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IBM Watson for Cyber Security vs Splunk Enterprise Security comparison

IBM and Splunk are both solutions in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category. IBM is ranked #58, while Splunk is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. IBM holds a 0.4% mindshare in SIEM, compared to Splunk’s 9.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Splunk users who would recommend it.
IBM Watson for Cyber Security
Read 4 IBM Watson for Cyber Security reviews
  • 517 Views
  • 486 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
Splunk Enterprise Security
Read 369 Splunk Enterprise Security reviews
  • 23,960 Views
  • 12,459 Comparison Views
93% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Splunk Enterprise Security and IBM Watson for Cyber Security are competing in cybersecurity analytics and threat detection. Splunk excels in real-time data indexing, a key advantage for quick searches, while IBM Watson leverages AI for in-depth threat insights.

Features: Splunk Enterprise Security offers capabilities like rapid data indexing, schema-on-read for versatile data use, and SPL (Search Processing Language) for comprehensive data manipulation. Its ability to handle both structured and unstructured data enhances its log management. IBM Watson stands out with AI-driven threat analytics that provide cognitive insights into complex threat patterns, making it valuable for identifying and responding to advanced threats. Its integration with various IBM products and threat intelligence enhances analytical capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Splunk could benefit from enhanced AI capabilities to match Watson's cognitive analytics. Improving ease of use for new users could increase its accessibility. Additionally, simplifying its complex installation process would reduce deployment time. IBM Watson might improve by streamlining its integration with non-IBM products to enhance compatibility. Reducing the learning curve associated with its AI-driven features would make it more user-friendly. Enhancing real-time data processing capabilities could match Splunk’s efficiency in immediate threat detection.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Splunk is praised for its straightforward deployment and flexible scalability, backed by swift customer support. Its modularity makes scaling and adapting to specific needs easier. IBM Watson, while equipped with comprehensive documentation and strong support services, presents a steeper learning curve due to its advanced AI functions, requiring more time for users to fully utilize its features.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk generally incurs higher setup costs but provides a notable ROI through scalability and efficient threat detection, making it a cost-effective choice for data indexing needs. IBM Watson offers competitive pricing, with ROI driven by AI-based analytics and faster insights from cognitive computing. It is particularly justified for businesses aiming to delve into advanced AI-powered threat intelligence.

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To learn more, read our detailed IBM Watson for Cyber Security vs. Splunk Enterprise Security Report (Updated: September 2025).
Buyer's Guide
IBM Watson for Cyber Security vs. Splunk Enterprise Security
September 2025
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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

IBM Watson for Cyber Security
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
58th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Splunk Enterprise Security
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
369
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (2nd), IT Operations Analytics (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of IBM Watson for Cyber Security is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Enterprise Security is 9.2%, down from 11.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Splunk Enterprise Security9.2%
IBM Watson for Cyber Security0.4%
Other90.4%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

