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Farid Lalayev - PeerSpot reviewer
Cyber Security Student at Baku Higher Oil School
Real User
Scalable, easy to use, and has a visualization feature that shows spikes in the system
Pros and Cons
  • "The best feature of IBM QRadar is visualization which shows you when there's a spike in the system, and this makes you realize that there's something wrong with the log."
  • "IBM QRadar has outdated technology, and this is its area for improvement. When you try to implement an analytic expression, it's not updated. The solution doesn't support newer technologies, and it doesn't update regularly. For example, around the world, others implement new technologies, while IBM updates later than others."

What is our primary use case?

We are using IBM QRadar for log reviews, particularly logs that come and go from the IPS, firewall, etc.

We have different dashboards for different technologies such as our firewall, IPS, and domains for our main website, so we use IBM QRadar to observe the logs from our website, and we try to make internal and external connections for better domain security.

What is most valuable?

The best feature of IBM QRadar is visualization which shows you when there's a spike in the system, and this makes you realize that there's something wrong with the log.

What needs improvement?

IBM QRadar has outdated technology, and this is its area for improvement. When you try to implement an analytic expression, it's not updated. The solution doesn't support newer technologies, and it doesn't update regularly. For example, around the world, others implement new technologies, while IBM updates later than others.

There isn't any additional feature I'd like added to IBM QRadar at this point because it's sufficient for visualizing the logs.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been with the company for one and a half months, and I've been using IBM QRadar almost daily, but the solution was deployed five or six months ago.

Buyer's Guide
IBM Security QRadar
August 2025
Learn what your peers think about IBM Security QRadar. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

IBM QRadar is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

IBM QRadar is a scalable solution. My company currently has seven to eight different accounts on IBM QRadar, so it's a scalable technology. It has no problems with scalability.

How are customer service and support?

I didn't have any problems with IBM QRadar, so I never contacted the technical support team.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I'm assuming that the main reason my company chose IBM QRadar is that IBM is one of the biggest tech companies in the world, so IBM products would be more secure and more reliable than other solutions.

How was the initial setup?

As I didn't set up or deploy IBM QRadar, I have no information on whether it was easy or complex to set up.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I have no information about the licensing costs of IBM QRadar, and whether or not it requires a license.

What other advice do I have?

I'm an intern at one of the biggest telecommunication companies, and my company uses IBM QRadar.

My advice if you want to use IBM QRadar is that you should use it because it's very scalable and it's easy to use. The solution also has many dashboards, and you don't have to write any code or write different scripts to get the information you need. You can do it from the UI of IBM QRadar. The only room for improvement in the solution is that it doesn't support newer technologies, and it's late when it comes to updates.

I'm rating IBM QRadar nine out of ten because my experience with it has been excellent. The only downside to it is that IBM is late with adding new features or supporting new technologies compared to its competitors.

My company is an IBM QRadar customer.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Ertugrul Akbas - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at ANET
Real User
Top 20
Scalable, easy to use, but lacking features and modern user interface
Pros and Cons
  • "IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics's most important feature is its ease of use."
  • "IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics could improve machine learning use cases because they are limited and most of the use cases are rule-based. They should develop more use cases, such as in Securonix or Exabeam because they will detect a threat. Using machine learning is mainly on the correlation rules, but if you think about Exabeam or Securonix, they detect using machine learning or machine learning-based algorithms."

What is our primary use case?

We are mainly using predefined rules on IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics

How has it helped my organization?

When we started using IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics's add-on or extension, we received more than 17 new use cases. Our organization has benefited from using IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics.

What is most valuable?

IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics's most important feature is its ease of use. 

What needs improvement?

IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics could improve machine learning use cases because they are limited and most of the use cases are rule-based. They should develop more use cases, such as in Securonix or Exabeam because they will detect a threat. Using machine learning is mainly on the correlation rules, but if you think about Exabeam or Securonix, they detect using machine learning or machine learning-based algorithms.

Using the interface of IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics is the same for years, they should redesign the interface to make it more modern. Some historical queries take a long time, they should improve or change their database. There are some missing operators on the correlation side. For example, some before operated.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics for approximately three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics is stable most of the time. However, it works on the client-side which requires a lot of system resources, such as RAM. In some cases, if the work is high, the stability deteriorates, but mainly it is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics is good. 

We have two people using this solution. We do not have plans to increase usage.

How are customer service and support?

We use a consultancy company for support and are not directly connected to IBM support.

