We wanted something to understand what's happening on the network of the company, and we wanted something to protect us against attacks and cyber activities. We wanted visibility into our network and all the threats that we're facing.
CIO at General Transmissions
Good filtering capabilities, simple to implement, and has helped to stop some attacks
Pros and Cons
- "The automatic filtering that they provide is valuable. The logic inside that makes some detections instead of us is very useful. We are confident that if we are just looking into it and there is nothing, nothing could happen."
- "We are using SMB 3.0, which is an encrypted protocol. When we get some alerts or something, we cannot go deep into the protocol to see what's wrong because it's encrypted. We need to decrypt the protocol in another way, which is quite difficult. We might go back to SMB 2.0 just for this reason, but that's not a good solution."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It has helped improve our mean time to identify, but I don't have the metrics on time savings because we didn't have anything for that previously.
It hasn't had any effect on the productivity of our organization’s SOC, but it has had a great effect on security.
In terms of the effect of Vectra AI Attack Signal Intelligence for empowering security analysts within our organization to take intelligent action, we are looking at the right risks and nothing more. We save some time for sure, and we empower our security with it. Previously, we couldn't see anything, but now, we are seeing some of the things, and we have already stopped some attacks with it.
What is most valuable?
The automatic filtering that they provide is valuable. The logic inside that makes some detections instead of us is very useful. We are confident that if we are just looking into it and there is nothing, nothing could happen. That's great.
It's simple to implement. It's simple to analyze. The dashboard is very smart and clean. It's very easy to check something. There are a lot of tools to analyze the detections. It's great.
What needs improvement?
We got two problems that couldn't be solved because of the philosophy of the product. We are using SMB 3.0, which is an encrypted protocol. When we get some alerts or something, we cannot go deep into the protocol to see what's wrong because it's encrypted. We need to decrypt the protocol in another way, which is quite difficult. We might go back to SMB 2.0 just for this reason, but that's not a good solution.
We did some penetration tests and tried to get some hashes or encrypted passwords from Active Directory. Those hashes didn't provide alerts into Vectra. Vectra doesn't survey them, which is quite problematic because it's a very common attack. They said that it's not the only aspect that would come with that kind of attack, but when somebody tries to get a lot of hashes, we would like that there is an alert because that seems like the start of an attack.
For the hashes issue, it could be very easy for them to make the improvement. They can just change a rule, and that's it, but for encrypted protocols, it could be trickier.
Buyer's Guide
Vectra AI
March 2026
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For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for two to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There is no problem with stability. Sometimes, alerts can come later. For example, for Office 365, we got the alert one day late, but the problem was coming from the Microsoft side.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We just have one, and that's enough for our needs. Its scalability is good for us because we just have one with multiple probes at the same cost, so that's fine for us.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is very good. They have knowledgeable people with great knowledge of cyber security and cyber risks. I'd rate them a 10 out of 10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We weren't using any solution before. We went for Vectra AI because we wanted something to have visibility. We were completely blind to what could happen on the network. With Vectra AI, we aren't so blind.
What was our ROI?
We stopped some attacks. An attack could cost a lot more than the cost of Vectra. For example, we got an attack before that cost us $100,000. So, Vectra's cost is not so high. The cost of an attack could be worse. If we got encrypted data, it could be worse because we would have to stop the factory, which would cost a lot.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its cost is too much. It's an investment that we can afford. It's a lot, but it's worth it.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Darktrace and one more solution. We also evaluated some SOC and SIEM systems, but we found Vectra AI to be better in comparison to other solutions. It was simple to implement and analyze.
What other advice do I have?
I'd rate Vectra AI a 10 out of 10.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Sr. Specialist - Enterprise Security at a mining and metals company with 5,001-10,000 employees
We have become more proactive, and significant noise reduction means one analyst can handle things
Pros and Cons
- "The most useful feature is the anomaly detection because it's not signature-based. It picks up the initial part of any attack, like the recon and those aspects of the kill chain, very well."
- "With Vectra, we become more proactive than reactive, more often than not we pick things up before the actual damage can start, and it picks up things that none of our other tools pick up because it's designed to detect things before harm is done, at the initial stages."
