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IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs Oracle Audit Vault 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
Oracle Audit Vault
Ranking in Database Security
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
28
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 Oracle Audit Vault is 14.8%, up from 14.1% 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.
Yves Moro - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides good security, and is helpful for auditing the data and seeing what's happening
Currently, you need two servers: one for Audit Vault and one for the firewall. If they can combine them into one server, it will be great because it is costly to have two servers. It will also make its installation easier. I have heard that in the new version, there will be only one server for both. I use it only for security purposes, and they can continue to improve it with more security tools and features. It should be powerful like FortiGate. When it becomes powerful like FortiGate, people will only go for this solution for their infrastructure. Their support could be faster.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature for me, in my role as systems DBA, is the expediting of internal and external audits."
"It's allowing us to be more proactive than reactive on alerts and access rights and types of resources that are being hit. Before, there were a lot of different solutions, but this expanded that out and made it a more holistic solution. It provides centralization of monitoring, instead of multiple, disparate applications. It definitely allows more economies of scale, streamlining, less fragmented use."
"The platform provides data protection from internal and external threats."
"Guardium is easily integrated with other IBM solutions, a significant advantage and a key reason we chose Guardium. Both platforms share the IBM infrastructure, enhancing compatibility and integration. Additionally, Guardium offers a vulnerability analyzer, which is another compelling feature of the platform."
"Efficiency is key and IBM Guardium provides information in a heartbeat, but protects the data with military grade encryption."
"The tool helps detect invalid login attempts within a specific time frame."
"The vulnerability assessment is a valuable feature."
"The features I like are the robust policies, which allow us to create customized monitoring based on specific activities."
"A powerful, flexible solution for database traffic monitoring."
"It is a good product for controlling all databases. It is helpful for auditing the data. When people are doing any actions on the databases, they are recorded automatically in the vault. You can work on the collected data to find out exactly what is happening on a database. You can implement database encryption on the databases to control people's access to the database content, such as rows and tables."
"Our clients can see all of their past actions or the wrong activity done on the network. We can load the diagnostics for the business."
"All of the other components that make up the infrastructure in the environment including the operating system are also quite valuable."
"Oracle Audit Vault has a lot of great features, but what I find most valuable is the database firewall."
"The feature that I have found most valuable is that it can help us secure our databases."
"The most valuable feature of Oracle Audit Vault is that it is agentless and enhanced user interface."
"It has reduced the stress of collecting database event logs in silos from each database."
 

Cons

"The solution could be improved for NoSQL databases."
"Setup can be complex. The documentation is in so many different locations, and a lot of times we have to leverage support and higher level resources to figure out the right steps to take."
"I would like to be able to upgrade appliances within major versions without needing to rebuild the appliance."
"Initially it did not have support external applications like, say, Tableau, ServiceNow, Remedy, and the like. They have started growing into it, but I would like to have more and more integration with outside applications."
"The installation should be a bit easier."
"The documentation could be better."
"Sometimes the connectors to the databases need to be manually updated and we have to configure them again, which is something that should be improved."
"​It will not go as fast as you want. ​"
"We would like to see the ability to administer and manage the solution through Enterprise Manager 13c, and development of the dashboards that are generally missing."
"They should simplify the integration and work with different vendors and mechanisms."
"An easy, friendly user interface would be nice to have, since this would enable administrators to identify important events with a prompt response."
"The product monitors only the database and not the operating systems."
"One feature that is missing is the ability to have a secret server that is always encrypted."
"This solution doesn't audit the network."
"I hear from many people that say IBM Guardian is better than Oracle Audit Vault when it comes to performance. IBM Guardian works transparently in the database, but Oracle Audit Vault consumes some ratios on the server."
"Customized reporting is something that we are struggling with, and it is quite tough for us."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Reasonable cost but could be lower."
"It is not an expensive product. We purchase its yearly license."
"My company purchased IBM Guardium Data Protection in a package, so I'm unable to give its exact licensing cost, but for the package of three IBM solutions, it wasn't very expensive. I'd rate the pricing for all three solutions three out of five. When my team deployed IBM Guardium Data Protection, all features were included."
"The product's pricing is reasonable and affordable. It is in the moderate range."
"Guardium has not saved us time or money."
"The tool is not cheap, but it is not expensive."
"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."
"Guardium won mostly because of our scope and scale. It was able to perform at the scale that we wanted to use it. ​"
"For the bank, the license was $48,000 last time. That was the licensing for the bank on just one license."
"This solution is definitely not expensive, and it is a small fraction of the overall database licensing costs."
"The licensing cost is about $360,000, annually."
"Oracle can be an expensive solution depending on the options and user needs."
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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
30%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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.
What do you like most about Oracle Audit Vault?
Oracle Audit Vault has a lot of great features, but what I find most valuable is the database firewall.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Audit Vault?
I would rate the costliness of Oracle Audit Vault as a seven out of ten. It is a bit expensive.
What needs improvement with Oracle Audit Vault?
The performance of Oracle Audit Vault could be improved, especially in handling large data collections and generating reports on time. Additionally, the efficiency of queries for retrieving informa...
 

Also Known As

InfoSphere Guardium, Guardium, IBM Guardium
Audit Vault
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Abu Dhabi Department of Finance, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health, Educational Testing Service, Ryohin Keikaku Co. Ltd., SPC Brasil, REDISA, Qatar Olympic Committee, Seneca College, Hunan Social Insurance Management and Service Bureau,
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs. Oracle Audit Vault and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,640 professionals have used our research since 2012.