SIEM Product Comparison

SIEM Technology Space

SIEM market analysis of the last 3 years suggest:
Market consolidation of SIEM players (25 vendors in 2011 to 16 vendors in 2013)
Only products with technology maturity and a strong road map have featured in leaders
quadrant.
HP ArcSight & IBM Q1 Labs have maintained leadership in SIEM industry with continued
technology upgrade
McAfee Nitro has strong product features & road map to challenge HP & IBM for leadership
2011

2012

2013

HP ArcSight
The ArcSight Enterprise Threat and Risk Management (ETRM) Platform is an integrated set of
products for collecting, analysing, and managing enterprise Security Event information.
ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM): Correlation and analysis engine used to
identify security threat in real-time
ArcSight Logger: Log storage and Search solution
ArcSight IdentityView: User Identity tracking/User activity monitoring
ArcSight Connectors: for data collection from a variety of data sources
ArcSight Auditor Applications: automated continuous controls monitoring for both mobile
& virtual environments
Strengths

Weakness

Extensive Log collection support for commercial IT

products & applications

Complex deployment & configuration

Advanced support for Threat Management, Fraud

Management & Behavior Analysis

Mostly suited for Medium to Large Scale deployment

Mature Event Correlation, Categorization & Reporting

Requires skilled resources to manage the solution

Tight integration with Big data Analytics platform like

Hadoop

Steep learning curve for Analysts & Operators

Highly customizable based on organizations

requirements
Highly Available & Scalable Architecture supporting
Multi-tier & Multi-tenancy

IBM QRadar
The QRadar Integrated Security Solutions (QRadar) Platform is an integrated set of products for
collecting, analysing, and managing enterprise Security Event information.
QRadar Log Manager turn key log management solution for Event log collection & storage
QRadar SIEM Integrated Log, Threat & Risk Management solution
QRadar Risk Manager Predictive threat & risk modelling, impact analysis & simulation
QRadar QFlow Network Behaviour Analysis & Anomaly detection using network flow data
QRadar vFlow Application Layer monitoring for both Physical & Virtual environment

Strengths

Weakness

Very simple deployment & configuration

Limited customizations capabilities

Integrated view of the threat environment using

Netflow data , IDS/IPS data & Event logs from the
environment

Limited Multi-tenancy support

Behavior & Anomaly Detection capabilities for both

Netflow & Log data

Limited capability to perform Advanced Use Case

development & analytics

Suited for small, medium & large enterprises

Highly Scalable & Available architecture

McAfee Nitro
The McAfee Enterprise Security Management (formerly Nitro Security) Platform is an integrated
set of products for collecting, analysing, and managing enterprise Security Event information.
McAfee Enterprise Log Manager turn key log management solution for Event log
collection & storage
McAfee Event Receiver collecting log data & native flow data
McAfee Database Event Monitor database transaction & Log monitoring
McAfee Application data Monitor application layer event monitoring
McAfee Advanced Correlation Engine advanced correlation engine for correlating events
both historical & real time
Strengths

Weakness

Integrated Application Data monitoring & Deep Packet Very basic correlation capabilities when compared
Inspection
with HP & IBM
Integrated Database monitoring without dependence
on native audit functions

Limitations in user interface when it concerns

navigation

High event collection rate suited for very large scale

deployment

Requires a lot of agent installs for Application &

database monitoring thereby increasing management
complexity

Efficient query performance in spite of high event

collection rate

No Analytics capability both Big Data & Risk based

Limited customization capabilities
Limited support for multi-tier & multi-tenancy
architecture

Splunk
Splunk Enterprise is an integrated set of products that provide Log Collection, management &
reporting capabilities using
Splunk Indexer used to collect and index logs from IT environment
Splunk Search Heads used to search & report on IT logs
Splunk App for Enterprise Security - used to collect external threat intelligence feeds,
parse log sources and provide basic analytics for session monitoring (VPN, Netflow etc.)
Strengths

Weakness

Extensive Log collection capabilities across the IT

environment

Pre-SIEM solution with very limited correlation

capabilities

Log search is highly intuitive like Google search

Even though easy to deploy, increasingly difficult to

configure for SIEM related functions

Flexible dash boarding & analytics capability

improves Log visualization capabilities
Built-in support for external threat intelligence feeds
both open source & commercial
App Store based architecture allowing development
of Splunk Plugins to suit monitoring & analytics
requirements

