Higher education solves complex IT infrastructure and security challenges with Splunk

It is a lesson that top universities learn almost every day operations on campus are vulnerable to some of the most advanced security threats. Many such institutions play it smart with Splunk Inc., provider of software for real-time operational intelligence.

 
Splunk helps institutions improve operations on campuses around the world, particularly in the areas of IT infrastructure, applications management and security. More than 275 universities, colleges, and institutions of higher learning are using Splunk software to gather critical insights from real-time analysis of machine data so they can identify the next potential crisis rather than chase the last one.
 
According to Mark Seward, senior director of security and compliance marketing at Splunk, security monitoring is a critical process in any organization. "Universities have some of the most complex IT infrastructures in the world, and this makes them extremely vulnerable," said Seward. "It's the ultimate bring-your-own-device (BYOD) situation. Security threats are constantly evolving. Splunk collects massive amounts of data and helps users detect unknown and persistent threats. Splunk's powerful search language and visualization capabilities deliver real-time views and true service-level reporting."
 
Enhancing security is just one component of how institutions are making a difference with Splunk. Splunk software provides users with the operational intelligence to help lower costs, increase IT efficiency and improve operations.
 
"Today's educational institutions must deliver rich research portfolios, effective educational experiences and transparency of information for accountability and compliance, all under increasingly difficult budgetary constraints.  Splunk is actively supporting universities that want to use our software to better manage their IT operations," said Rob Reed, Splunk's worldwide education evangelist.
 
Rutgers University, The University of Texas at Austin, and University of Connecticut are at the forefront of using Splunk to make sense of their machine data. These leading universities rely on Splunk software in the areas of security monitoring, streamlining registration and improving overall IT infrastructure.
 
"Splunk helps us dramatically reduce the time it takes to investigate and resolve security incidents. Splunk's real-time monitoring ability allows us to be proactive rather than reactive, freeing up time for other mission-critical tasks," said Jason Pufahl, Chief Information Security Officer, University of Connecticut.
 
Universities also use Splunk to gain insight into key issues and metrics across their applications and IT infrastructure. Rutgers University uses Splunk to manage course registration loads. "Our Splunk dashboard indicates spikes, anomalies, and errors in the registration process," said Andy Page, Systems Administrator, Rutgers University. "It also allows us to search automated behavior by digging into the applications and components to understand the root causes of problems."
 
Additionally, Splunk enables universities to easily maintain the smooth running of the IT infrastructure. "As with other large universities, we have tens of thousands of users representing an even larger population of networked devices," said Cam Beasley, Chief Information Security Officer, The University of Texas at Austin.  "We have a constant need to identify anomalous user account behavior, detect, locate, and quarantine compromised systems in real-time, and correlate events across multiple logging environments to more fully understand potential problems or threats. With Splunk, we can more easily identify, troubleshoot, and respond to such problems."