anything to them. Red is bad, green is good. The dashboards are relatively self-explanatory and it helps reveal the most difficult, problematic parts.
The solution does help with resilience - a bit. What it does is help us discover problems and reactively fix them.
What needs improvement?
I've definitely seen improvement. However, assets and identity are probably some of the most important integrations for risk-based learning. So if there was a way to make it easier - and, again, I know there's been significant improvement - that is one of the more annoying friction points when setting up risk based alerting.
The Splunk platform is not unified. We have all of these different tools and they feel a bit disjointed.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for maybe six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a complex tool. Everything needs to be done proactively. That said, it's relatively stable. There's a lot of stability built in, and I don't have any problems with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I've worked in on-premises environments as large as 300 terabytes, and they return data very quickly. When it's done right, it can scale tremendously.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service and technical support can be hit or miss. Sometimes you get someone that is really good and knows their stuff and is really helpful. Sometimes you are trying to be patient and help them through. That's hard when you have someone breathing down your neck to get things fixed. They're nice. However, sometimes, when I have pressure on my end, I don't need someone who is nice - I need someone who knows how to fix my issue
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
I'm usually the one performing the setup work. I've been working with Splunk for a long time; it's relatively easy for me.
Enterprise Security is a beast. The best practice is to put it on its own search head. When setting it up, I'm asking for not only an additional light license for Enterprise Security. I have to ask for another server on top of it, too. It is quite a difficult task to ask when Splunk is already as expensive as it is. Then, there is technically setting it up and configuring it. It does take time to configure and normalize all the very foundational parts, such as the assets on identities, which is absolutely integral to getting security working. While I enjoyed the process, it took a lot of work.
What about the implementation team?
I am a consultant and do assist with the setup.
What was our ROI?
My work typically has to do with improving the quality of alerts or content and normalizing data. I don't usually get to the point where I'd be able to measure ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not the person that deals with pricing. I have heard there is sticker shock.
What other advice do I have?
I'd give the solution an eight out of ten. There are a lot of great features. They're constantly increasing the value of Enterprise Security. However, they're leaving behind many smaller clients that don't have the knowledge or expertise and don't have professional services, which is another large expense. A lot of smaller clients just don't have the ability to set it up properly, and when that happens, they're only leveraging 30% to 40% of its capabilities. They're upset and wonder why this very expensive tool is not working for them. That said, when it works, it works great.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Consultant
Engineer in Training at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees
It's really good at consolidating a lot of data from different sources and generating summaries
Pros and Cons
- "It has been really good at consolidating a lot of data from different sources. It's really good at generating summaries."
- "It would be nice if Splunk provided a little more documentation and instructions on how to upload. The steps are short, but sometimes it's not so intuitive."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is mostly for monitoring security events. We have different endpoints, like router switches. It collects a lot of data and we create reports.
We also use Enterprise Security to send alerts out. I'm still relatively new. I mostly work for the SPL side of things.
How has it helped my organization?
It has been really good at consolidating a lot of data from different sources. It's really good at generating summaries.
It's exciting to hear that SPL2 is rolling out. We look forward to using that more, especially for the data ingestion part of things.
What is most valuable?
In the context of apps, we use a lot of search and reporting. We create many searches and reports, that quickly summarize a lot of information. That's the part that I mostly look into. That has been very valuable. I also like the dashboards and visualization features.
Its ability to provide end-to-end visibility into our environment is important. It helps a lot, especially when other users or stakeholders want that information. So being a little more transparent, but being mindful of the compliance and rules associated with that. It makes it really easy to communicate with people. They want statistics fast. The ability to quickly pull it out without a hassle is very valuable.
We use Splunk to try to reduce the number of random alerts sent out. We're trying to consolidate a lot of functions. That has been very valuable and helpful for us.
The logging system has been a great help to us. Sometimes when we try to integrate some functions, we're not sure what errors happened. We look into the logging system, and it provides so much information.
These optimization examples have reduced the meantime to resolve. It has been reducing cutting time.
It definitely helps our business resiliency a lot. We have a specialized cybersecurity office and on-prem technology and they really like to use Splunk. It has been addressing a lot of concerns and it is able to output the data that people are looking for. It's able to predict and identify a lot of functions.
Splunk Enterprise Security has been a great help to us in consolidating our tools. It's definitely been pulling a lot of data, especially from the network side of things. We look at it for baseline security tests. Splunk has a lot of apps and add-ons that we have been using Enterprise Security for.
What needs improvement?
I currently use Splunkbase and some of the add-ons. Integrating into our apps has been very straightforward. It would be nice if Splunk provided a little more documentation and instructions on how to upload. The steps are short, but sometimes it's not so intuitive. It would be nice if there were more user-friendly help guides.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Splunk Enterprise Security for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It has been very reliable. We haven't encountered downtime that I know of.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Splunk works with companies that are a lot bigger than us. We're medium-sized. I have faith that we can scale.
How are customer service and support?
For technical support, I look at the online community, which has been a great help. I haven't used Splunk support directly.
The forum is easy to use. I would rate it a nine out of ten. Sometimes the response time is slow.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Splunk Enterprise positively. I hear from coworkers that there could be tweaks. I would give it an eight out of ten.
In the SPL default, everything's crunched together. The formatting could be neater. When I write it in the search head, it has a lot of information in one small area. It could have a friendlier user interface.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Splunk Enterprise Security Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: September 2026
Product Categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Log Management IT Operations AnalyticsPopular Comparisons
IBM Security QRadar
Splunk AppDynamics
Microsoft Sentinel
Elastic Security
IBM Turbonomic
Palantir Foundry
WhatsUp Gold
LogRhythm SIEM
Rapid7 InsightIDR
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Splunk Enterprise Security Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- Which would you recommend to your boss, IBM QRadar or Splunk?
- What are some of the best features and use-cases of Splunk?
- What SOC product do you recommend?
- Splunk as an Enterprise Class monitoring solution -- thoughts?
- What is the biggest difference between Dynatrace and Splunk?
- IBM QRadar is rated above competitors (McAfee, Splunk, LogRhythm) in Gartner's 2020 Magic Quandrant. Agree/Disagree?
- What are the advantages of ELK over Splunk?
- How does Splunk compare with Azure Monitor?
- New risk scoring framework in the Splunk App for Enterprise Security -- thoughts?
- Splunk vs. Elastic Stack


