How was the initial setup?

The deployment of IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics is very easy when compared to other machine learning solutions. The full deployment took approximately three weeks with less than 5,000 EPAs.

What about the implementation team?

We used a consultant that help us deploy and do maintenance for IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics.

What was our ROI?

I rate the return on investment of IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics a four out of five.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics is an application framework and you can install many applications without any additional costs.

I rate the price of IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics a four out of five.

What other advice do I have?

IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics is a good solution. If there is a big enough budget they might be able to afford the solution since it is expensive. If the conditions are okay, then they should select the solution.

I rate IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics a six out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
IBM Security QRadar
August 2025
Learn what your peers think about IBM Security QRadar. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.
DipeshBhawsar - PeerSpot reviewer
Archtect at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Easy to set up and expand but has too many false positives
Pros and Cons
  • "The scalability is very good. It's not a problem."
  • "I'm not sure about the stability just yet. We've observed a few issues and we raised a supporting ticket for it."

What is most valuable?

To be very frank, it's not that much help as of now. We are not getting that many insights from UVA, which we wanted, actually. As of now, we are exploring that UVA, and we have installed it. It's still quite new.

The initial setup is straightforward. 

What needs improvement?

The solution is still new to us. Currently, it's a work in progress with this. I'm not in any particular condition to tell what exact improvements are required. I will let a few more months go by before analyzing the overall UBS solution QRadar to get to know and final understanding of this particular application.

There are a lot of things that require modification. That's my initial observation, however, I need more time and a few more months to get to know it and get a final understanding of the solution as a whole.

I want a reduction of false positives. I want crisp true positive incidents out of it. I want to see proper user behavior. Whatever algorithm is working in the background, that algorithm should produce accurate, true positive incidents and not false positives.

For how long have I used the solution?

We are using QRadar as an appliance for the last four years, however, we recently, for the last six months, started using UBS.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I'm not sure about the stability just yet. We've observed a few issues and we raised a supporting ticket for it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is very good. It's not a problem.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support has been very supportive. We're largely satisfied with them.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward and simple. It's not very complex. 

We are using multiple features in QRadar. UVA is just one feature. We have overall 14 data nodes and we are almost 2,500 GB of data integrated with it and we are using multiple applications in QRadar. We have a nine-member team that manages the overall QRadar architecture, not only UBA.

What about the implementation team?

We did a direct integration.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I'm an architect. Normally costs and licensing are handled by senior management.

For UBA, they haven't asked for any extra charges or anything. It's included in the licensing.

What other advice do I have?

We're an IBM partner. We have platinum support with IBM.

We have segregated our data between on-prem and the cloud. All the on-prem data we have integrated with the QRadar. QRadar itself is an on-prem solution. We have QRadar hardware with us.

At this point, I would not recommend the solution to others. 

I'd rate the solution a six out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1846212 - PeerSpot reviewer
IM Operations Manager at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Simplified event quantity, scalable, but source data reports needed
Pros and Cons
  • "IBM Qradar's ability to simplify the number of events, not only on a technical level but by making that information easy to pan through the orchestration deduplication. It is very impressive given that we have hundreds of devices that send event logs through."
  • "IBM Qradar could improve the reporting. The tool is not designed to report. It's a great operational monitoring tool. You put it on a screen and you watch it. If you want to have analytics out of it, that's a whole different story. You're going to need more people and tools. What should be added is reporting and integration into Power BI, into some capability that produces analytical reports from the source data. IBM does not seem to care to add these features."

What is most valuable?

IBM Qradar's ability to simplify the number of events, not only on a technical level but by making that information easy to pan through the orchestration deduplication. It is very impressive given that we have hundreds of devices that send event logs through.

What needs improvement?

IBM Qradar could improve the reporting. The tool is not designed to report. It's a great operational monitoring tool. You put it on a screen and you watch it. If you want to have analytics out of it, that's a whole different story. You're going to need more people and tools. What should be added is reporting and integration into Power BI, into some capability that produces analytical reports from the source data. IBM does not seem to care to add these features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using IBM QRadar for approximately 10 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of IBM Qradar is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

IBM Qradar is a scalable solution.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support from IBM Qradar could improve.

I rate the support from IBM Qradar a two out of ten.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of IBM Qradar is difficult, you need to know what you are doing to be able to complete the task. It is not easy.

We used three to four specialists to do the implementation depending on how many integration levels you're going to have. If you're managing the flows and going to be managing applications, logical access, patch management, vulnerability management then it can take more time and more people. It depends on the scale that you want to integrate. 

IBM Qradar doesn't come ready for plug and play, for your APIs, integration, and all the other elements you will need a person that knows how to do the IBM QRadar setup. From that perspective, you need to make sure that integration points to the license keys, for validation, and that can be a different challenge if it doesn't work.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others is they have to have IBM Qradar set for purpose and it depends on the role that you see your SIEM solution playing in the company. If you're offering it as a service to other companies, or you're an IT service provider or security solution provider, then yes, you probably need an enterprise base that is scalable but not with smaller enterprises.

I do think the IoT component of IBM Qradar is lacking. IBM tried and IoT is not specifically aimed at only cameras or what I call physical access points, integration into what I call scale technology. They are areas that would depend on each business to map out what the requirements are. This is not a McAfee endpoint or a Symantec endpoint device that gives you an alert.

There is more competition and innovative application development in this area we've seen in the last few years.

I rate IBM Qradar a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1846212 - PeerSpot reviewer
IM Operations Manager at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Reliable, suitable for large enterprises, but could be more user-friendly
Pros and Cons
  • "IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson is a stable solution."
  • "IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson could be more user-friendly. You need some skills and understanding of what you're looking at, especially if you're going to draw down specific information."

What is our primary use case?

IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson is aligned with regards to what's happening in the public space in terms of the Phishing attacks that we are seeing prevalent in the market. In the campaigns that which hackers are trying to obtain information, the use cases are very practical. The solution offers quite a bit of protection.  

What needs improvement?

IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson could be more user-friendly. You need some skills and understanding of what you're looking at, especially if you're going to draw down specific information.

Massive improvement is required in reporting. IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson is not a tool that is known for its reporting capability. It's a highly operational tool that you use for monitoring, you can sit and you can watch your alerts, whether it's flows or EPS, and you set up your playbooks directly. It is not a reporting tool. It is the worst possible tool to ever expect any reporting. It's unfortunate it's not a great reporting tool.

In a future release, there could be a bit more intelligence in terms of predictive accuracy and overall predictions. I haven't been too close in the last two, three, or four months, but I certainly would expect that their technology would be simplified to provide predictive analytics as opposed to retrospective looking back and analyzing past historic data.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson for approximately 10 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson is best suited for large enterprises.

How are customer service and support?

The support from IBM is not great at all. They can offer much better aftermarket support. They don't respond in a timely manner and it's such a challenge to have IBM respond. You have to follow their due diligence process when logging a call on their portal, you need access to their portal, and you have to provide detailed logs, et cetera. If their problem is always about integration, they have to get to the vendors. They can always enhance their support.

I would rate the support from IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson a two out of five.

They do respond but it depends on many factors, such as urgency. When we had an issue with Microsoft integration it took us six weeks to have a solution to the problem.

How was the initial setup?

IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson's initial setup is not straightforward. You have to set up your network infrastructure, IP range, and firewalls, and make sure everything is secure. There's nothing easy about that.

What about the implementation team?

You need application and hardware leads, firewall administrators, network engineers, and server administrators to complete the implementation.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others is to shop around because IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson is not for small enterprises, it's aimed at your larger environments that have a multitude of infrastructure and networks that are hybrid across different environments. It integrates into quite a few tools, such as your email system, and file systems. 

This tool is not for everybody. IBM doesn't have the sort of tool that helps a five, ten, or twenty user environment. This is not advisable to go and invest in the solution. There are other tools that you could possibly look at that do probably some of the functions in terms of monitoring your playbooks and integration points that are a little bit easier to map to. However, that is not a tool for every organization out there. The solution is targeting major enterprises.

I rate IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson a seven out of ten.

There are quite a few areas they could improve, such as they have a lot of technical manual configs and orchestration could be better.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
UzairKhan - PeerSpot reviewer
Business General Manager at Mutex Systems
Reseller
Top 5
Good logging, reporting, support, and integration with GRD
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the integration with the GRD, for banking."
  • "The advanced planning management (APM) features should be included."

What is our primary use case?

We are a solution provider and QRadar is one of the products that we implement for our customers.

The majority of our clients for IBM products are financial institutions. By law, to be compliant, they are only allowed to run the current version of any solutions that have been procured. Specifically for our area, all of the financial institutions such as banks are mandated to use the latest version.

The use cases include the logging and reporting of servers. These are typically operations servers and critical servers. You can also use it to monitor network devices such as switches, routers, and firewalls.

