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Symantec Data Center Security vs VMware NSX comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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

Symantec Data Center Security
Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security
11th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
4.9
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware NSX
Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Network Virtualization (2nd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (7th), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (8th), Network Automation (5th), Microsegmentation Software (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Cloud and Data Center Security category, the mindshare of Symantec Data Center Security is 3.7%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware NSX is 9.1%, down from 11.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud and Data Center Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
VMware NSX9.1%
Symantec Data Center Security3.7%
Other87.2%
Cloud and Data Center Security
 

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Ejaz ul Hassan - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Continuous server hardening has protected critical legacy workloads and simplified security control
Symantec is lagging on the reporting side. I have been working for 10 years and I have identified many gray areas. As a user protecting your infrastructure, you need to sell the value to your management. Management buys the tool for preventing threats, and it works for them. However, you cannot sell it because every solution needs to show what happened in the last few years or how you will be protected in the future. Reporting is the most important thing for the CIO level, not the admin level. I have seen Symantec really lag in this area. I am creating my own tool to build a dashboard to share with the CIO level because they want to know what happened last week, last month, and last year. These reports will tell you about activities. Symantec changed the licensing when Broadcom acquired the company. The question of who will provide support became unclear. Support has now changed and they are making money. I have seen that most of the time when you ask implementation questions, they do not answer you. If you have a problem, they give you a low-level engineer at the first level. This delays resolution. Support has to be better.
Mahesh Bhadoriya - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Manager at Allianz Cloud Private Limited
Micro segmentation has strengthened zero trust security and isolates production from test environments
The advantages of VMware NSX include its micro-segmentation for internal security at the firewall and VM levels, which is very powerful and helps us comply with complete Zero Trust security models. We are able to achieve this and configure network level virtualization with no dependency on VLANs. Micro-segmentation helps improve our security significantly. We are not totally dependent upon our physical upfront firewall, and it makes sense to configure everything using VMware NSX, leading to multiple improvements in our organization. We moved from traditional networking such as VLANs from the firewall and switches to VMware NSX segmentation. We achieve one firewall per VLAN and can stop lateral movement such as ransomware control. The Zero Trust model is the main functionality and architecture it offers, allowing application isolation, such as having a separate production and test environment. Consistent networking and security policies across different environments have a major and very positive impact on our business operations, allowing us to achieve the security posture we want with compliance and regulations.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool will then detect any anomalies, such as an intruder who has breached the network, which can trigger the system lockdown feature if it's enabled and meets the defined threshold."
"The most valuable feature is the endpoint protection system."
"Symantec Data Center Security, as a name, represents the perfect solution if you want to harden your servers."
"The advantage of Data Center Security is its ease of use and that it serves as a single unified platform, where I can apply all my security policies to protect that server."
"Overall, this is a pretty good product."
"The most valuable feature is the centralized console, which can handle different products that we have."
"We use the product to prevent unauthorized access to data, systems, and servers. It provides essential features for data center security."
"The granularity of applying the policies is valuable."
"We are using VMware NSX for all our network needs."
"I really like the management dashboard, the tailor-made assurance, the telemetry, and the ease of integration with all other solutions of VMware, such as vSphere."
"Over the last two years, they've enhanced a lot, especially in regard to integration with OpenStack."
"The stability is great. That's one of the things that we can quantify and leverage through NSX, because it's less complex. We have the availability to manage multiple things at the same time. You can identify problems before they manifest."
"Firewall security is one of VMware NSX's vital features"
"The most valuable feature of VMware NSX is the DFW (distributed firewall)"
"The microsegmentation is a good feature, and you can segment details, products, or hardware information."
"NSX gives us the ability to put our network, NSX, onto any network there is, which allows us not to have to go to the network team to create networks or VLANs for networks, and we can just create all our networks right from the start."
 

Cons

"Agent management is a challenging task."
"This solution clashes with Microsoft defender, which results in performance degradation on the machine."
"Symantec is lagging on the reporting side."
"It would be advantageous if Symantec or Broadcom, given the rebranding, could simplify the process, enabling users to leverage the antivirus functionality more easily."
"A user or administrator making the policy in the DCS should have a very thorough knowledge of the operating system or policy making. You have to be very specific about the data structure."
"Adding more compatibility with common products like Microsoft would be a plus."
"There is plenty of room for improvement with this product, and it could start with platform metrics."
"Could have better reporting capabilities and better support."
"There could be an improvement in regards to security. This solution cannot migrate all assets smoothly and continuously, for example, sometimes the physical hosts are not able to be converted into virtual ones, which needs to be fixed."
"The training costs a minimum of $3,000, which is expensive and should be reduced."
"Our technical team is always looking for the solutions that they work with to offer more convenient integrations."
"The first time setting it up was difficult."
"We have been satisfied with the technical support. They were able to solve our problems. However, they could be faster."
"They have some limitations in the firewall features as compared to the on-prem or dedicated hardware appliance. They can add more features, such as IPS and IDS, to the cloud firewall."
"I would like to see automation capabilities in the deployment process."
"If you compare NSX to a similar solution you might find it to be a bit more complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is notably more expensive when compared to other solutions."
"The product is a bit costly."
"Compared to some other solutions, such as CrowdStrike, Symantec is more expensive."
"The subscription is on a yearly basis."
"You can scale NSX if you have the resources, but it's usually expensive and complex to scale up."
"We haven't had to hire a dedicated network engineer because NSX handles 90 percent of it. The reduced overhead in terms of managing networks has been the biggest plus."
"Pricing and licensing could be improved as we are a government entity. Lower pricing could always help."
"The cost of the solution is a bit high."
"We are using a perpetual license to use the solution and we have support."
"The price could be better. We pay for the license every three years. The last time I checked, it cost around three million pesos in the Philipines. Most of the expense will go towards implementation and renovation."
"VMware NSX is expensive and everything is licensed. We have to pay for each individual feature."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
17%
Construction Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise70
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Symantec Data Center Security?
Symantec is lagging on the reporting side. I have been working for 10 years and I have identified many gray areas. As a user protecting your infrastructure, you need to sell the value to your manag...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Data Center Security?
As a partner support, we handle all Symantec products for various clients. Currently, we work with DLP, Symantec Endpoint Protection, Data Loss Prevention, Data Center Security, Email Security, and...
What advice do you have for others considering Symantec Data Center Security?
I am still a Symantec partner. Price rating is five out of ten. Symantec Data Center Security is a perfect solution, but it needs to elaborate its functionalities and functions to the market. Peopl...
What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few. -Cisco ACI have physical network gear (9K Switches) where the Code runs in ACI Policy Mode & the UCS server wh...
What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?
Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so when you change one interface, changes are automatically reflected on every switch...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware NSX?
When measuring complexity and costs for our organization, we consider some parameters for effectiveness. In terms of effectiveness in reducing operational complexity, I measure it to be high on the...
 

Also Known As

No data available
VMware Nicira, Lastline Defender
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
City of Avondale, Lumeta, Kroll Ontrack, Heartland Payment Systems, Baystate Heallth, Exostar, Tribune Media, iGATE, NTT Communications, Synergent, California Natural Resources Agency, Bloomington Public Schools, Columbia Sportswear, Join Experience S.A, Schuberg Philis
Find out what your peers are saying about Symantec Data Center Security vs. VMware NSX and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,574 professionals have used our research since 2012.