IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs Trustwave DbProtect comparison

IBM and Trustwave are both solutions in the Database Security category. IBM is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7, while Trustwave is ranked #9. IBM holds a 29.3% mindshare in DS, compared to Trustwave’s 4.4% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Trustwave users who would recommend it.

IBM Security Guardium Data ...

Read 79 IBM Security Guardium Data Protection reviews

4,782 Views
3,969 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Trustwave DbProtect

Read 6 Trustwave DbProtect reviews

638 Views
632 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Security Guardium Data ...

Trustwave DbProtect

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Trustwave DbProtect and IBM Security Guardium Data Protection compete in database security solutions. Trustwave offers favorable pricing and support, while IBM excels in features and perceived value.

Features: Trustwave DbProtect offers robust threat detection, dynamic analysis, and database activity monitoring. IBM Security Guardium Data Protection provides data encryption, masking, and real-time auditing alongside its monitoring capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Trustwave DbProtect could enhance integration with third-party solutions, expand data masking options, and improve reporting flexibility. IBM Security Guardium Data Protection may benefit from simplifying its initial setup, better user interface refinement, and more cost-effective pricing models.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Trustwave DbProtect is known for straightforward deployment and responsive customer service. IBM Security Guardium Data Protection, though effective, involves a complex setup but benefits from a broad support network.

Pricing and ROI: Trustwave DbProtect is cost-effective with substantial ROI due to budget-friendly protection. IBM Security Guardium Data Protection, while initially more expensive, offers ROI through advanced features and strategic long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs. Trustwave DbProtect Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs. Trustwave DbProtect

September 2025

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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

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Trustwave DbProtect

Ranking in Database Security

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Database Security category, the mindshare of IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is 29.3%, down from 33.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Trustwave DbProtect is 4.4%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Security Guardium Data Protection	29.3%
Trustwave DbProtect	4.4%
Other	66.3%

Database Security

Featured Reviews

Marylennis Franco

Jefe De Continuidad Operacional at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees

Has improved data visibility and streamlined compliance reporting across multiple database platforms

The best feature is how many databases we can protect with one solution because it has compatibility with different databases, including Oracle, SQL, and DB2. The data activity monitoring feature is very good because we can check the PDS and have the information for that. We can schedule the reporting and receive it by email, which provides very important information for different areas of the company. We don't need to have a seat and a case or access to the portal, we just receive the report. The user-friendly interface is very good.

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Marcelo Raza

Cyber Security Architect at Oakmount

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The front-end works very well."

"One of the most valuable features is the accelerator. It has a predefined report for PCI SOX compliance and other compliances."

"The most valuable features of this product are activity monitoring on the database servers, discovery capabilities, and vulnerability scanning."

"It has automated a bunch of manual tasks, giving us insights into activities that we would not otherwise be able to capture."

"Our ability to see when users are accessing sensitive data."

"The most valuable feature for me, in my role as systems DBA, is the expediting of internal and external audits."

"Database logging and audit functions are the most valuable features."

"The most valuable feature is using the capture operation mode “S-TAP/K-TAP agent”, because all activities in the database are captured, including direct access to the database server by privileged users. This is useful because, even if the database server logs were deleted, the Guardium Collector has already stored such data to enable traceability of access."

More IBM Security Guardium Data Protection pros

"This solution helps our clients to monitor their database use, and detect violations of the policy."

"Transfer and vulnerability scanning are the most valuable features of this product."

"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

"We deal with updates manually on Sundays and sometimes face bugs with the newer versions."

"One of the limitations that everyone who uses Guardium knows is its ability for back-end reporting. The ability to collect it sometimes is easier than the ability to retrieve it, use it, or give a good representation of it for incidence response or questions which come from the different people who want to use the data."

"Can't be used for a NoSQL database, which is limiting."

"I would like to see IBM Guardium have other encryption algorithms employed."

"I would like to see a lot of additional reporting and analytics features. They have basic outlier detection, but I would love to see that go further, and model it after analytics tools like Splunk."

"Performance and the ability to use resources could be improved."

"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."

"If IBM Guardium Data Protection could find a way to not have a lot of coding and development required to get the solution up and running it would be an advantage. The information of the agent could improve, which is necessary for us to monitor the databases would be a great benefit."

More IBM Security Guardium Data Protection cons

"I have seen that the tool's installation phase has some problems regarding the versions, specifically the version of SQL."

"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."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's pricing is reasonable and affordable. It is in the moderate range."

"The biggest challenge is the cost associated with the product, and the cost of maintaining. Everything is not translated directly to the benefits we see. There are benefits, yes, but if I were writing the check, would I buy Guardium? No."

"The price of Guardium is higher than the main competitor, Imperva. In addition, it's complex as the calculation of the licensing is done by Processor Value Unit (PVU). However, before purchasing a DAP solution, it is important to analyze specific points to evaluate the cost-benefit of each tool. For example: Does the environment to be monitored have mainframes? If so, it's a point for Guardium. If not, a point for Imperva. Note: IBM is looking into a new licensing policy and reducing the price of Guardium."

"The price of the solution could be better."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is very high price, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten."

"The price is good for the quality of the solution."

"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."

"Guardium is most suitable for large scale enterprises because the pricing model is better if you are implementing a large number of databases."

More IBM Security Guardium Data Protection pricing and cost advice

"I rate the pricing a five on a scale from one to ten, where one is the lowest and ten is the highest."

"The licensing fees, including support, are approximately $5,000 USD per database, per year."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

20%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	28
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	45

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...

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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.

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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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Comparisons

Imperva Data Security Fabric vs IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

Compared 51% of the time

Oracle Audit Vault vs IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

Compared 19% of the time

DataSunrise Database Security vs IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

Compared 5% of the time

IBM InfoSphere Optim Data Privacy vs IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

Compared 3% of the time

Cyera vs IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

Compared 3% of the time

More IBM Security Guardium Data Protection Competitors

Imperva Data Security Fabric vs Trustwave DbProtect

Compared 37% of the time

Oracle Audit Vault vs Trustwave DbProtect

Compared 24% of the time

Trustwave AppDetectivePRO vs Trustwave DbProtect

Compared 12% of the time

More Trustwave DbProtect Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection

October 2025

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection report

Download IBM Security Guardium Data Protection product report

Buyer's Guide

Database Security

October 2025

Download Trustwave DbProtect product report

Also Known As

InfoSphere Guardium, Guardium, IBM Guardium

Application Security DbProtect

Overview

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection automatically discovers and classifies sensitive data from across the enterprise, providing real-time data activity monitoring and advanced user behavior analytics to help discover unusual activity around sensitive data.

Deploy the solution to help discover regulated data in your data stores and use pre-built templates for regulations such as PCI, SOX, HIPAA, CCPA and many more, to streamline and automate compliance workflows.

IBM

Trustwave DbProtect is a security platform designed for consistent monitoring and management of enterprise databases within the data center.

Built on a centrally managed and distributed architecture, DbProtect uncovers database weaknesses. This includes configuration mistakes, identification and access control issues, missing patches, or any toxic combination of settings that could lead to escalation of privileges attacks, data leakage, denial-of-service (DoS), or unauthorized modification of data held within data stores – both relational databases and big data stores.

Trustwave

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Pax World Investments, Crest Savings Bank, Magnolia Hotels

Buyer's Guide

IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs. Trustwave DbProtect

September 2025

Free Report: IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs. Trustwave DbProtect

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs. Trustwave DbProtect and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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