Splunk : New Splunk Enterprise Drives Down the Cost of Big Data Analytics

SAN FRANCISCO - April 5, 2016 - Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK), provider of the leading software platform for real-time Operational Intelligence, today announced the general availability (GA) of Splunk® Enterprise 6.4 and a new Splunk Cloud release. Splunk Enterprise customers can now drive down the cost of big data analytics by reducing the storage costs of historical data by 40 percent to 80 percent whether deployed on-premises or in the cloud. Both Splunk Cloud and Splunk Enterprise include new interactive visualizations and an open library on Splunkbase where customers and partners can develop and share their custom visualizations. Other new features in both platforms include enhanced big data analytics, improved query performance, platform security and management improvements. Additionally, new cloud analytics apps are now available for Akamai Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and ServiceNow. Go to the Splunk website to download Splunk Enterprise 6.4 or to sign up for Splunk Cloud.

As more and more organizations collect, analyze and retain data at an astounding rate, storage is increasingly becoming the most expensive aspect of data analytics. Long-term data retention is becoming a critical issue as companies grapple with regulatory compliance, security investigations and the need to better understand long-term business trends.

'Splunk is passionate about making big data analytics more affordable for organizations of every size. Reducing the cost of historical data retention and analysis is a major part of delivering that value to our customers,' said Shay Mowlem, vice president of product marketing and management, Splunk. 'Splunk Enterprise customers can now reduce storage costs for historical data by up to 80 percent for on-premises, cloud and hybrid deployments. We are also engineering long-term data archiving functionality into Splunk Cloud, which we expect to deliver later this year.'

'For many organizations, data retention costs are the single biggest factor driving analytics TCO. Splunk Enterprise addresses this problem with the new storage optimizations for historical data,' said Jason Stamper, analyst, 451 Research. 'The new visualizations, analysis enhancements and storage cost reductions support Splunk's vision for cost-effective machine data analytics and platform strategy.'

'We are pleased Splunk is continuing to focus on innovating its platform to provide better visualization options and lower cost of ownership,' said Ed Bailey, enterprise architect, TransUnion. 'The previous version of Splunk Enterprise doubled our performance, and now the new storage optimization abilities in Splunk Enterprise 6.4 can significantly lower our storage costs. We have compared costs to other solutions including open source and Splunk has a lower total cost of ownership.'

'We rely on Splunk Enterprise for real-time visibility into key business metrics such as order volume, value and completion rates to provide the smoothest possible customer experience,' said Andre Pietsch, product manager, Otto Group. 'The new visualization library and developer framework in Splunk Enterprise 6.4 will make it even easier to create custom visualizations specific to our needs, especially around transaction monitoring. Ultimately, we will be able to make critical business decisions even faster.'

Customers benefit from several features in the new releases:

Lower Cost of Long-term Data Storage (Splunk Enterprise Only)

• Cut historical data storage costs with Splunk Enterprise by 40-80 percent, whether deployed on-premises, in the cloud or in a hybrid environment.
• Enables users to selectively optimize the cost/performance of queries on their historical data.

Interactive Visualizations and Enhanced Analytics

• Leverage portfolio of new pre-built visualizations and a new visualization library on Splunkbase.
• Easily create or customize visualizations using the new developer framework.
• Improved query performance and flexible data sampling options.
• Enhanced predictive analytics: More accurately forecast trends and predict missing values.

Platform Security and Management

• New views in Splunk management console provide deeper visibility into Splunk system event collection and health.
• Additional support for web single sign-on for OKTA, Azure Active Directory and Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS).
• Increase management flexibility and security using delegated administration roles.

Operational Intelligence for Cloud Services

• Monitor and analyze the real-time performance, availability and security of the Akamai CDN service with the Splunk App for Akamai.
• Ensure security, efficiency and cost management of an AWS environment with the new version of the Splunk App for AWS.
• Track incidents, changes and event management processes in ServiceNow with the updated Splunk App for ServiceNow.

Go to the Splunk website to learn more about Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud.