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Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs NetWitness Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Secure Network Analytics
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (33rd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (3rd), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (5th), Cisco Security Portfolio (7th)
NetWitness Platform
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (37th), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (37th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Secure Network Analytics and NetWitness Platform aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Cisco Secure Network Analytics is designed for Network Monitoring Software and holds a mindshare of 0.9%, down 1.2% compared to last year.
NetWitness Platform, on the other hand, focuses on Log Management, holds 1.1% mindshare, up 0.3% since last year.
Network Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Network Analytics0.9%
Zabbix3.9%
SolarWinds NPM3.6%
Other91.6%
Network Monitoring Software
Log Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NetWitness Platform1.1%
Splunk Enterprise Security6.8%
Wazuh4.8%
Other87.3%
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

Akash Das Barman - PeerSpot reviewer
Cyber Security Trainee at DataSpace Academy
Network analytics has reduced investigation time and provides deeper visibility into lateral movement
Several features often look very promising during evaluation or implementation but end up being used only lightly in day-to-day operations. Advanced reporting and scheduled compliance reports look very attractive for audit and compliance teams at implementation time and can generate structured reports for visibility, risk posture, and traffic summaries. In practice, many teams do not rely on it heavily because SIEM tools or GRC platforms already handle reporting better. Built-in threat intelligence feeds represent another area where expectations do not always match usage. The platform includes threat intelligence-based detection and classifications. Initially, teams expect to depend on this heavily, but later SOC teams often prefer their own threat intelligence feeds or correlate intelligence inside SIEM instead. The built-in feeds are used but not as a primary detection source. Automated incident summaries and guided investigation views are designed to simplify triage by automatically grouping related activity into incidents. However, teams often move away from them due to various factors affecting adoption.
reviewer2256927 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Information Security, Cyber Defense and IT Risk Management at HCT. at a transportation company with 201-500 employees
A solid SIEM solution that should improve technical support and online resources to be easier to use
A big problem with the product is that we don't have much professional experience in Israel installing, implementing, and integrating this product. There is not enough of a knowledge base. There is no support for this product in this country, so problems have to be resolved through global technical teams. We like to work locally because of the language, and when the product is only supported outside the country, it's a little difficult to implement and use this product. Moreover, AI is something that must be added immediately. Artificial intelligence is a part of the competitors' products, and it's not been implemented for us.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution has increased our threat detection rate. Cisco Stealthwatch has not reduced our incident response times. It has not reduced the amount of time it takes us to detect immediate threats. It has reduced false positives."
"We use it to monitor for any anomaly behavior and analyze results."
"Stealthwatch has definitely reduced the incident response time, making troubleshooting now only minutes instead of a couple of hours and increasing our threat detection rate by around 25-30%."
"The solution reduces the amount of time it takes to detect and remediate threats."
"This solution gives our customers better visibility."
"Provides easily identifiable anomalies that you can't see with signature detections."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it helps you gain visibility for your application."
"Most valuable features are the network maps and server and network response time."
"The most valuable feature is that we can create our own connectors for any application, and NetWitness provides the training and tools to do it."
"Possibility to investigate incidents based on logs and raw packets, such as extracting files sent over the network"
"The development of use cases on the SSA console is quite user friendly, which means that the security analyst or the researcher does not have to learn another language."
"The most valuable features are the integration and ease of use."
"Their technical support responds quickly and are knowledgable."
"The solution is reliable."
"Alerting Module: It provides real-time event processing language on all the logs/packets stream for advanced alerting, i.e., using SQL LIKE statements."
"Since the solution has been under way we have seen a large decrease of threats and proactive reactions to incidents."
 

