


IBM Security QRadar and Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR compete in the security information and event management (SIEM) and security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) category. Based on the comparison, Cortex XSOAR seems to have the upper hand due to its extensive automation capabilities and ease of integration, which enhance incident response efficiency.
Features: IBM Security QRadar stands out for its ease of extracting information from raw logs and events, comprehensive built-in rules and reports, and its scalability. It also provides compliance monitoring and valuable insights through advanced analytics and threat intelligence. Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR offers strong automation capabilities with extensive playbooks, different integration options, and an intuitive drag-and-drop functionality for creating workflows and playbooks. Its machine learning capabilities further enhance incident response.
Room for Improvement: QRadar could enhance its incident management with better access controls and advanced analytical graphing capabilities. Users also note complexity in its upgrade process and a need for expanded third-party integrations. It could further improve cognitive capabilities. Cortex XSOAR users want better integration with non-security solutions, improved performance consistency, and a less complicated setup phase. The pricing is also considered high for broader adaptability.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Security QRadar supports on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, with generally strong but regionally varied customer service. Cortex XSOAR is flexible with public, private, and hybrid cloud environments. Palo Alto Networks provides satisfactory customer service, though licensing complexity can affect support escalation response.
Pricing and ROI: IBM Security QRadar's pricing can be high for small and medium-sized enterprises, but the ROI is favorable due to its comprehensive features. Users report significant time and cost savings. Cortex XSOAR has competitive pricing but is still seen as expensive for smaller organizations. Its functionalities can lead to economic advantages in managing security events, justifying investment in large enterprises.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR | 8.9% |
| IBM Security QRadar | 6.3% |
| Torq | 4.9% |
| Other | 79.9% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 91 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 39 |
| Large Enterprise | 105 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 19 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 9 |
| Large Enterprise | 25 |
Torq is the enterprise AI SOC solution that effectively combines adaptive insights and automation to handle critical threats efficiently. It manages threat lifecycles, swiftly moving from triage to response, ensuring effective risk management.
Torq is designed to streamline security operations by aggregating telemetry across your security stack. It investigates significant risks and manages threats from triage to containment and remediation. This AI-driven tool enhances the capabilities of your SecOps team, allowing them to achieve more impactful results without introducing complicated processes.
What are the key features of Torq?In industries like finance and healthcare, Torq shows effectiveness by adapting to specific risk scenarios often encountered in these fields. Its integration with existing infrastructures makes it a valuable asset for maintaining stringent security standards, essential for protecting critical data and operations in diverse high-stakes environments.
IBM Security QRadar (recently acquired by Palo Alto Networks) is a security and analytics platform designed to defend against threats and scale security operations. This is done through integrated visibility, investigation, detection, and response. QRadar empowers security groups with actionable insights into high-priority threats by providing visibility into enterprise security data. Through centralized visibility, security teams and analysts can determine their security stance, which areas pose a potential threat, and which areas are critical. This will help streamline workflows by eliminating the need to pivot between tools.
IBM Security QRadar is built to address a wide range of security issues and can be easily scaled with minimal customization effort required. As data is ingested, QRadar administers automated, real-time security intelligence to swiftly and precisely discover and prioritize threats. The platform will issue alerts with actionable, rich context into developing threats. Security teams and analysts can then rapidly respond to minimize the attackers' strike. The solution will provide a complete view of activity in both cloud-based and on-premise environments as a large amount of data is ingested throughout the enterprise. Additionally, QRadar’s anomaly detection intelligence enables security teams to identify any user behavior changes that could be indicators of potential threats.
IBM QRadar Log Manager
To better help organizations protect themselves against potential security threats, attacks, and breaches, IBM QRadar Log Manager gathers, analyzes, preserves, and reports on security log events using QRadar Sense Analytics. All operating systems and applications, servers, devices, and applications are converted into searchable and actionable intelligent data. QRadar Log Manager then helps organizations meet compliance reporting and monitoring requirements, which can be further upgraded to QRadar SIEM for a more superior level of threat protection.
Some of QRadar Log Manager’s key features include:
Reviews from Real Users
IBM Security QRadar is a solution of choice among users because it provides a complete solution for security teams by integrating network analysis, log management, user behavior analytics, threat intelligence, and AI-powered investigations into a single solution. Users particularly like having a single window into their network and its ability to be used for larger enterprises.
Simon T., a cyber security services operations manager at an aerospace/defense firm, notes, "The most valuable thing about QRadar is that you have a single window into your network, SIEM, network flows, and risk management of your assets. If you use Splunk, for instance, then you still need a full packet capture solution, whereas the full packet capture solution is integrated within QRadar. Its application ecosystem makes it very powerful in terms of doing analysis."
A management executive at a security firm says, "What we like about QRadar and the models that IBM has, is it can go from a small-to-medium enterprise to a larger organization, and it gives you the same value."
Palo Alto Networks delivers a complete solution that helps Tier-1 through Tier-3 analysts and SOC managers to optimize the entire incident life cycle while auto documenting and journaling all the evidence. More than 100+ integrations enable security orchestration workflows for incident management and other critical security operation tasks.
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR is a piece of Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response software that redefines what it means for a program to orchestrate security in an automated manner. It is a next-generation solution that offers all of the features of dozens of siloed security operations center tools in one place. Cortex XSOAR combines case management, automation, real-time collaboration, and threat intelligence management to create a platform that can handle all aspects of system security. Teams that make use of Cortex XSOAR can expect to cut the number of issues that they will have to deal with by 75%. At the same time, the speed at which they resolve those issues that slip through will rise by 90%.
Cortex XSOAR ensures that all of the IT and security tools that you employ function as a unified system. It does this by employing hundreds of integrations that allow you to run a wide variety of programs at once without ever worrying about them interfering with each other. These integrations are limited only by your imagination. They can be used immediately as they are, if that is what you need. However, they can also be customized according to the requirements of your system. This approach provides you with the maximum levels of both flexibility and utility.
The model that this platform uses is based on a machine learning algorithm. The level of automation allows you to provide more than an unchanging and inflexible blanket of coverage. Cortex XSOAR takes all of the data that it gathers and uses it to expand its protective capabilities. This creates recommendations that you can use to create a threat playbook that can be deployed uniformly throughout your organization.
Benefits of Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR
Some of Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR’s benefits include:
Reviews from Real Users
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR’s centralized monitoring interface and automation are two features that help it stand out. This might help explain why one quarter of the Fortune 500 companies choose Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR over the competition.
Peerspot users note the effectiveness of these features. One user wrote, “We were looking for a single pane of glass type of solution that would allow us to physically be in one appliance - be able to work in concert with other servers that we have within our environment. We wanted orchestration and automation. The single pane of glass was the most important part.” Another noted, "The automation part and the playbook creation part are awesome. The way it is responding to the customers and incidents is also very good. In the SOC environment, I guess it will carry out around 50% of the work."
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