- "The reporting from Cognito Detect is very limited and doesn't give you too many options. If I want to prepare a customized report on a particular host, even though I see the data, I have to manually prepare the report. The reporting features that are built into the tool are not very helpful."
- "The reporting from Cognito Detect is very limited and doesn't give you too many options."
What is our primary use case?
The key challenge we face is visibility, things that happen in isolated and pocketed environments where visibility is limited. Silos and isolated networks exist across the environment, and it's difficult to control it completely. Blind spots are the main challenges.
How has it helped my organization?
With this solution, the focus has changed from reactive to more proactive, because all the other SOAR and EDR solutions, firewalls, and IPSs are generally reactive. With those tools, when most things are triggered, it means you are already slightly late. With Vectra, we become more proactive than reactive. More often than not, we pick things up before the actual damage can start. It picks up things that none of our other tools pick up because it's designed to detect things before harm is done, at the initial stages. This is one of the main benefits and the biggest business justification and use case for us.
It reduces the time it takes to respond to attacks because we find out about a threat in the beginning so we can stop it before it can cause harm, rather than reacting when the damage is done and significantly more effort is needed.
And since it is not preventive, it does not trigger any adverse reactions. For example, sometimes we have seen, with certain kinds of malware or ransomware, that they tend to get more aggressive if they realize that something is stopping them, but that doesn't happen with detection tools like Vectra.
For capturing network metadata at scale and enriching it with security information, that's where the second product comes in, Cognito Recall. It takes enriched network metadata and keeps that information available for you to access, whether it triggers a detection or not. For example, if you want to check who is using SSL version 3, TLS version 1.0, SNMP version 1, SNMP version 2, or who is using clear text passwords, even though they don't trigger a detection in Cognito Detect, that metadata is available. Of course, the duration of that data is dependent on how much storage we can buy from Vectra. That's a financial constraint and we have opted for one month. We might look at expanding that further.
That metadata helps in closing vulnerabilities. For instance, if there is a TLS version or an encryption level that we want to deprecate, it is very useful for us, because we can also generate reports. We know which systems are using SNMP version 1 or SNMP version 2. Even though it has more features and you can create custom detections through Recall, we've not gone that far. For us, this has been our most common use case: protocols and communications that we would like to stop or close. This provides useful data.
The solution also provides visibility into behaviors across the full lifecycle of an attack, beyond just the internet gateway. It provides the whole MITRE Framework and the key chain—recon, command and control. It has detections under each of those categories, and it picks them up within the network. In fact, most of the detections are internal. Internet-based detections comprise 25 to 30 percent, and those are based on encrypted traffic. And most of the time when we validate, we see that it's genuine because it's a call from a support vendor where large files need to be uploaded. That gives us an opportunity to validate with that end-user as well: What was happening, what did you transfer?
We used to have SIEM and antivirus solutions and we would get a lot of alerts. Those alerts resulted in a lot of effort to refine them and yet we still needed a lot of effort to analyze the information. Vectra does all of that automatically for us, and what it produces, in the end, is something that can easily be done by one person. In fact, you don't even need one.
What is most valuable?
The most useful feature is the anomaly detection because it's not signature-based. It picks up the initial part of any attack, like the recon and those aspects of the kill chain, very well. We've had numerous red team and penetration exercises and, at the initial stage, when the recon is happening and credentials are used and lateral movement is attempted, our existing tools don't pick it up because it has not yet been "transformed" into something malicious. But Vectra, at that stage, picks it up 80 to 90 percent of the time. That has been one of the biggest benefits because it picks up what other things don't see, and it picks them up at the beginning when attackers are trying to do something rather than when the damage is already done.
The ability to roll up numerous alerts to create a single incident or campaign for investigation takes a bit of effort in the beginning because you'll always have misconfigurations, such as wrong passwords, that could trigger brute force and SMB-types of alerts. And you'll have genuine behaviors in your environment that tend to be suspicious, such as vulnerability assessment and scanning tools, that are not noise, per se. Even if they're non-malicious, it always tends to point to events like misconfigurations and security tools. It's been very useful in that sense, in that, once we do the initial triaging, indicating that this is a security tool, or that is a misconfiguration we need to correct, it reduces the noise quite significantly. We don't get more than 10 to 20 events, maximum, generated per day.
Vectra shows what it does in terms of noise reduction, and we can see that it is down to only 1 percent, and sometimes even less than 1 percent, of what actually requires a person to act on.
It becomes quite easy for a SOC analyst to handle things without being overburdened. And, obviously, it's at the initial stage because it picks things up before the damage happens. It's not the kind of prevention tool that has signatures and that only tells you something bad has already happened. It tells you that something is not right or is suspicious. It says there is a behavior that we have not seen before, and it has always been effective in the red team exercises that we periodically conduct.
Also, we have privileged account management, but we don't have a separate analytics tool. Still, Vectra also picks that up. This is also something that has come up during red team exercises. If there's an account that is executing an escalated privilege or running a service that it normally doesn't run, it gets flagged. It tells us about lateral movements and privilege escalations; things that constitute non-standard usage. It's quite effective at catching these. I have yet to see a red team exercise that doesn't generate any alerts in Vectra. We see a jump, and it's very easy to identify the account and the system that is the source.
It also triages threats and correlates them with the compromised host devices, because it maps both ways. It maps the host, the account, and the detection, and vice versa. You can also go to the detection and see how many affected hosts there are. In addition, if there's a particular detection, is there an existing campaign? How many hosts are also doing the same thing? These are the kinds of visibility the tool provides.
What needs improvement?
The reporting from Cognito Detect is very limited and doesn't give you too many options. If I want to prepare a customized report on a particular host, even though I see the data, I have to manually prepare the report. The reporting features that are built into the tool are not very helpful. They are very generic and broad. That's one main area that I keep telling Vectra they need to improve.
Also, whenever there's a software upgrade and new detections are introduced and the intelligence improves, there is a short period at the beginning where there's a lot of noise. Suddenly, you will get a burst of detections because it's a new detection. It's a new type of intelligence they've introduced and it takes some time to learn. We get worried and we always check whether an upgrade has happened. Then we say, "Okay, that must be the reason." I would like to see an improvement wherein, whenever they do an upgrade, that transition is a bit smoother. It doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes an upgrade triggers noise for some time until it settles down.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the Vectra AI for over three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In the beginning, there is a struggle to fine-tune it because it will generate noise for the reasons I mentioned. But once that learning phase is complete, it's quite reliable. We have been using the hardware for more than three years and there have been no failures or RMAs
Upgrades happen automatically. We have never gone into the appliance to do an upgrade, even though it's on-prem. It all happens automatically and seamlessly in the background.
Initially, we had some problems with the Recall connection to the cloud, to establish the storage connectivity. But again, these kinds of things are at the beginning. After that, it is quite stable. We've not had any problems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability for the cloud solution is straightforward. For the on-prem solution, you need to take care of the capacity and the function itself, because the capacity of the same hardware varies, depending on what you use it for. From a capacity point of view, there is some effort required in the design.
Looking forward to the future, the tool integrates with more and more solutions outside of its existing intelligence. It's not something that we have yet embarked on, but that's an interesting area in which we would like to invest some time.
The cloud solution is something that has limited visibility because PaaS and SaaS in the cloud are always a challenge in terms of cyber security. And in the future, even though we have taken the Vectra SaaS for O365, they're also coming up with a PaaS visibility tool. It is currently under testing, and we are one of the users that have been chosen to participate in the beta testing of that. That's another thing in the future that would add a lot of value in terms of visibility.
Currently, we have about 8,000 users.
How are customer service and support?
The support is directly from the device or we get a response via email. The response is okay. Because the product is stable, we have not been in a situation where we urgently needed something and we wanted support right now. We have never tested that kind of fast response. They take some time to respond, but whenever we have requested something, it has not been urgent.
We do get a response and issues always get resolved. We haven't had any lingering issues. They have all been closed.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not have any tools in the same league. We had security tools, but not with anomaly detection as part of the feature set.
How was the initial setup?
Cognito Detect is on-prem and Cognito Recall is in the cloud, as is the O365 and Azure AD protection.
