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Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs Symantec Data Center Security comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 14, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation
Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (9th), Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) (4th), Microsegmentation Software (2nd)
Symantec Data Center Security
Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security
11th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Cloud and Data Center Security category, the mindshare of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is 25.2%, up from 20.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Data Center Security is 1.5%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud and Data Center Security
 

Featured Reviews

KlavsThaarup - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers micro segmentation capabilities and easy to setup
It's micro-segmentation The label-based segmentation is the most valuable feature. There are always areas for improvement. It doesn't support a PAAC solution (Platforma as a service) in the cloud. So that could be improved. In future releases, I would like to see more integration with other…
Atul-Vats - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers a complete system lockdown feature and the ability to restrict users but has a complex policy structure
The negative aspect of that particular product is the fact it has a very, very, very complex policy structure. A user or administrator making the policy in the DCS should have a very thorough knowledge of the operating system or policy making. You have to be very specific about the data structure. If you want to secure a Linux server, an administrator should be very confident about how the directory structure of Linux, how Linux works, and where it puts the important logs. You have to be very cautious about the complete path, and you have to write it over there in the policy part. If you are not very specific, there will be a lot of noise in the system. You're going to receive thousands of events that are false positives. The fine-tuning of the policy is a very complex thing in the DCS itself. Another negative aspect that I have observed is if the product gets installed on the kernel level of any non-Windows server, it has some issues, comparability issues. Sometimes the product doesn't work properly, so it shuts down the machine and crashes the system. There are many cases in which I've observed the DCS crashing the system.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The real bonus is the fact that we can secure applications, all the way down to the individual services, on each host. It's actually more granular security than we can get out of a traditional firewall."
"From day one, you get threat intelligence. It will immediately block active threats, which has been useful."
"Its deception features are great, providing a rich telemetry of lured origins, and are a great resource for any active defense strategy."
"The interface and dashboard are amazing."
"We like the centralized management of the firewalls. Until we installed Guardicore Centra, we managed all our firewalls individually, so making changes was complicated, difficult, and time-consuming."
"The tool is a complete package that offers many features like visibility. You can get a graph with real-time workflows and visibility into server-to-server communication. We get visibility into many things happening within our environment."
"The label-based segmentation is the most valuable feature."
"The solution is very scalable, especially when connected to the cloud resources."
"The ability to finely control permissions and restrictions on servers or assets through a customizable rule set is a key strength."
"The console and tools are very user-friendly."
"The granularity of applying the policies is valuable."
"The most valuable feature is the endpoint protection system."
"The monitoring in the management console allows us to find out what is going wrong, and it gets reports even before the user reports it."
"The advantage of Data Center Security is its ease of use and that it serves as a single unified platform, where I can apply all my security policies to protect that server."
"Good file integrity monitoring features."
"We use the product to prevent unauthorized access to data, systems, and servers. It provides essential features for data center security."
 

Cons

"It doesn't support a PAAC solution (Platforma as a service) in the cloud."
"Needs more customization of honeypots and a vaster catalog of systems able to be mimicked."
"Supports become difficult when it's for a big organization. For a small organization, medium organization, it still makes sense, however, for a big organization, it makes life difficult."
"It would be very helpful for beginners if the solution had more windows to help with the terms inside instead of going to the documentation."
"In our version, when using the terminal server, we cannot exclude user tasks for each session."
"Sometimes, the speed needs improvement, especially when it comes to the generation of maps, where it can be a bit slow."
"Clients would like to see that the security policies of GuardiCore can continue to be comparable to all the major firewall players out there."
"The maps could go a bit faster. They are useful but slightly slow."
"Could have better reporting capabilities and better support."
"A user or administrator making the policy in the DCS should have a very thorough knowledge of the operating system or policy making. You have to be very specific about the data structure."
"The support is very bad. They're not fast at all. Trend Micro's support is much better."
"It would be advantageous if Symantec or Broadcom, given the rebranding, could simplify the process, enabling users to leverage the antivirus functionality more easily."
"The product blocks certain processes, even after allowlisting them."
"They need to develop a more flexible product that can be scaled such that it fits well into a small business or a bigger, enterprise-level solution."
"There is room for improvement in enhancing its graphical user interface for a more user-friendly experience."
"There is plenty of room for improvement with this product, and it could start with platform metrics."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Guardicore Centra provides better value for money than NSX, was the other solution that we looked at, which was too expensive for what it does."
"The price is the same as other products in the market. There's no price argument to choose one or the other product, it will cost the customer approximately the same."
"GuardiCore has made some new changes to the license now. We've seen monthly and annual licenses based on a subscription. We have a few clients that pay anywhere from $25,000 a year."
"The pricing is too high."
"The customer would complain about the cost."
"This is not a cheap solution but you have to consider the bigger picture, which is what it is giving you."
"Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is expensive."
"Compared to the pricing we were seeing from both Illumio and Edgewise, Guardicore was very competitive."
"Compared to some other solutions, such as CrowdStrike, Symantec is more expensive."
"It is notably more expensive when compared to other solutions."
"The product is a bit costly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Guardicore Centra?
I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive. I know other micro-segmentation tools like Cisco or Illumio, and so I think they are in the middle.
What do you like most about Guardicore Infection Monkey?
Initially, I liked the telemetry part. But later, we used the microsegmentation features that we were able to deploy and found that they really stood out from other vendors. It allows us to see mi...
What needs improvement with Guardicore Infection Monkey?
When we have more than one interface, we can only have one policy for both interfaces. Normally, you have assets with a production interface and a server interface that are only for management. But...
What do you like most about Symantec Data Center Security?
The granularity of applying the policies is valuable.
What needs improvement with Symantec Data Center Security?
Agent management is a challenging task. We cannot do it from the console. We will have to use other tools.
What is your primary use case for Symantec Data Center Security?
One key use case for data center security is protecting files within the data center. This is especially important for Linux systems, where locking down specific files is essential to prevent unaut...
 

Also Known As

Guardicore Centra, GuardiCore
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Santander, Frontier Airlines, OpenLink, Intermountain Healthcare, Cellcom, BancoBASE
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Symantec Data Center Security and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
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