Elena Stefanovska - PeerSpot reviewer
Knowledgeable support, reliable, and useful compliance policies
IBM Watson for Cyber Security can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud and it is used as a SIEM solution The most valuable features of IBM Watson for Cyber Security are ease of use and out-of-the-box reports and compliance policies. Additionally, if there are aspects that are missing IBM add…
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Kyle Vernham - PeerSpot reviewer
Built-in searches and unified data access streamline alert investigation and boosts analyst efficiency
The two features I appreciate the most in Splunk Enterprise Security are the built-in searches, which have been very easy for us to get started with right out of the box, and the fact that it accesses all of our other systems. You can access it as a pane of glass rather than having to search individually. We also have the option to compare our analysts from our service to service. Splunk Enterprise Security helps our SOC team prioritize and investigate high-fidelity alerts more effectively by providing a more in-depth look and the ability to access a lot more of our data. Instead of jumping from several segmented systems, it allows us to have everything brought together in one place. For example, you have to move from our purview to our build system and to Splunk Enterprise Security, and it enables us to streamline that process. The built-in features of Splunk Enterprise Security, which we recently procured, have given us a good starting point and demonstrated the value of the product, providing an easy way to sell it to our company. The ease of getting everything into our purview helps us, and it serves as a good start for the investigation part in one location rather than what we usually have, which is jumping from system to system to system. Splunk Enterprise Security plays a role in our company's strategy to combat insider threats and advanced persistent threats by currently being in its technical test phase. We are still rolling it out, and it should help us find any insider threats based on information that our policy states should not be present in our system. Splunk Enterprise Security's risk-based alerting (RBA) has impacted our alert volume and analyst productivity because we've got many different systems feeding into it. However, it has helped to make it easier for our analysts to go through a set of events rather than 100 alerts. RBA allows us to streamline the process and customize it for our analysts. When it comes to leveraging Splunk Enterprise Security's dashboards and visualizations to communicate security posture to executives, it's pretty straightforward for any type of information. The visualization is easy to understand, but I haven't had any direct conversations with our executives.
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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of this product is innovation, where the research and upgrading of technology never ends."
"The customer support is very good."
"IBM Watson for Cyber Security is very stable."
"The most valuable features of IBM Watson for Cyber Security are ease of use and out-of-the-box reports and compliance policies. Additionally, if there are aspects that are missing IBM add them in the next release."
"I like the Splunk dashboard and search engine."
"It allows us to digest the information, the data, the different data streams, so we can make decisions based upon information that we receive, and it is pretty robust."
"it can explain to management about what kind of traffic is visiting the network. It can also explain other traffic coming in and out, along with protecting against malware."
"Splunk's interface is user-friendly, and it has apps and add-ons for most applications. We can easily normalize the data to make it readable and understand the logs. We easily get all the field extractions and enrichment done by using the apps and add-ons. This helps us understand the application logs because the raw data is useless unless we extract some useful information from it. These add-ons make it so much easier."
"Splunk Enterprise Security helped us with faster detection of threats."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the criticality of alerts."
"Now with Splunk Enterprise Security, we have everything in one place—the notables are created automatically, but they can also create their own notables based on the investigation, which improved and reduced about 50% of the manual work that was done before versus what we are doing now."
"Out-of-the-box, it seems very powerful."
More Splunk Enterprise Security pros
 

Cons

"The dashboard could improve in IBM Watson for Cyber Security."
"This is an expensive product, so making it more cost-effective would be an improvement."
"In the future, I would like to see threat intelligence included."
"They need to continue to build the AI capabilities."
"Splunk could add more ways to manage archiving and storage. There isn't a web interface. You can do this on the SaaS version, but the on-premise platform doesn't have this option. It has other things but no option for remote NAS. I would like to have a personal web interface where I can specify how long logs should be stored. To have this readily available on the web, you need to adjust some settings on the backend. That is tricky."
"I would like to see an updated dashboard. The dashboard is a little out-of-date. It could be made prettier."
"It is a good product, but the Achilles heel for a lot of organizations is the cost model for it because it gets expensive. That's because the model is based on how much data it processes a day, which can be prohibitive, especially if you have a lot of data. A lot of customers may not be ready for the sticker shock on how to fully leverage the product. I realized that the reason for that is that when it was originally designed, it was kind of like a big data modeling application. If they want to have a bigger customer base, they can come out with subsets of their product that are focused on specific things and have different pricing models. It may help with the cost."
"Some additional features that should be included in the next release of Splunk Enterprise Security are an integrated Attack Range, not as a separate solution, providing a way to test the rules in the production environment."
"Splunk Enterprise Security can be improved with more AI in the commands and more help in the commands, as not all people know how to write code in SPL, and we need more help in this area."
"To improve Splunk Enterprise Security, I suggest incorporating more AI features for faster remediation and enhanced responses, allowing users to build more correlation searches quickly."
"There are a lot of competitive products that are doing better than what Splunk is doing on the analytics side."
"Splunk can be an expensive solution. Technical support could be improved as well."
More Splunk Enterprise Security cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of this solution should be lower, although I understand why IBM charges a premium price."
"IBM Watson for Cyber Security is very simple to license and is priced well."
"The Splunk Enterprise Security license is expensive."
"From what I have seen so far, Splunk has multiple cost models. The one that we are using is pretty good when it comes to ingesting data into the environment. It has worked out pretty well."
"Splunk Enterprise Security is an expensive solution."
"Splunk is not free."
"Further reductions would be fantastic, and I believe that more and more people would flock to it."
"Some of the insights that we have obtained as a part of using Splunk have greatly helped us in increasing our revenue in terms of selling our products."
"The pricing model is expensive and a nightmare based on the amount of data."
"Splunk is not a cheap solution and the license is billed annually."
More Splunk Enterprise Security pricing and cost advice
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Comparison Review

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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…
Read full review
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business109
Midsize Enterprise49
Large Enterprise257
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What SOC product do you recommend?
For tools I’d recommend: -SIEM- LogRhythm -SOAR- Palo Alto XSOAR Doing commercial w/o both (or at least an XDR) is asking to miss details that are critical, and ending up a statistic. Also, rememb...
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What is a better choice, Splunk or Azure Sentinel?
It would really depend on (1) which logs you need to ingest and (2) what are your use cases Splunk is easy for ingestion of anything, but the charge per GB/Day Indexed and it gets expensive as log ...
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How does Splunk compare with Azure Monitor?
Splunk handles a high amount of data very well. We use Splunk to capture information and as an aggregator for monitoring information from different sources. Splunk is very good at alerting us if we...
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Comparisons

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IBM Security QRadar vs IBM Watson for Cyber Security
Compared 51% of the time
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Logsign Next-Gen SIEM vs IBM Watson for Cyber Security
Compared 30% of the time
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IBM Security QRadar vs Splunk Enterprise Security Logo
IBM Security QRadar vs Splunk Enterprise Security
Compared 9% of the time
Wazuh vs Splunk Enterprise Security Logo
Wazuh vs Splunk Enterprise Security
Compared 6% of the time
Dynatrace vs Splunk Enterprise Security Logo
Dynatrace vs Splunk Enterprise Security
Compared 6% of the time
Datadog vs Splunk Enterprise Security Logo
Datadog vs Splunk Enterprise Security
Compared 5% of the time
Security Onion vs Splunk Enterprise Security Logo
Security Onion vs Splunk Enterprise Security
Compared 4% of the time
More Splunk Enterprise Security Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
September 2025
IBM Watson for Cyber Security reportDownload IBM Watson for Cyber Security product report
Buyer's Guide
Splunk Enterprise Security
September 2025
Splunk Enterprise Security reportDownload Splunk Enterprise Security product report
 

Overview

Watson for cyber security can draw security intelligence from millions of security blogs, online forums and white papers - so you can see threats unseen by other systems.
IBM

Splunk Enterprise Security delivers powerful log management, rapid searches, and intuitive dashboards, enhancing real-time analytics and security measures. Its advanced machine learning and wide system compatibility streamline threat detection and incident response across diverse IT environments.

Splunk Enterprise Security stands out in security operations with robust features like comprehensive threat intelligence and seamless data integration. Its real-time analytics and customizable queries enable proactive threat analysis and efficient incident response. Integration with multiple third-party feeds allows detailed threat correlation and streamlined data visualization. Users find the intuitive UI and broad compatibility support efficient threat detection while reducing false positives. Despite its strengths, areas such as visualization capabilities and integration processes with cloud environments need enhancement. Users face a high learning curve, and improvements in automation, AI, documentation, and training are desired to maximize its potential.

What Are the Key Features of Splunk Enterprise Security?
  • Log Management: Efficiently manages and organizes a vast amount of logs for better data handling.
  • Rapid Data Search: Quickly retrieves relevant data for fast decision-making.
  • Flexible Dashboards: Customizable dashboards provide clear data visualization.
  • Comprehensive Threat Intelligence: Offers detailed insights to preemptively defend against threats.
  • Real-Time Analytics: Analyzes data in real-time to enhance response times.
  • Integration with Third-Party Feeds: Streamlines information flow from multiple sources.
What Benefits Should Users Investigate in Reviews?
  • Efficient Incident Response: Enhances the ability to respond promptly to threats.
  • False Positive Reduction: Minimizes incorrect threat alarms, making monitoring more efficient.
  • Threat Detection Speed: Accelerates the identification and evaluation of security threats.
  • Cost-Effectiveness: Potential savings through better licensing options and operational efficiency.
  • User Adaptability: Enhancements in documentation and training resources aid in overcoming the learning curve.

In specific industries like finance and healthcare, Splunk Enterprise Security is instrumental for log aggregation, SIEM functionalities, and compliance monitoring. Companies leverage its capabilities for proactive threat analysis and response, ensuring comprehensive security monitoring and integration with various tools for heightened operational intelligence.

Splunk
 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Splunk has more than 7,000 customers spread across over 90 countries. These customers include Telenor, UniCredit, ideeli, McKenney's, Tesco, and SurveyMonkey.
Buyer's Guide
IBM Watson for Cyber Security vs. Splunk Enterprise Security
September 2025
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