The cloud setup is extremely simple. The on-prem takes some effort. There is the sizing, depending on what model. The throughput varies. Those kinds of on-prem design considerations create a bit of complexity in the beginning, but the cloud is straightforward. All it needs is the requisite access to the tenant. Once it gets that, it starts its work.
In the beginning, there is some effort in fine-tuning things, but that comes as part of the package with the solution. They have a success manager and tech analyst assigned to support you in the beginning. Once that is done, the product is very stable.
For us, there were an initial four to eight weeks of triaging and clearing the noise, in terms of misconfiguration issues or known security tools. After that time, we started seeing value.
What about the implementation team?
We only used the people from Vectra.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Vectra is a bit on the higher side in terms of price, but they have always been transparent. The reason that they are this good is that they invest, so they need to charge accordingly. They are above average when it comes to price. They're not very economical but it's for a good reason. As long as we get quality, we are okay with paying the extra amount.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did a PoC with Darktrace recently as part of our regular exercise of giving other solutions an opportunity, but the PoC didn't meet our requirements. It didn't detect what Vectra detects in a red team situation.
The deployment time is similar because they all need the same thing. They need the network feed for a copy of the network traffic. The base requirements are the same.
What other advice do I have?
My advice is that you need to size it right and identify what your capacity will be. And you need to place it right, because it's as helpful as what it can see, so you need to have an environment that supports that. What we did, as part of implementing Vectra, was implement an effective packet broker solution in our environment. It needs that support system to function properly. It needs copies of your traffic for detection because it doesn't have an agent sitting anywhere. The positioning and packet brokering are critical allies for this solution.
We have it deployed on-premises. However, we are in the process of acquiring O365 and Azure AD as well. When it comes to Power Automate and other deeper anomalies, these are things that we have on the cloud in Azure. In the new module, it lets us know if any automation, scripts, or large, sudden downloads, or access from a country that is different from where the user has normally been, are happening. But this is a very new tool. We are yet to familiarize ourselves with it and do the fine-tuning. We don't have any automation or any such functions happening on-prem.
In terms of correlating behaviors in the enterprise network and data centers with behaviors in the cloud environment, because we have taken the O365 module, it gives us good correlation between an on-prem user and his behavior in the cloud. We have seen that sometimes it detects that an account is disabled, for example, on-prem, and it says somebody downloaded a lot of data just a few days before that or uploaded large data a few days before that. It does those kinds of correlations.
We have one SOC but it's based overseas. It's an offsite managed service and it covers the gambit of incident detection and response. It's an always-available service. The SIEM we are using is RSA NetWitness, and the EDR solution we use is McAfee.
Vectra has some automation features, in the sense of taking action through the firewalls or other integrations, but that's a journey that we have not yet embarked on. As long as we have a continuously available SOC that rapidly responds to the alerts it generates, we are okay. In general, I'm not comfortable with the automation part. Accurate detection is more important for me. Prevention, when something is picked up too late, as is the case with some of the other solutions I mentioned, is a different case. But here, when it is at the preliminary stage, prevention seems a bit too harsh.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Buyer's Guide
Vectra AI
March 2026
Learn what your peers think about Vectra AI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Cybersecurity Consultant at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Is well-designed around the quadrant and is easy to deploy
Pros and Cons
- "We discovered a lot of things in our network and are correcting several misconfigurations. We are learning how some apps work together and how some things shouldn't happen. It's also easier for us to identify the source of a brute force, whereas before, we didn't even know we had a brute force."
- "We have had a few issues with the integration of Vectra AI with EDR. Some filters have not been working. We've also had issues with the brain not being powerful enough."
What is our primary use case?
Our company is in the retail arena, and we have stores, warehouses, and a data center. Right now, we're using Vectra AI in our offices and the data center. The major issue we had was that we were completely blind inside our data center in terms of seeing what traffic we had. Our main focus with Vectra AI was to see what's happening inside the data center through virtual sensors.
We're going to expand it to include our stores because the franchisees requested that we monitor the networks in all of the stores. Every shop in our company is a franchise, and they can do whatever they want to in their shops. We won't have any idea as to what's on the network in the shops. By using Vectra AI, we will have visibility into the network.
We have started the proof of concept for our warehouses as well.
