There are multiple solutions in the realm of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), and each solution has its pros and cons. This article will provide a head-to-head comparison between two popular solutions, Splunk and QRadar, along with a brief description for each solution to help you make the best decision for your business needs.
What is Splunk?
Splunk, a software company based in San Francisco California, is an Operational Intelligence Platform used for monitoring business applications, infrastructure, networks and security operations. Splunk collects and stores data from any hardware or software platform seamlessly. Splunk’s core product – Splunk Enterprise (on-premise) and Splunk – Cloud handles application performance management, while Splunk Enterprise Security manages endpoint security, network security, Identification Management, malware, and vulnerabilities.
What is QRadar?
QRadar, is an IBM-acquired Massachusetts-based software company specializing in Security Intelligence. QRadar is marketed under IBM’s banner, provides a strong security intelligence platform for the entire IT landscape, and renders services such as access management, data security, risk management, endpoint management, network security, and intrusion prevention.
Splunk vs QRadar
Platform & Integration
Splunk is an independent platform that can be deployed in any hardware and software environments and can seamlessly integrate with any platform, whereas QRadar is IBM proprietary and integrates well with superior performance when integrates with other IBM products.
Flexibility
Splunk is highly flexible and can be used for a wide range of use cases, from security monitoring to business analytics. QRadar, on the other hand. is only specialized for security intelligence.
Scalability
Splunk and QRadar are both able to scale to handle large amounts of data required for organizations of all sizes, including very large organizations.
Customization
Splunk is highly customizable, while QRadar is more rigid in terms of its configuration options.
Ease of use
Splunk is generally considered to be more user-friendly than QRadar, although both tools require some level of technical expertise to set up and configure.
Price
Splunk is priced based on the amount of data ingested on daily basis or the number of Splunk Virtual Compute (SVCs) units consumed (Workload Pricing), which can be more expensive than QRadar which is priced based on the events per second. However, when Splunk is integrated with platforms like Atlas from Kinney Group you can easily manage and limit the amount of data ingested to just what is necessary, reducing the cost of Splunk considerably.
Conclusion
While both Splunk & QRadar are good security platforms to use, an extensive study is required before making an investment decision with either of the two platforms. Some things to consider include the Ease of use & Customization, where Splunk is more user friendly, more flexible, and easier to customize than QRadar. On the other hand, if you are interested in a solution for security intelligence that integrates well with IBM products, then QRadar might be a better choice, although it is more difficult to configure and customize than Splunk.
If you found this helpful…
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