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IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs Imperva SecureSphere Database Security vs Trustwave DbProtect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Database Security category, the mindshare of IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is 32.0%, up from 31.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Imperva SecureSphere Database Security is 31.2%, down from 32.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Trustwave DbProtect is 4.6%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Security
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmer Faisel Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers mature agents, compliance reporting and reliable database security
The solution should allow the data to shift to a centralized repository with elastic servers and big data infrastructure. If a customer searches for old logs for retention purposes, there are limitations on appliances once they are set with specific hardware, so they can only be changed by uninstalling or reinstalling the hardware. The solution's aggregator feature allows data aggregation, but for instance, if a customer wants a project ready in two years, having an Elasticsearch in DB or the capacity to store huge amounts of data would be beneficial in data investigation or evaluation at an affordable cost. Some AI features should be added to IBM Security Guardium Data Protection. For example, the AI features implemented in the solution can be anomaly detection or suspicious activity identification.
Andrew_Kampolo - PeerSpot reviewer
The fine-grained auditing available on the platform makes life easier and helps explain anything happening in your database
Imperva's most valuable features are ease of use and log correlation. I also like the ability to trace activity from the host machine to the server access, the user details, and the exact query that they executed. If a database administrator or application process executes a query on the database, people know exactly what was executed, including all the variables. For example, it will tell you how many rows they were trying to select on which table, and you get the OS information, network details, IPs, and the user. That fine-grained auditing available on the platform makes life easier and helps explain anything happening in your database.
Marcelo Raza - PeerSpot reviewer
A tool that offers a proper view and division of all databases while also allowing users to do continuous monitoring
I have seen that the tool's installation phase has some problems regarding the versions, specifically the version of SQL. Trustwave DbProtect doesn't accept some versions of SQL. Some credentials when you are installing give some problems, but all of them did pass through the installation phase but gave a certain amount of hard work to be done during the installation phase. The aforementioned area needs to be considered for improvement. The pain points with Trustwave DbProtect were about the installation and problems with the different versions not being accepted. A more compatible version of the product with other databases and operating systems should be possible.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Satisfies audit requests, to give us an idea if anybody is accessing our privileged user IDs without our knowledge."
"We appreciate its ease of implementation and the local support available for the product."
"Setting up Guardium was easy and straightforward."
"Security policy enforcement of policy-based encryption and centralized encryption key management allows us to maintain data in a secure environment."
"We use IBM Guardium to support security initiatives and combine policies within the organization."
"What I like about IBM Guardium Data Protection is that some of its features were deployed by collectors during the installation phase. The solution has collector and aggregator features, license installation, and even server patches that you won't find in other security providers. I like the collector-aggregator capabilities of IBM Guardium Data Protection where you install each component on separate servers, then on the aggregator, you collect all the logs on a central server or central console."
"It sends out an immediate alert when there's suspicious activity."
"The solution supports a lot of databases."
"This is a stable product."
"We use it for database security, vulnerability analysis, discovery, and handling requests from applications and users."
"The tool happens to be very intelligent when it comes to processing policies and sounding alerts. It allows us to implement policies and measure actions against them, raising alerts accordingly."
"The solution provides significant benefits such as compliance and security. Its data risk analytics tool helps reduce numerous events to more manageable incidents."
"As we are very sensitive to financial impacts, this product provides great protection for our organization."
"The cyber intelligence feature is the most valuable."
"The integration with CounterBreach is great."
"The solution is very stable."
"Transfer and vulnerability scanning are the most valuable features of this product."
"This solution helps our clients to monitor their database use, and detect violations of the policy."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that you can have a good view which is provided with a proper division of all your databases, which you can see in Trustwave DbProtect."
 