How has it helped my organization?
We discovered a lot of things in our network and are correcting several misconfigurations. We are learning how some apps work together and how some things shouldn't happen. It's also easier for us to identify the source of a brute force, whereas before, we didn't even know we had a brute force.
What is most valuable?
The platform is well-designed around the quadrant. We know quickly how to investigate, and the detections are clear. I like Vectra AI's integration with Active Directory and the fact that it's easy to take in hand.
What needs improvement?
We have had a few issues with the integration of Vectra AI with EDR. Some filters have not been working. We've also had issues with the brain not being powerful enough.
In the next release, I would like to see more triage choices. From my point of view, Vectra is missing a lot of choices. This is an area that they could focus on.
Vectra is also moving to a full cloud model, and I am not sure if going full cloud and leaving the on-premises environment is the way to go. We are not sure whether we'll move to the cloud with Vectra because it's hosted by AWS, which is one of our competitors. We don't like to work with anything that works on AWS.
For how long have I used the solution?
We did a proof of concept two years ago and then deployed it in March, 2022.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We've had issues with stability. Vectra said that they underestimated the power we needed on our brain as it's very slow. We have delays that can be up to 40 seconds. We also had a hard drive that died. In one year, we've experienced three major issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have different types of deployment that impact scalability a lot. The good part is that if we want to see everything that gets into the data center, we only need a single sensor in the data center. However, if we want to go in-depth in every store, then it will be a long process because we'll have to deploy thousands of sensors.
Right now, our license is for 10,000 IPs, and we hope to increase it to 110,000. If we deploy Vectra AI in the warehouse as well, we will need 25,000 extra. When we upgrade the brain server, Vectra AI should be able to scale accordingly.
How are customer service and support?
When I contacted technical support, they usually take control of my laptop for an hour or more, and I can't do anything during that time. They do not explain anything and mute themselves for an hour or more. I don't know what they're doing or if they're even working on the issue.
However, they have been proactive because they know we have issues with our brain. If I have a bug, I've noticed that they usually respond quickly.
Thus, on a scale from one to ten, I would rate technical support at six.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
I've done four deployments in total, and Vectra AI is easy to deploy. On the admin interface, it's also easy to set up the integration with EDR.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is an expensive solution, but it's not the most expensive we've seen. We also know how much we're going to pay, unlike with some other providers where all of a sudden our license explodes.
We will probably need to deploy over a thousand physical sensors. This means that the cost will automatically go up to millions. They do not sell the smallest sensors that they had in the past, which we would be glad to have right now.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at ExtraHop, a VMware NDR solution, Carbon Black, and a solution from a French organization.
Carbon Black is oriented around VMware products. As such, it would have been okay for the data center, but we would have had to upgrade the entire physical infrastructure inside the data center. It would have been very expensive, and thus, we eliminated Carbon Black. The French competitor was eliminated because the solution was a few years behind.
We then talked with Vectra AI and were happy with what they offered us. We spoke with other companies that use it and found out that they were happy with it. Thus, Vectra AI got the opportunity to do the proof of concept.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate Vectra AI an eight out of ten.
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.
Security Consultant at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Focuses on the internal network and is stable but needs one place to manage multiple brains
Pros and Cons
- "I like the way that Vectra AI focuses on the internal network. Nowadays, most of the attackers are already inside, and they can be inside for many years before they start attacking. With normal monitoring, it's quite difficult to find them."
- "What is most important for us is to have one place where we can manage a few brains because we are based on a zero-trust network. As a result, each customer needs to have a separate brain. For the SOC team, we need to have one place where the SOC analyst can go to visit the website and from that site manage all of the customers. Right now, Vectra AI doesn't have this capability, and I would really like to have this feature."
What is our primary use case?
We wanted to have an additional layer of protection. We have the standard IDSs and were looking for solutions that provide additional security features.
We are still in the deployment phase and hope to be in production mode soon.
What is most valuable?
I like the way that Vectra AI focuses on the internal network. Nowadays, most of the attackers are already inside, and they can be inside for many years before they start attacking. With normal monitoring, it's quite difficult to find them.
