We have used Splunk to give us insight into the NetFlow of the traffic running through our network. We connect different networks but we only use on-prem. We are in the middle of a spider web, providing these services to different networks. We are trying to gain visibility into the traffic that traverses our network internally.
We are interested in the traffic volume because the services we are looking at are endpoint-encrypted, meaning encrypted traffic between a service provider and a client in another network. So we are not able to look into the media stream.
The networks we are connecting have their own security boundaries and their own security levels, and we don't mess with that. We are just trying to let them talk together.
We have been using Splunk for monitoring who is logging in and how and when.
It has given us visibility into what is going on in the network, such as how much traffic is running to and from the services, but we are not using Splunk in a straightforward way. When we are looking into reports on how much data has been used, we need to look into another system and enrich it with data from Splunk.
Splunk has drawn our attention to how the network is running. If there are alarms on things that are not functioning, it gives us early warning on problems that could arise.
In terms of operational performance, the efficiency, Splunk has helped us improve. We could have found other tools that would have given us the same efficiency, but this was the tool that we chose. From that perspective, it has been of value to us.
It would have helped us reduce our mean time to detect but I can only guess at how much; perhaps by 25 percent. And we would see a similar reduction for mean time to resolve.
It's a bit difficult to use. It takes some time to get into it and to get it to do what you would like it to do. It is not straightforward to use it. Once you have the dashboards for collecting and analyzing transactions configured, they are okay, but it takes some time to do it. Configuration could be easier.
We have been using Splunk for about eight years.
We have not looked at Splunk as a means of being able to scale, but we have not been hindered by using Splunk. Our goal has not been growth, but maintaining stable and secure networking, and this is what we have achieved. But with or without Splunk, we would have achieved that anyway.
We really haven't had any technical issues where we involved Splunk's support.
We did not have a previous solution like Splunk, other than in-house-developed tools. We got acquainted with Splunk as part of the tender for our network infrastructure, and from that perspective, it has been okay.
Splunk has been fairly expensive, but it has been predictable. You are not punished if you are looking into much more data if you are, for example, under attack. Other tools could be more expensive to use if they charge per incident or the amount of data you are looking into. With other solutions, you could be punished if you need to index more data because of an attack, such as a DDoS attack, and you need to do some forensics on the data.
Why shift to something you don't know when you are, perhaps, happy enough with the tool that you already have? Think about whether you could develop that tool into something that would give you the visibility you would like to have, instead of using Splunk. Are you looking into incidents, traffic flows, indexing per day, or is the issue that you're looking for an alternative with a better price? Think about why you are considering shifting from a tool that you already know.