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IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs Oracle Advanced Security 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 ...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
Database Security (1st)
Oracle Advanced Security
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Encryption (12th), Data Masking (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Database Development and Management Tools solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is designed for Database Security and holds a mindshare of 28.0%, down 32.8% compared to last year.
Oracle Advanced Security, on the other hand, focuses on Endpoint Encryption, holds 2.8% mindshare, up 1.4% since last year.
Database Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Security Guardium Data Protection28.0%
Imperva Data Security Fabric26.7%
Oracle Audit Vault10.8%
Other34.5%
Database Security
Endpoint Encryption Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Oracle Advanced Security2.8%
Microsoft BitLocker20.1%
ESET Endpoint Encryption9.8%
Other67.3%
Endpoint Encryption
 

Featured Reviews

DP
Chief Executive Officer at Kipustec
Ensures data security and compliance with reliable alerts and protections
The manuals should be clearer. There needs to be an online course or tutorial for faster management training. The maintenance was slightly complicated. I had to read the manuals carefully and even failed the Guardium certification exam due to insufficient information or time. Improving the tool learning process would be beneficial.
reviewer1458726 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Good support, stable, and offers encryption at both the column and table level
The most valuable feature is the data encryption option for columns and tables. We are also getting the benefit of detection data. If I want to share data with another Oracle user then the data sharing is automatically detected. We don't need to modify anything. This is a complete security solution and all of the features that we are using are available off the shelf.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Ability to define reports based on SQL query, especially when you have complex report criteria."
"The solution supports a lot of databases."
"There are different modules but the most valuable ones are firewalling and masking. Additionally, the auditing of the entire database is helpful, which includes all the activity of the database users and administrators. We can monitor everything and log as well."
"Audit Process Builder – Workflow generator to enhance audit tasks and compliance workflows."
"The most valuable features of this product are activity monitoring on the database servers, discovery capabilities, and vulnerability scanning."
"It does not require our involvement to run it. It runs in the background and the people that do the reporting do so. The reports go to the directors who are in charge of the various data areas. It's pretty clean. Clearly there is some setup, but after you get it set up it just goes."
"The tech support is very knowledgeable."
"I rate Guardium 10 out of 10 for data activity monitoring and nine for vulnerability assessment. It's easy to implement and does its job. But I would rate it seven out of 10 in terms of advanced features."
"The most valuable feature is the data encryption option for columns and tables."
"The features that are the most used by the customers and partners are, at the moment, for GDPR, so obviously data encryption and data reduction. Our customers also like the partitioning option."
 

Cons

"IBM Guardium Data Protection is a mature product. There is a lot of encryption that is not owned by IBM and is done by a third party and is not an integral part of the solution."
"Needs easier integration with custom applications."
"I'd like to them make sure that the data sources can be more easily managed, because some of them are tied to multiple things. You try to remove one and you have to go to all the different spots to remove the associations before you can get rid of it."
"I would like to see AI and machine learning added in the future."
"An area for improvement would be the user interface - currently, it takes around two to three months to become comfortable using it."
"There are features like end-to-end and S-TAP mapping, and the ability to install policies for your configuration builder. They're not there, but we'd like to see them in the next version."
"Right now, we're in the development phase for IBM Guardium Data Protection, so I don't have any recommendations about additional features and room for improvement in the solution. We're very excited to work on IBM Guardium Data Protection because we are new to the solution, and we're still exploring product features. We're very excited about integrations and use case creation, and it's only after six to eight months that I'll be able to share my recommendations in terms of additional features the solution should have. We did find some difficulty in deploying IBM Guardium Data Protection here in Pakistan because of the lack of resources."
"The price of this solution is quite high for smaller organizations, so they should release a version that is affordable for small and medium-sized businesses."
"Having a single command to encrypt a table would be an improvement."
"It is really constrained as an environment because you cannot change something that would be useful. It is a very good product because it is very similar to what you have on-premises. Yes, it is constrained, but it is expected because it is a platform as a service so it has to be constrained."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"We haven't talked much about pricing and licencing. But it is not cheap for sure"
"The tool is not cheap, but it is not expensive."
"It's an expensive solution"
"Guardium has not saved us time or money."
"Reasonable cost but could be lower."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
24%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Insurance Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise44
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?
I don't remember the exact prices, but Guardium is an expensive tool because it is targeted towards corporate enterprises.
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
IBVI, illycaffe, Scottish water, trueblue, AirAsia
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM, Imperva, Oracle and others in Database Security. Updated: February 2026.
883,089 professionals have used our research since 2012.