RSA Security Analytics

RSA Security Analytics is an integrated set of products that provide Network Forensics, Log
Collection, management & reporting capabilities using
Capture Infrastructure
RSA Security Analytics Decoder Real time capture of Network Packet and log data
with Analysis and filtering capabilities
RSA Security Analytics Concentrator Aggregates metadata from the Decoder
RSA Security Analytics Broker Server For reporting, management and
administration of capture data
Analysis & Retention Infrastructure
Event Stream Analysis Correlation Engine
Archiver Long term retention, storage, security & compliance reporting
RSA Security Analytics Warehouse Big Data Infrastructure for Advanced Analytics
Strengths

Weakness

Great Analytics using Event Log Data & Network

Packet Capture

New Product release from RSA, hence advanced

Security correlation support is poor

Network forensics, Big Data (Parallel Computing) are

cornerstones in SIEM world

Security Analytics Warehouse is a new capability with

very little real world use cases

Tightly Integrates with RSA ecosystem for Threat

Intelligence, Fraud Detection, Malware Analysis etc.
(each requires separate RSA Tools)

Suited only for large enterprises with need for

complex deployment and management resources.
Poor deployment options for small and midsize
customers

LogRhythm
The LogRhythm SIEM 2.0 Security Intelligence Platform is an integrated set of products for
collecting, analysing, and managing enterprise Security Event information.
Log Manager high performance, distributed and redundant log collection and management
appliance
Event Manager provide centralized event management and administration for a
LogRhythm deployment
Network Monitor provide full visibility into network traffic, identifying applications via
deep packet inspection, providing real-time unstructured search access to all metadata and
packet captures
Strengths

Weakness

Well balanced log management, reporting, event

management, privileged user monitoring and File
integrity monitoring capabilities

Suitable for Security event data only, as Operational

data sets cause slowing performance for searches and
reports

Fast deployment with minimal configuration because

of appliance form factor

No Support for Active Directory integration for RoleBased Access Control

Quarterly Health Check programs post-deployment

offers great After sales-Service experience

Suited best for small and mid size companies with

basic security, regulatory compliance and reporting
needs. Not scalable for very large deployments.

SIEM Vendors Critical Capabilities Score Card

A Summary scoring sheet for SIEM Vendors based on their Core capabilities is given
below:
Capability

RSA
Security
Analytics

Log
Rhythm

Splunk

McAfee
Nitro

IBM
QRadar

HP
ArcSight

Real-time Security Monitoring

3.1

3.2

2.5

3.9

4.2

4.4

Threat Intelligence

3.7

2.5

3.0

2.8

3.5

4.5

Behavior Profiling

2.5

2.3

3.0

3.0

5.0

4.0

Data & End User Monitoring

3.6

3.5

1.7

3.6

3.5

4.0

Application Monitoring

3.8

3.5

1.8

3.7

3.3

3.8

Analytics

2.5

2.5

3.8

4.5

3.5

4.0

Log Management & Reporting

3.5

3.8

3.5

3.8

3.9

4.0

Deployment & Support

Simplicity

3.0

4.0

2.5

3.5

3.5

3.0

25.7

25.3

21.8

28.8

30.4

31.7

Total (Weighted Score)

1.0 Low level of Capability
5.0 High Level of Capability

SIEM Vendors Use Cases Score Card

Use Cases

RSA
Security
Analytics

Log
Rhythm

Splunk

McAfee
Nitro

IBM
QRadar

HP
ArcSight

Overall Use Cases

3.2

3.2

2.7

3.6

3.8

4.0

Compliance Use Cases

3.3

3.7

3.0

3.7

3.8

3.8

Threat Monitoring

3.1

3.1

2.9

3.8

3.7

4.0

SIEM

3.2

3.4

2.8

3.6

3.8

3.9

12.8

13.4

11.7

14.7

15.1

15.7

Total (Weighted Score)

1.0 Low level of Capability

5.0 High Level of Capability