

Azure Monitor and Cribl compete in the cloud monitoring and data management domain. Azure Monitor seems to have the upper hand due to its robust reporting and integration with Microsoft platforms, though Cribl offers advantages in data transformation and routing for high data volumes.
Features: Azure Monitor provides robust reporting, integration with Microsoft platforms, and dynamic alerting. It also offers stable operation and comprehensive security features for real-time data analysis. Cribl excels in real-time data transformation capabilities, offers versatile log collection, and effective data routing, allowing for flexible log management and data storage savings.
Room for Improvement: Azure Monitor needs enhancements in hybrid deployments, third-party integrations, and more intelligent alert automation. Its complexity and billing model can lead to dissatisfaction. Cribl could improve internal logging, legacy system integration, and expand alerting capabilities. Their focus areas for improvement differ, with Azure Monitor needing improved usability and Cribl focusing on data processing capabilities.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Azure Monitor integrates well with cloud environments but faces challenges with slow and complex technical support. Cribl offers straightforward deployment for hybrid and on-premise systems but has challenges in documentation and support structure. Azure’s strong cloud alignment contrasts with Cribl's versatility across various deployment scenarios.
Pricing and ROI: Azure Monitor's flexible pricing can lead to high costs with data usage but offers good ROI for Microsoft ecosystem users. Cribl is cost-effective compared to competitors like Splunk and provides significant savings through efficient data processing and log management, proving valuable despite price increases. Cribl's cost management suits organizations with large data workloads, while Azure Monitor benefits those embedded in the Microsoft environment.
Azure Monitor helps prevent impacts on their system.
What we've seen is really an overall reduction of just shy of 40% in our ingest into our SIM platform versus prior to having Cribl.
The second thing is that data aggregation, sampling, and reduction that we're able to do of the data, lowering our overall data volume, both traversing the network as well as what's being stored inside of our final solutions.
In terms of reduction, we were able to save almost ~40% of our total cost.
However, the second-line support is good.
Users end up getting no resolution from their team because they're outsourced vendors, and they don't have deeper expertise over any of the products they are referring to.
I would rate the support for Azure Monitor as a seven.
They had extensive expertise with the product and were able to facilitate everything we needed.
Usually, within an hour, we get a response, and we are able to work with them back and forth until we resolve the issues.
Sometimes by hearing the problem itself, they will know what the solution is, and they will let us know how to resolve it, and we do it immediately.
With APM, you can go heavy or you can go light. It just depends on what you want, what your use case is, and how reactive you want to be to system load or resilient to failure.
Azure Monitor is very scalable; there are no issues with scalability for different kinds of businesses.
The infrastructure behind Cribl Search is also scalable as it uses a CPU and just spawns horizontally more instances as it demands and requires.
Compared to other SIEM tools I use, any slight change on the operating system end impacts a lot on our SIEM tools and other things, but Cribl performs well in that regard.
It's an enterprise version, and we have a good amount of users using this solution.
Azure Monitor is working fine, yet I face a costing issue as if there are a lot of logs collected in the workspace or in the center, it becomes very costly.
Migrating from those SC4S servers to Cribl worker nodes has truly been a game-changer.
Regarding scalability, we started with zero servers and have around 285 servers now.
I would rate the stability as ten out of ten.
If Azure Monitor can independently add one gigabyte, two gigabytes, or five gigabytes at least to log storage, I can fix the logs without syncing with Log Analytics Workspace and Sentinel.
The cost skyrockets once you start using it, and there are complaints that the actual cost of the Kubernetes cluster was less than the cost they were incurring for Azure Monitor.
The challenges with Azure Monitor are that it's initially complex to set up because you need multiple components.
A more stringent role-based access control feature would enhance security and allow granular control over what users can see and access.
If we can have more internal logs and more debug logs to validate the error, that would be beneficial because instead of reaching out to Cribl support, we can troubleshoot and find the root cause ourselves.
In terms of large datasets—whether they originated from network inputs, virtual machines, or cloud instances—ingesting the data into the destination was relatively easy.
When I export logs into the application, workspace, log analytic workspace, and into Sentinel to read reports, I need to add storage, which increases the cost.
Over time, the licensing cost has increased.
Cribl is very inexpensive, with enterprise pricing around 30 cents per GB, which is really decent.
They have a universal license that allows us to consume the portions of Cribl that we want to use or flex into other portions of Cribl.
The alerting features definitely help in reducing operational downtime for my customers by allowing us to get notifications in advance and take active actions.
I also appreciate the ability to measure feature activity, see what types of devices they are on, follow specific use cases, and measure the amount of traffic going to a particular application.
Resource monitoring is essential.
The data reduction and preprocessing capabilities make Cribl really unique.
Cribl has a feature called JSON Unroll or Unroll function that allows you to differentiate the events; each event will come ingested as a single log instead of piling it up with multiple events.
The Cribl UI is very simple and easy to use, particularly when working with data from various sources; it makes it very easy to create pipelines, add complex logic to those pipelines, and then gives you a preview of what your data looks like before applying that pipeline and what you get after.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Azure Monitor | 3.3% |
| Cribl | 1.2% |
| Other | 95.5% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 23 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 7 |
| Large Enterprise | 29 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 9 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 5 |
| Large Enterprise | 18 |
Azure Monitor is a comprehensive monitoring solution offered by Microsoft Azure. It provides a centralized platform for monitoring the performance and health of various Azure resources, applications, and infrastructure.
With Azure Monitor, users can gain insights into the availability, performance, and usage of their applications and infrastructure. The key features of Azure Monitor include metrics, logs, alerts, and dashboards. Metrics allow users to collect and analyze performance data from various Azure resources, such as virtual machines, databases, and storage accounts.
Logs enable users to collect and analyze log data from different sources, including Azure resources, applications, and operating systems. Azure Monitor also provides a robust alerting mechanism that allows users to set up alerts based on specific conditions or thresholds. These alerts can be configured to notify users via email, SMS, or other notification channels. Additionally, Azure Monitor offers customizable dashboards that allow users to visualize and analyze their monitoring data in a personalized and intuitive manner.
Azure Monitor integrates seamlessly with other Azure services, such as Azure Automation and Azure Logic Apps, enabling users to automate actions based on monitoring data. It also supports integration with third-party monitoring tools and services, providing flexibility and extensibility.
Overall, Azure Monitor is a powerful and versatile monitoring solution that helps users gain deep insights into the performance and health of their Azure resources and applications. It offers a wide range of features and integrations, making it a comprehensive solution for monitoring and managing Azure environments.
Cribl offers advanced data transformation and routing with features such as data reduction, plugin configurations, and log collection within a user-friendly framework supporting various deployments, significantly reducing data volumes and costs.
Cribl is designed to streamline data management, offering real-time data transformation and efficient log management. It supports seamless SIEM migration, enabling organizations to optimize costs associated with platforms like Splunk through data trimming. The capability to handle multiple data destinations and compression eases log control. With flexibility across on-prem, cloud, or hybrid environments, Cribl provides an adaptable interface that facilitates quick data model replication. While it significantly reduces data volumes, enhancing overall efficiency, there are areas for improvement, including compatibility with legacy systems and integration with enterprise products. Organizations can enhance their operational capabilities through certification opportunities and explore added functionalities tailored towards specific industry needs.
What are Cribl's most important features?Cribl sees extensive use in industries prioritizing efficient data management and cost optimization. Organizations leverage its capabilities to connect between different data sources, including cloud environments, improving both data handling and storage efficiency. Its customization options appeal to firms needing specific industry compliance and operational enhancements.
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