Endpoints are not included for most of the clients.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the integration with the GRD, for banking.

What needs improvement?

The advanced planning management (APM) features should be included. We are facing an issue where many of the software houses in Pakistan have developed their own in-house. They have integrated the APM tool with their monitoring solution. This feature is attracting clients and I think that it should be included.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have not faced any issues in terms of stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable product. 

How are customer service and support?

The support from IBM is okay. I would rate them a four out of five.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not very complex. My team has hands-on experience with the product, which is perhaps why they do not complain about its complexity.

The distributor helped us a lot, which is something that we appreciate.

What about the implementation team?

We implement this product for our clients.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

There are competing products but IBM is a well-known brand so for the most part, we offer IBM QRadar to our clients.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, IBM QRadar is very good but no product is perfect.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Implementer
PeerSpot user
IT Solutions Product Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 5
It is very easy to install and configure, but after restarting the server, you need to manually start some of the services
Pros and Cons
  • "What I like the most about it is that you can very easily install and configure it. As compared to other SIEM solutions, for which you need to know and do a lot more to prepare your SIEM environment, QRadar is much simpler to install and configure. There are various options in the Admin console. In the Admin tab, you can design dashboards and view various graphs. It has a lot of attractive features, and you don't need to configure everything on your own."
  • "I have noticed a few things while working on this. After the restart of the server, sometimes, the services misbehave, and you need to manually start or restart the service. I have seen that specifically with the Tomcat service. Sometimes, when you click on log sources, instead of opening the log source extension, it redirects you over the internet."

What is our primary use case?

I am a Product Manager. I am managing the inventory and the logs. For R&D purposes, we downloaded various SIEM solutions from the internet to analyze their performance, and QRadar was one of them. I downloaded the Community Edition of QRadar to check its capabilities and see how to integrate various log sources in our network. It is in my lab, and I have tested it with a few hardware devices and a few computers and servers.

What is most valuable?

What I like the most about it is that you can very easily install and configure it. As compared to other SIEM solutions, for which you need to know and do a lot more to prepare your SIEM environment, QRadar is much simpler to install and configure. There are various options in the Admin console. In the Admin tab, you can design dashboards and view various graphs. It has a lot of attractive features, and you don't need to configure everything on your own.

What needs improvement?

I have noticed a few things while working on this. After the restart of the server, sometimes, the services misbehave, and you need to manually start or restart the service. I have seen that specifically with the Tomcat service. 

Sometimes, when you click on log sources, instead of opening the log source extension, it redirects you over the internet. 

There are two types of dashboards in QRadar. One is the conventional or old one, and the other one is Pulse. The Pulse dashboard is better, but we would like to have more options in the dashboard.

Additionally, if possible, there should be a single product for SIEM and SOAR. Instead of having QRadar and Resilient separately, there should be a combined solution to benefit from both. Furthermore, there should be a built-in mechanism to configure it in the cluster mode and high availability mode.

For how long have I used the solution?

I tested this product in the last two, three months. It is not implemented in our company.

How was the initial setup?

Its installation is very simple. You can install it and configure it very easily.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We are looking at implementing a SIEM solution, and currently, we're comparing various commercial and open-source SIEM solutions. We have tested Wazuh, which is an open-source SIEM solution, but we have not finalized anything.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it a seven out of 10. It is good, but when a product doesn't behave in a good manner, it creates confusion. Its behavior isn't consistent.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
SOC Manager at Nais Srl
Real User
Feature - rich, well priced and has good support
Pros and Cons
  • "The interface is good."
  • "I would like to see the update process simplified."

What is our primary use case?

IBM QRadar is used to help our customers collect information. It collects the information from other tools on the firewall, network devices, cyber tools with both Carbon Black, Cortex, Cynet, and Darktrace.

What is most valuable?

It's a complete platform.

The interface is good.

They have more than 100 features.

What needs improvement?

It is not easy to use.

The updates are not very easy. It is very complex. I would like to see the update process simplified.

When I said "it is not easy to use", I mean that QRadar is not for beginners.
Needs high competence and skyll to use it in a satisfactory way to really help customers.
The complexity is not a flaw, but it si a necessary quality for QRadar to be a truly effective tool in a Cyber environement.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have used IBM QRadar within the last twelve months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

IBM QRadar is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a scalable platform.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?


What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is good.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate IBM QRadar an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. As a SOC we are real user of QRadar platform for more then one customers.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free IBM Security QRadar Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: August 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free IBM Security QRadar Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.