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IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs jSonar 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Security Guardium Data ...
Ranking in Database Security
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
jSonar
Ranking in Database Security
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Database Security category, the mindshare of IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is 31.6%, up from 30.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of jSonar is 1.4%, down from 3.2% 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.
reviewer1633014 - PeerSpot reviewer
Serves as a data lake for database activity and helps to centralize and normalize data
I rate the solution an eight out of ten. It can be simplified as it is a little complicated. However, it has a lot of flexibility and capability. My advice to users considering the solution is to look at their requirements and see if they align with their needs. Ensure that some use cases are tested on the solution before purchasing because it is important to ensure the monitoring works.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It allows us to put in controls to make sure that only the right persons access the proper records in the database."
"The most valuable feature for me, in my role as systems DBA, is the expediting of internal and external audits."
"Our ability to see when users are accessing sensitive data."
"Supports security initiatives and ensures compliance policies."
"Compliance Quick Start – Quick, GUI, step-by-step guide to automate compliance and give the customer a quick ROI."
"One of the most valuable features is the accelerator. It has a predefined report for PCI SOX compliance and other compliances."
"It supports our audit compliance."
"The most valuable feature I have found is the performance of client monitoring. The other competitors are unable to do this."
"It allows us to run models against it and do reports against it without understanding the different database technologies."
"The centralization of the data is probably the most useful feature because we span multiple database technologies. We also find the GBDI portion of it very helpful."
 

Cons

"The one thing that I would like to see improved, but I don't think it's going to be in the next release, is its reporting capabilities. I think that's been offloaded to another third-party product that I think IBM actually endorses for that."
"Flexibility could be improved."
"IBM should add more database security features to Guardium. They could add user profiling, anomaly detection, and machine learning. IBM has user profiling, but they need to strengthen it. It should make sense for the users. It should remove most of the false positives."
"Right now we're having some issues where it's using a high CPU, we don't know why. So, better testing before the product is ready would help."
"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 technical support is very poor."
"It would be helpful, and convenient to improve the Chat support."
"The solution lacks control over database security."
"It would be better if it were more user-friendly. Right now, it's a little bit of a complicated product to use. Another problem that we have is with encrypted traffic on Oracle. This is because it requires a database outage. That's a pain in the butt because you're monitoring critical systems, and they don't like outages."
"It can be simplified as it is a little complicated."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We haven't talked much about pricing and licencing. But it is not cheap for sure"
"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 is good for the quality of the solution."
"Guardium is most suitable for large scale enterprises because the pricing model is better if you are implementing a large number of databases."
"Its cost is good. With the new metric of licensing, such as PDO not being available now, customers are expecting a good price for the solution."
"Reasonable cost but could be lower."
"Guardium won mostly because of our scope and scale. It was able to perform at the scale that we wanted to use it. ​"
"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 know it's not cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
37%
Insurance Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

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, control, and analysis to secure sensitive data and comply with regulations. IBM S...
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, it generally costs between one hundred and three hundred thousand per year depen...
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 activities.
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Also Known As

InfoSphere Guardium, Guardium, IBM Guardium
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Voya Financial
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs. jSonar and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.