I’m not your typical Cybersecurity Technical Specialist and I most certainly have not had the most traditional Cybersecurity education. I officially joined IBM Security at the beginning of Q4 2018 and unofficially in June of 2018. My introduction to IBM came in the form of my addition to an IBM Security Project team as a program manager. The project was introduced as “let’s figure out how we can help our clients get more value out of QRadar” and the team was moving toward this goal at full speed. After much thought, creative cross functional collaboration and a wild first few months for me, our mission statement has evolved into a program that we at IBM Security have become passionate about - The IBM QRadar Value Assessment (QVA) Program.
As the weeks flew by the project took shape and our initial vision came to fruition in the form of a new assessment. Our newly created assessment could be used in just 3-4 hours to understand what was going on in our clients QRadar environments. As we completed the assessment, we figured out a way to transform the results into a standardized report with actionable insights. By the end of the summer, our assessment and reporting structure were ready to be taken to our clients. We did. They loved it.
For the last several months, our Technical Specialists in every market have been visiting clients with QRadar Environments of all shapes and sizes and working through the QRadar Value Assessment with them. The meetings have been facilitated to cover configuration and administration, architecture and planning, apps, use cases, data source configuration, and anything else our customers might want to discuss.
As program manager for the QVA, I’ve had the unique opportunity to sit in on many of these sessions and be involved in the generation of the report that culminates from it. It’s been thrilling to see the magic that happens when our IBMers and clients work together. I get asked all the time “What’s going on with our QVAs,” and I always have to give a two-part answer. Sure, I’ve crunched the numbers and can speak to the trends numerically. But the real power is the clarity that our customers receive from concrete recommendations provided during QVA’s that provide steps to maximized value.
If you haven’t already participated in a QVA, I highly recommend it! Please see below for exactly what a QRadar Value Assessment is and how your team can leverage it. As you round out your year and start planning for 2019, I would strongly urge you to consider a QRadar Value Assessment.
IBM is excited to announce the launch of a new complimentary offering to all of our valued QRadar customers: the QRadar Value Assessment (QVA) Program that is focused on maximizing the value that QRadar provides to our customers.
What exactly are we offering? QRadar Value assessments begin with a three-hour onsite or remote workshop at no charge, with industry-leading QRadar technical specialists and market client technical practitioners. During the session we will work side by side with your QRadar administrators to understand your existing QRadar environment, usage and goals. The discussions will include configuration and administration, architecture and planning, apps, use cases, and data source configuration. Following the session, our experts will provide actionable recommendations for optimizing your QRadar deployment in the form of a formal report.
Why should you consider it? You will receive a clear roadmap with specific ways to optimize your security information and event management (SIEM) platform to better support your security analysts in their day-to-day tasks. You will be provided with a graphical dashboard indicating the current effectiveness of your deployment based on several key parameters, as well as a prioritized list of recommended actions to optimize your QRadar deployment.
Are you interested? If you are interested, and you should be, please reach out to your IBM account team or wendy.willner@ibm.com.
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