Cons

"If they can make this product more web-based, that would be amazing."
"One of the things which bugs me about Lancope is the licensing."
"I would like Cisco to make it easier for the administrators to use it."
"We haven't seen ROI."
"We had some trouble with the installation as we migrated from our previous solution."
"The overall visibility into the actual device itself would be helpful. I don't just want support-specific data, but also to be able to see information such as CPU and other internal components or usage of the devices."
"The customizability of the UI should improve."
"We determined that Stealthwatch wouldn't provide the machine learning model that we required."
"They should implement algorithms to digest that data and produce additional, more advanced reporting, alerting and support of internal security teams."
"The initial setup is complex. There are other solutions that are easier to implement."
"The system looks like it is a mix of a bunch of different systems, and nothing looked like it was quite together."
"An area for improvement would be better automation and more inbuilt use cases."
"Advance monitoring and alerting feature is not stable (Event Stream Analysis)."
"The implementation needs assistance."
"Log aggregation is an issue with this solution because there are a huge number of alerts in a single instance."
"I believe that integrating the solution with other products such as Oracle would be beneficial."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay for support costs on a yearly basis."
"Our fees are approximately $3,000 USD."
"On a yearly basis, licensing is somewhere around $30,000."
"It is worth the cost."
"The solution is expensive. It costs several hundred thousand dollars per year (depending on how many flows you are collecting)."
"One of the things which bugs me about Lancope is the licensing. We understand how licensing works. Our problem is when we bought and purchased most of these Lancope devices, we did so with our sister company. Somewhere within the purchase and distribution, licensing got mixed up. That is all on Cisco, and it is their responsibility. They allotted some of our sister company's equipment to us, and some of our equipment to them. To date, they have never been able to fix it."
"It has a subscription model. There is yearly support, and there is also three-year support. It depends on what the customers want."
"There are additional licenses needed for the number of so-called network flows. It's hard to plan the number of flows you need in the network, this is a problem. The price of the Cisco Stealthwatch is relatively inexpensive"
"The tool is very expensive, so I rate the pricing a ten out of ten. The solution has an annual subscription."
"Our license is for one year."
"The NetWitness Platform may be affordable only for enterprise-level customers, as it may not be within the budget of small and medium-sized businesses."
"It’s cheaper to run virtual machines in a VMware environment."
"The licenses are good but the cost is very expensive."
"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets do not have a subscription model, it's a one-time purchase. There is only a perpetual license."
"It is cheap."
"We are on an annual license for the use of the solution."
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Comparison Review

VS
Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Feb 26, 2015
HP ArcSight vs. IBM QRadar vs. ​McAfee Nitro vs. Splunk vs. RSA Security vs. LogRhythm
We at Infosecnirvana.com have done several posts on SIEM. After the Dummies Guide on SIEM, we are following it up with a SIEM Product Comparison – 101 deck. So, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think by posting your comments below. The key products compared here are…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise52
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise20
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Stealthwatch?
Regarding cost, for the Bangladesh context, Cisco Secure Network Analytics is a little bit high-priced because we are a developing country, making it tough to manage affordable solutions. However, ...
What needs improvement with Cisco Stealthwatch?
Several features often look very promising during evaluation or implementation but end up being used only lightly in day-to-day operations. Advanced reporting and scheduled compliance reports look ...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Stealthwatch?
My main use case for Cisco Secure Network Analytics has been network visibility and anomaly-based threat detection within the enterprise environment. In security operations and VAPT-related activit...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetWitness Platform?
The pricing is comparable to others, and I consider the cost to be intermediate. Specific cost details are unknown to me.
What needs improvement with NetWitness Platform?
There is currently no need for improvement in the SIEM ( /categories/security-information-and-event-management-siem ), though there could be potential enhancements by integrating with AI.
What is your primary use case for NetWitness Platform?
I use NetWitness Platform ( /products/netwitness-platform-reviews ) in the financial industry as a good product with excellent capabilities and integration with various devices.
 

Also Known As

Cisco Stealthwatch, Cisco Stealthwatch Enterprise, Lancope StealthWatch
RSA Security Analytics
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Edge Web Hosting, Telenor Norway, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, Webster Financial Corporation, Westinghouse Electric, VMware, TIAA-CREF
Los Angeles World Airports, Reply
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