Cons

"The documentation could be better."
"More predictive, using Watson AI would be good."
"The technical support is very poor."
"It was difficult implementing it, configuring it, getting it up and running and in production. However, since then, I believe it has stabilized."
"I'd like to see a smoother GUI interface for the CAS agent - CAS does configurations on the database - to interface better with the vulnerability assessments."
"The ability for Central Managers to talk to one another could be improved. I have 26 Central Managers and 26 silos which are independent."
"The biggest complaint that I hear from customers and users is that using this solution requires database skills, yet it is a security and monitoring tool."
"An area for improvement would be the user interface - currently, it takes around two to three months to become comfortable using it."
"Some cloud versions are not supported by the agent."
"Data encryption. Yeah, Imperva needs to pull up on data encryption and make it a standard feature to allow maybe for tokenization, encryption of data, and things like that."
"It would be better to update the solution by using a GUI that guides me, rather than through a CLI."
"The agent does not monitor databases in the containers."
"Its reporting can be improved. The reporting feature is currently not good enough for our clients."
"It would be more efficient if we could manage the consoles of management servers from a single location"
"There is sometimes lost communication and it can take a lot of troubleshooting to solve."
"The solution is expensive."
"We have not been able to integrate this product with a lot of standard incident response solutions, so an open API would help in this regard."
"The product does not have encryption or data masking."
"I have seen that the tool's installation phase has some problems regarding the versions, specifically the version of SQL."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not an expensive product. We purchase its yearly license."
"IBM solutions have fair price strategy, and operates on a yearly basis. If it's a SaaS solution, then you can opt for yearly basis."
"I would suggest to review the type of data, need for security, and if the organizational structure needs the options IBM Guardium provides."
"The cost depends on the number of databases. You can purchase advanced licenses, but the standard license is calculated based on the number of databases you have to onboard."
"It's an expensive solution"
"IBM Guardium Data Protection charges you based on the number of users, e.g. based on the number of licenses, and it's either on a per-license or a per-data basis."
"The price of the solution could be better."
"We haven't talked much about pricing and licencing. But it is not cheap for sure"
"The pricing is reasonable and competitive."
"The price of the solution is reasonable. The cost of the solution depends on the customer, they have the flex protect licensing which can vary in price."
"This is an expensive solution and the price should be reduced."
"Imperva SecureSphere Database Security was quite expensive several years ago, but now they provide a subscription plan for licensing. It is available now for smaller and medium-sized companies, not only large enterprises."
"Pricing is low and scalable to add features and volume."
"The product’s price is reasonable compared to other products."
"The product is expensive."
"Licensing fees are on a yearly basis, and it is a good value for the money."
"The licensing fees, including support, are approximately $5,000 USD per database, per year."
"I rate the pricing a five on a scale from one to ten, where one is the lowest and ten is the highest."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
30%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
14%
Insurance Company
7%
Retailer
6%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
11%
Healthcare Company
9%
Insurance Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

How does IBM Guardium Data Protection compare with Imperva SecureSphere Database Security?
IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is a solution for database security from IBM that gives complete visibility, co...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Guardium Data Protection?
The pricing is good, and I have no problem with it. Although there is no flexibility to compete with other products, ...
What do you like most about IBM Security Guardium Data Protection?
The features I like are the robust policies, which allow us to create customized monitoring based on specific activit...
What do you like most about Trustwave DbProtect?
The most valuable feature of the solution is that you can have a good view which is provided with a proper division o...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Trustwave DbProtect?
Price-wise, Trustwave DbProtect falls in the mid-range category in Portugal. Many solutions similar to Trustwave DbPr...
What needs improvement with Trustwave DbProtect?
I have seen that the tool's installation phase has some problems regarding the versions, specifically the version of ...
 

Also Known As

InfoSphere Guardium, Guardium, IBM Guardium
No data available
Application Security DbProtect
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
BlueCross BlueShield, eHarmony, EMF Broadcasting, GE Healthcare, Metro Bank, The Motley Fool, Siemens
Pax World Investments, Crest Savings Bank, Magnolia Hotels
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, Imperva, Oracle and others in Database Security. Updated: April 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.