As of the writing of this post, we are arguably in turbulent times. Publicly traded companies have recently entered a bear market, crypto currencies are down 70% (or more) from recent highs, and inflation is measured at a 40-year high. Leaders of companies big and small are rightfully concerned that the US and global economies are entering into a recession.
In preparation for a potential economic downturn, most organizations are looking internally to determine where costs can be reduced, what platforms are enablers for weathering an economic storm, and what should be cut.
Since 2013, our team has helped hundreds of commercial and public sector organizations with their implementation of Splunk, both on-prem and in the cloud. From many customers, we hear a recurring refrain of “Splunk is expensive.”
My first reaction to this comment is always “Splunk is expensive? Relative to what?”
Before Splunk, getting real-time analytics from disparate critical systems to address security, operations, and observability was really, really tough. Regardless of good times or bad, all organizations must be vigilant on security and optimal application performance — this is the new reality of a software-driven world. The ability to harness insights from “digital exhaust” produced by logs and machine data is invaluable in today’s modern, software-driven world. Splunk remains the best platform of its kind for gaining real-time intelligence from machine data — organizations that have chosen Splunk have chosen wisely.
I understand the “Splunk is expensive” observation. If organizations are not getting enough tangible returns on their Splunk investments, then Splunk is expensive, regardless of how good the Splunk technology is. For that matter, any enterprise software or SaaS offering that does not provide measurable mission, financial, or human returns on investment should justifiably be viewed as “expensive.”
Optimize Splunk, and Turn It Into a Cost Reducer
We at Kinney Group view “reducing costs with Splunk” through two lenses:
- How can we reduce the costs associated with deploying, operating, and sustaining investments in Splunk technologies?
- How can we harness the power of Splunk to be a cost-reduction engine?
In 2021, our organization released Atlas — the Creator Empowerment Platform for Splunk. Purpose-built from the ground up to help customers in their Splunk journeys, Atlas accomplishes the two views of cost reduction referenced above.
Addressing lens #1 referenced above, we suggest pursuing a “1-2 punch” using the Atlas platform.
First, diagnose the health of a Splunk environment via the Atlas Assessment application, available free on Splunkbase. Using Atlas Assessment, customers can get visibility into areas of cost reduction and optimization for Splunk technologies, whether on-prem or in the cloud. Remarkably, Atlas Assessment returns actionable insights in less than 30 minutes.
The second punch is using the Atlas platform to address the identified areas of improvement that have been illuminated by the Atlas Assessment. Not sure if Atlas can help? We offer a full, 30-day trial of the Atlas platform absolutely free. Our experience is that Atlas Assessment, combined with the Atlas platform, provides tangible optimization and cost-reduction results for any Splunk implementation. And you can get started without spending a single dollar.
More specifically, customers find that Atlas reduces Splunk operating costs in the following manners:
- License optimization: Whether the license is based on data ingest or workload, Atlas specifically identifies how any Splunk Enterprise or Splunk Cloud license can be optimized for maximum ROI.
- Operational optimization: Atlas streamlines the daily operation and sustainment of Splunk implementations. These capabilities provide direct labor savings, while at the same time freeing valued personnel to spend more time creating analytics value from Splunk.
- UX and adoption optimization: Splunk admins and users are the “creators” that drive organizational value from Splunk. Atlas helps drive adoption by making the use of Splunk much easier. More people using Splunk means more value for your organization.
Splunk as a Powerful Cost Reduction Engine
All systems and applications produce log data. And Splunk is the best platform on the planet for turning log data into insights for security and observability. Since we began using Splunk in 2013, we consistently find that Splunk can help organizations reduce the sprawl of siloed, single-use tools and monitors.
As organizations look to reduce costs, we encourage them to take a hard look at their entire landscape of software tools. If Splunk can deliver the outcome, why does an organization need another tool to deliver the same results?
When we optimize a Splunk environment using Atlas, we magically create additional Splunk capacity with existing license investments. This newfound added capacity can then be leveraged to help any organization reduce their footprint (and costs) associated with the sprawl of single-use tooling.
Reducing Costs Now for Weathering a Potential Storm
With Atlas and Atlas Assessment, we can deliver tangible cost savings immediately, and do so through the two lenses referenced above. Now is the time to prepare for the potential of an economic storm brought on by a recession. Atlas can help get you prepared.
Is Splunk expensive? Yes — it sure can be if it isn’t optimized and delivering tangible returns for the organization.
Is Splunk expensive when fully optimized with Atlas? NO! When running correctly, Splunk is the most powerful platform of its kind in the industry. Splunk customers have chosen wisely. We argue that once customers get Splunk optimized, it can be one of the most powerful cost-reduction weapons any organization can have.
Ready to take your next step?
Download the FREE Atlas Assessment application from Splunkbase for actionable (and no-cost) discoveries in your environment, or get started with a free trial of the Atlas Platform. Have questions? We’d love to answer them! Click here to schedule an introductory discover call.