Vectra AI checks the behavior of the systems. It's much better than, for example, McAfee IDS, which also has some behavioral capabilities. With Vectra AI, it is possible to get some more hits.
What needs improvement?
What is most important for us is to have one place where we can manage a few brains because we are based on a zero-trust network. As a result, each customer needs to have a separate brain. For the SOC team, we need to have one place where the SOC analyst can go to visit the website and from that site manage all of the customers. Right now, Vectra AI doesn't have this capability, and I would really like to have this feature.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using it for almost two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
So far, the stability of Vectra has been good compared to that of McAfee IDS. I really like the automatic updates because I am the security engineer and responsible for the tools. I have less work to do, which is really nice.
In the beginning, when we had less throughput, the stability was quite nice, but now, we are reaching 25 GB of throughput. The current device is only capable of 20 GB. I do see some slowness, but I believe that it will be solved by the new brain.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
To scale, you would need to know the data center and its average throughput to order the correct brain. We have around 13,000 IPs right now, but we're still growing. The only limitation I see with Vectra AI in terms of scalability is that we cannot have one place to manage all of the brains. Besides that, it's quite straightforward; at each site, we need to have a brain, a physical or virtual one.
How are customer service and support?
Regarding technical support, I am in direct contact with a few people at Vectra. I enjoy cooperating with them. However, it hasn't gone that well with a ticket I created. We had to contact them after waiting for a few weeks. Overall, I'd give technical support a five out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
In the beginning, we had some problems because of a misunderstanding between my company and Vectra. During that time, it was quite challenging, but nowadays, everything is straightforward for us. For example, I'm planning the implementation of the new data center, and it's quite straightforward.
We have already deployed all of the sensors and brains. We are waiting for B101 because we need to have a bigger brain and also want to have one on standby. Once we receive the brains, we will deploy integrations with Vectra.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing and licensing are quite straightforward because they're based on IP licenses. As a result, they are easy to count.
What other advice do I have?
From a deployment and operations perspective, it's quite nice. Therefore, I'd give an overall rating of seven out of ten. However, I look forward to increasing the rating when we move into the production phase and see the real output from Vectra AI.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Director IT at Wellington College
Integrates well with other security solutions and provides good technical support
Pros and Cons
- "The biggest feature for us, because we are heavy Microsoft users, is its integration with Office 365. On top of Vectra AI, we use all of the Microsoft security platforms, such as Defender ATP and Sentinel. Having full integration and a central platform to look at all of the threats that are coming through from the different platforms is a huge benefit for us."
- "In education as a sector, we are looking at AI a lot in terms of how it can be used as part of the teaching and learning side of things. It would be great to have Vectra AI look at a better way to enhance the security posture related to the AI tools in our portfolio."
What is our primary use case?
As a sector, the education industry as a whole is under threat with quite a large volume of immediate threat offenders. We've seen numerous attacks coming through brute force or DDoS. The amount of ransomware and phishing attacks is on the rise compared to that of five years ago, for instance. I see regular threat campaigns from numerous actors around the world.
Our main use case is to have Vectra AI as an addition to our security team. We have a large campus with 1,100 boarding students and about 600 staff on top of that. However, my security team only comprises myself and one other person.
Being able to detect security threats in real-time and, more importantly, being able to get rid of the noise is very important to me. That is, getting rid of the false positives and just focusing on the actual high threats that we see coming through is a great benefit for us.
What is most valuable?
The biggest feature for us, because we are heavy Microsoft users, is its integration with Office 365. On top of Vectra AI, we use all of the Microsoft security platforms, such as Defender ATP and Sentinel. Having full integration and a central platform to look at all of the threats that are coming through from the different platforms is a huge benefit for us.
With one nice front dashboard, we can look at the high-volume threats rather than all of the noise. We do get a lot of noise as our students all own their own devices. With Vectra AI, we can look at threats in a controlled manner, which saves us an extraordinary amount of time. Even if I doubled the manpower, I doubt that I would still have the same visibility that I have with the correct security platform.
Vectra AI's Threat Detection and Response platform has done remarkably well. We're well-versed in using the security dashboard from Microsoft Defender, and we're at the stage where we are checking both. We haven't fully switched to relying on only the Vectra dashboard yet.
