Machine data is one of the fastest growing and complex areas of big data. It is also one of the most valuable, containing a definitive record of events that can reveal information about user transactions, customer behavior, machine behavior, security threats, fraudulent activity, and more. Extracting information from this data, however, presents real challenges. Many traditional data analysis, management, and monitoring solutions are not engineered to handle such high-volume, high-velocity, and highly diverse data.

This reference architecture addresses these key areas:

• Explains the core concepts and architecture of Splunk Enterprise
• Summarizes the key Dell Technologies components of the solution
• Details recommendations for reference architecture configurations for several realistic Splunk deployments of different business sizes and types

Splunk Enterprise gives you real-time visibility, insight, and understanding across your IT infrastructure and the applications and services that run on top of it. The Splunk platform also:

• Seamlessly blends metrics and events from both structured and unstructured data sources
• Collects and correlates multiple data sources to rapidly pinpoint service degradations and reduce mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR)
• Monitors end-to-end infrastructure to detect anomalies and prevent problems in near real-time
• Delivers powerful visualizations to understand relationships, track trends, and accelerate investigations

Dell Technologies and Splunk have partnered to provide a menu of standardized reference architectures for nondisruptive scalability and performance to aid an organization's digital transformation. When paired together, Dell Technologies and Splunk combine the Splunk ecosystem's analytics with the cost-effective, scalable, and flexible of Dell EMC infrastructure to deliver operational intelligence.