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IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs Oracle Database Vault comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

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
7.6
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Database Vault
Ranking in Database Security
5th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 Oracle Database Vault is 2.1%, up from 0.3% 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.
AjayKumar13 - PeerSpot reviewer
Setup challenges and user experience issues persist
I primarily use Oracle Database Vault for encryption during data transit. The data is encrypted as it travels across the network, and I have previously used it for backup purposes I use Oracle Database Vault mainly for encryption at transit. It encrypts data traveling across the network.…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We now have the ability to begin to understand how people, applications, and service accounts are interacting with data to better protect it."
"We use IBM Guardium to support security initiatives and combine policies within the organization."
"Easy to set up data activity monitoring solution that provides competent technical support. Scalable, stable, and has good performance."
"Satisfies audit requests, to give us an idea if anybody is accessing our privileged user IDs without our knowledge."
"The most valuable feature is the visualization of data and the ability to monitor our databases."
"Good data encryption and data masking features."
"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 reporting side is also very, very good, especially its flexibility which allows you to tailor the reports to whatever information you want."
"The product is easy to use and provides good performance."
"The product is fairly easy to implement."
"I haven’t seen any other database perform as well as Oracle."
"It encrypts data traveling across the network."
"Oracle Database Vault has been valuable for database security in maritime companies and ports."
 

Cons

"Personally, I would not recommend this product."
"The technical support is very poor."
"Needs nore cloud support."
"We have had some issues with patches breaking things unexpectedly in our environments."
"Many clients inquire if the solution includes a database firewall, which it doesn’t."
"Sometimes the performance is not good, and also sometimes we have sudden bugs causing difficulties."
"The most important requirements for us are integration with new database solutions and the ability to manage things like Jailbreak or something like that. Its reduction feature can also be improved. It has a functionality called reduction, which is like masking data, but it is just a replacement of characters. Sometimes the customer needs more than this. It would be good if it was more advanced or complete. We also have a problem with this solution because the IBM aggregator isn't working very well. IBM has created big data intelligence for Guardium, and occasionally, customers need three or four months of data, but they can't run it from the collectors. It can have a better dashboard and more pre-defined use cases for those customers who don't have any idea about data protection or don't have expert personnel in this area. For example, they can include five use cases for banks and five use cases for retail."
"They could enable the out-of-the-box feature to track application user activity."
"Oracle's technical support could be improved."
"Oracle Database Vault is not easy to set up, and if I lose the key, it can lead to significant issues."
"The solution is relatively expensive."
"The solution is excessively expensive. There is a lot of room for improvement, considering the pricing model of the solution."
"The product's cost could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Guardium's pricing is quite high, but it gives good value for money for all sizes of enterprises, especially for partners."
"One of the deployments that I know of had three databases, and the yearly fees are approximately $50,000 USD."
"​If you are researching this type of solution, work with IBM."
"It is not an expensive product. We purchase its yearly license."
"Guardium won mostly because of our scope and scale. It was able to perform at the scale that we wanted to use it. ​"
"Reasonable cost but could be lower."
"Guardium has not saved us time or money."
"The price is good for the quality of the solution."
"The product is more costly than its competitors."
"I rate the product's pricing a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
30%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
7%
No data available
 

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.
What is the cost of Oracle Database Vault?
The cost of Oracle Database Vault depends on the number of processors and users. You can find more information about the pricing on the Oracle website. Pros: Oracle Database Vault is a powerful ...
What do you like most about Oracle Database Vault?
The product is easy to use and provides good performance.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Database Vault?
I do not handle pricing, so I am not aware of pricing details related to Oracle Database Vault.
 

Also Known As

InfoSphere Guardium, Guardium, IBM Guardium
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs. Oracle Database Vault and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.