In terms of Vectra AI Attack Signal Intelligence for empowering security analysts within our organization, we have complete faith in the data that's coming through from Vectra. If we could also have what's happening at the front-end, that is, the firewall, then it would give us the complete security front dashboard.
What needs improvement?
In education as a sector, we are looking at AI a lot in terms of how it can be used as part of the teaching and learning side of things. It would be great to have Vectra AI look at a better way to enhance the security posture related to the AI tools in our portfolio.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using Vectra now for about eight months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Vectra AI's stability has been 100%.
How are customer service and support?
Vectra AI's integration team was spot-on. They helped us with a very well-defined and well-tested plan, and they worked with us to ensure that the product met all of our goals. Now that we're a customer, we have regular meet-ups with the team.
The technical support staff are very knowledgeable regardless of the type of questions we've had. It feels like they are more than just a support team. I feel like I can reach out to them whenever I need to because they're approachable and understand the challenges that we have within our industry. As such, I would give them a rating of ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we used Darktrace. Though it is a good platform, because there were so many false positives coming through, we found that we were neglecting it and not investigating the alerts. After less than a year of using Vectra, we've managed to tailor our dashboards to a point where we just see the high-volume or high-risk alerts coming through, and we act on those on an instant basis. Vectra AI has helped me get my time back.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Vectra's pricing is too high. All schools will not be able to afford it. Vectra will only end up targeting higher education and higher value independence purely because of the price.
A lot of schools would love to have a product like Vectra AI, but they simply can't because they struggle to even pay the high E5 licensing from Microsoft. When you're up against that, Vectra AI is never going to be within the sector's price range.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated whether we wanted to switch to Vectra AI or whether we wanted to utilize just our existing Microsoft security stack.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate Vectra AI an eight out of ten. I am basing my whole security portfolio and roadmap around Vectra, which means that in the future I need to get more automation, remove some of the cross-tracking that we do with the Microsoft security stack, and then become much more reliant on the data coming through from Vectra AI.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
The solution's marketing is not good, but it has the ability to detect intrusion on the network
Pros and Cons
- "Vectra AI can bring the ability to detect intrusion on the network more so than legacy IDS tools."
- "The solution's marketing is not good."
What is our primary use case?
We've introduced Vectra AI to our clients and had it in proof of concepts with other technologies like Darktrace for network detection and response.
What is most valuable?
Vectra AI can bring the ability to detect intrusion on the network more so than legacy IDS tools. It goes beyond just doing sample packet capture as Corelight does and provides value to the customer regarding their reporting and what the tool is doing.
What needs improvement?
The solution's marketing is not good. It probably needs to refresh its branding because a lot of it is confusing. People see it as an expensive tool for what it actually does.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Vectra AI for five years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
With tools like Vectra, the more you want to scale, the more you have to ingest, and the higher your costs are. So scalability can be there, but it also comes with an increased price.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's customer support is fairly strong.
How was the initial setup?
Vectra AI didn't have a SaaS model until recently. Companies don't like deploying something complex that'll turn customers away. From what I understand, Vectra AI is somewhat complex in its deployments.
What other advice do I have?
The technology is strong, but everything around the technology outside of support is weak. Vectra AI needs to find a way to make it more cost-effective for customers to compete with some of the other tools on the marketplace that customers are buying. Vectra AI should do sample packet captures for clients with different use cases. They're trying to forcefully push their tool on the market when the market wants something else.
Overall, I rate Vectra AI a five out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
Security Engineer at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Improves network visibility and has boosted our productivity
Pros and Cons
- "The fact that we get the visualization of what's happening on our network, which is a way of improving our security in-depth is most valuable."
- "I think Vectra AI's automation, reporting, and integration could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We have a basic Vectra environment because we mainly only use the NDR for the solution's options. We do mainly filled logins, anomalies, and network flow monitoring.
How has it helped my organization?
Vectra AI helped improve our mean time to identify by allowing us to have visibility and reveal some hidden or unknown things.
Vectra AI has had a positive impact on the productivity of our SOC team which is an external party. It as well had a positive impact on our IT environment for detection purposes, adapting, and hardening.
What is most valuable?
The fact that we get the visualization of what's happening on our network, which is a way of improving our security in-depth is most valuable. That's because with the information we get out of Vectra, we know how to adapt and modify things in our network.
Regarding Vectra AI attack signal intelligence, it is providing us with information on how to adapt or protect ourselves against certain attack vectors. This feature is quite helpful.
What needs improvement?
I think Vectra AI's automation, reporting, and integration could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for two years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's stable as it performs as we expected.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
If you have enough power or bandwidth to deploy another sensor, the scalability of this solution shouldn't be very complex.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the technical support of the Vectra AI solution a seven, on a scale from one to ten, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. The reason for this rating is that they always deliver what we expect and that's good enough for us. The reason that the rating is not a ten, is that we always need to let people improve themselves.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
I joined the deployment project at a later stage and I worked on deploying the sensors and tuning false positives and similar things. My experience when it comes to deployment was quite good as we had good hands-on engineers which is why the implementation went well. Our deployment was straightforward with our hands-on approach.
What was our ROI?
When it comes to ROI, in certain places we saw the return and in certain places we didn't. When it comes to security investments and tooling of security, the return on investment takes a bit longer and you always see your investment back. At one point something will happen and you will start using the tool for the reason you bought it.
What other advice do I have?
Before Vectra, we didn't have any feasibility of our network net flow, so this solution gives us a better view of what has been happening on our network and this is what we're trying to solve by implementing Vectra.
We are not using the flood detection response platform.
We are not using Vectra MDR services.
Overall, I would rate this solution a seven, on a scale from one to ten, with one being the worst and ten being the best.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
CSirt Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Helps us to have more visibility in terms of what happens in our network and the network at large
Pros and Cons
- "Scalability wise, we have many sensors, and Vectra AI seems to handle them all very well."
- "The UI/UX and detection could be improved. More detections of specific security events could be useful. We've had a few incidents that were not detected by Vectra. The teams are working on it right now, but more detection is always better."
What is our primary use case?
We use Vectra AI to detect incidents because we have offices in 50 countries and 30 to 40 sensors around the world.
We want to be able to have a sensor or a foothold in as many offices as possible, and Vectra AI helps us achieve that goal.
How has it helped my organization?
Vectra AI helps us to have more visibility in terms of what happens in our network and the network at large. It increased our understanding and our ability to respond and clean up.
What is most valuable?
In terms of valuable features, I like the ability to record the traffic and the metadata in the traffic. I also like the ability to rewind the past and be able to understand what happened. Some of my colleagues like the ability to investigate incidents.
Vectra AI has had a positive effect on the productivity of our company's top teams. They use it a lot to understand what's going on. However, we still need to teach people how to use it to its full potential because it's quite a complicated product.
The Sidekick MDR service is quite important to our organization’s security monitoring and management. The Sidekick team is able to give us the ins and outs of what's going on with some incidents. They are able to triage and help us to focus on a particular part of detection. They also gave us advice on how to configure some parts of the product. The two people I worked with from the MDR service are really good at what they do, and it's quite nice to work with them.
What needs improvement?
The UI/UX and detection could be improved. More detections of specific security events could be useful. We've had a few incidents that were not detected by Vectra. The teams are working on it right now, but more detection is always better.
Vectra AI is quite good at threat detection, however, it cannot respond to threats and attacks in real time by itself. It has to have plugins with other components, such as EDR or other software, to be able to respond properly. By itself, Vectra AI cannot do much, but it's powerful enough to pilot other software.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Vectra for nine months now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Vectra AI's stability is quite good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability-wise, we have many sensors, and Vectra AI seems to handle them all very well.
We have 30,000 devices across 50 countries with close to 2,000 offices. It's an enterprise-scale environment, and Vectra AI has not had any issues.
How are customer service and support?
The engineer who deploys Vectra at my company seeks perfection, and he wasn't happy with everything. However, Vectra's technical support staff handled all of his requests quite well. I would rate them an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What other advice do I have?
The product is quite good, and we have a good relationship with the customer success managers and other teams as well.
Overall, I would rate Vector AI an eight on a scale from one to ten with ten being the best.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Updated: March 2026
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