What is Splunk? (And How Does It Impact Business Intelligence?)

Splunk is an excellent tool for analyzing machine data that can be very complementary to other tech stack apps and processes. While Splunk’s own BI features may not be the best of the best, what this application does offer could be an excellent addition to any tech stack that focuses on log files and machine generated data. In this guide, we’ll explore exactly what it is and what makes it so popular in this sector.

What is Splunk?

Splunk is a software platform that allows you to search, analyze, and display machine-generated data from your IT infrastructure and business’s websites, apps, sensors, and devices. Splunk can assist you if you have a system that generates data on a regular basis, and you want to assess the machine’s condition in real-time.

Its main selling point is real-time processing. We’ve seen storage devices improve through time, and CPUs get more efficient with each passing day, but we haven’t seen data transfer increase significantly. This approach has not improved, and it is the bottleneck in the majority of organizational procedures. Data mobility can be aided by platforms such as Splunk.

Why Pick Them Over Other Technologies?

Splunk is distinguished from similar systems by a variety of characteristics and benefits. To begin, it is a data platform that may be expanded. Splunk is a scalable and adaptable platform that covers a wide range of use cases. You may use its search and reporting, security, and observability capabilities, as well as the 2,400+ apps on Splunkbase, to create bespoke applications tailored to your needs.

Splunk’s flexibility is another significant advantage over competing systems. With our patented schema-on-read technology, Splunk allows you to ask questions about unstructured data and provide structure on the fly. Streaming analytics guarantees that analytics-driven insights are available in near real-time. Splunk ensures that you can properly discern signal from noise at scale by combining full-fidelity data coverage with ubiquitous AI.

Splunk is also well-known for its ability to improve data security. Splunk is data source agnostic, which means it may be used across an organization’s complete IT environment. Multi-cloud, hybrid, and edge landscapes are all possibilities. Splunk accurately ingests metrics, logs, and traces, giving you complete context visibility. Spend less time piecing together data and more time taking action with it.

What are the Benefits of Splunk?

There are so many excellent benefits to Spunk, including the following:

• Splunk’s characteristics make it an excellent data management and analytics platform. Splunk can provide top management with all the knowledge they need to make better decisions since it collects data from many sources. It may be used to identify inefficiencies in processes and determine how to best utilize the company’s technology and human resources. A comprehensive perspective of how the firm operates, allowing for the detection and resolution of any operational bottlenecks.
• Splunk allows administrators to produce and schedule statistical reports on network usage.
• The display logs are quite easy to use.
• Splunk’s SIEM combines several data sources and provides a number of features and advantages, including the ability to create custom dashboards and manage alert processes.
• Splunk Cloud makes having a central monitoring and security solution simple.
• Although there is a learning curve with Splunk, it isn’t as steep as it is with rivals. The majority of teams should be able to pick it up fast.
• When it comes to developing dashboards, it is both simple and powerful.
• Splunk integrates with a variety of systems, including Okta, AWS, Mimecast, and others.
• Splunk provides comprehensive cybersecurity technologies that allow corporate security professionals to effortlessly explore data from any part of the organization.
• Splunk can assist minimize the time it takes to fix a technical problem by utilizing machine learning technologies. It can also operate as a preventative measure by offering relevant assessments to reduce the possibility of a company-wide outage.
• Splunk supports quick development processes by reducing the amount of time it takes for workers to comprehend how the software will affect the organization and do all subsequent analyses before the actual installation.
• Splunk makes data from systems exceedingly easy to understand. Splunk, in particular, performs specialized searches, turns complicated data into simple information, monitors operational processes in real time, and easily incorporates Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence solutions into data management.

What are the Disadvantages of Splunk?

Unfortunately, Splunk isn’t perfect. But then again, no BI tool is. Consider these disadvantages:

• Debugging can be time-consuming.
• The command line is used for the majority of enterprise setup. For certain users, this can be an issue, and cluster configuration could help them enhance their user interface.
• Better drag and drop functions to keep track of function syntax would be beneficial.
• Splunk presents difficulties for a decentralized work model.
• Some documentation is ambiguous, and finding a solution to an issue when certain things don’t function might be tough.
• The system itself uses a lot of memory.
• Splunk’s reporting capabilities are fairly restricted.
• Because Splunk’s architecture is complicated, competent developers are required to work with it.
• Splunk may not be suitable for entrepreneurs, small enterprises, and medium-sized organizations due to its cost structure.

Should Splunk Be Used for Business Intelligence and Embedded Analytics?

We would recommend using Splunk in your tech stack. However, this tool isn’t really the best as an all-in-one business intelligence tool. If you want to improve your BI processes and embedded analytics, this is a great tool to implement– just be sure to use it along with tools like DashboardFox.

How Can DashboardFox Help?

As mentioned earlier, Splunk on its own is good enough for your tech stack. And while Splunk has some dashboard and reporting capabilities, it is more geared toward the specific use cases of Splunk. Trying to leverage Splunk as your complete corporate dashboard and report solution is akin to trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

We would say DashboardFox and Splunk are complementary in your tech stack.

It’s about having the right tool in your toolkit for the job. Splunk for reporting on the log files and machine generated data. DashboardFox for reporting on your databases, Excel files, and API endpoints. DashboardFox can even connect to the Splunk database to provide a manager of manager reporting approach as well.

A few reasons why DashboardFox is a good addition to your reporting tech stack.

For one, DashboardFox is designed to be easy to use and understand, regardless of how much you know about computer programming, information technology, or computer languages. This is perfect for those who need embedded analytics and business intelligence without the added complications of technology.

Like Splunk, DashboardFox also prioritizes cybersecurity thanks to its self-hosted approach. You can grant access to those who need the most important files your company has while restricting those who are not allowed to see them.

Let’s sweeten the deal even more by the fact that DashboardFox has no subscriptions to maintain (our business-friendly pricing schemes are always a hit to businesses concerned about reducing expenses) and a dedicated team who will treat you like a VIP all the time.

Convinced? Let’s seal the deal by experiencing a free live demo session with our DashboardFox experts, or reach out to us through a meeting. We’ll be ready to answer all your questions.

What do you think about Splunk? Tell us what your experience with this tool has been like in the comments below.