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Symantec Data Center Security vs VMware NSX comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 14, 2024

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
10th
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
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Network Virtualization (2nd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (5th), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (6th), Network Automation (3rd), Microsegmentation Software (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Cloud and Data Center Security category, the mindshare of Symantec Data Center Security is 2.9%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware NSX is 10.4%, down from 13.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud and Data Center Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
VMware NSX10.4%
Symantec Data Center Security2.9%
Other86.7%
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.
TAIYAB HASAN - PeerSpot reviewer
Windows Redhat Linux Vmware & Azure & Cloud & Nutanix Ahv-Vmware & Backup Senior System Administrator at AlDawaa Medical Services
Has improved network visibility and security through micro-segmentation and SDN capabilities
This feature gives us flexibility and allows us to manage everything under one pane. We can see everything on one console, including network operations and behavior. Monitoring and security are among the best features for VMware NSX. For micro-segmentation, it's integrated with our endpoint security. If there are any issues with servers or VMs, it notifies us so we can isolate the servers and investigate. It provides distributed security features such as firewall and intrusion, IDS, IPS. The security level with IPS and IDS in VMware NSX is excellent. It also provides logical switching and routing which gives an extra layer for Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching requirements. The solution provides flexibility, automation, and self-service capabilities, resulting in cost savings as extensive expertise isn't required. Once automation and self-service are implemented, many tasks can be completed automatically. Load balancing is another excellent feature. Multiple servers can run on load balancing features, which is particularly useful since we have many application servers running. Sharing loads between servers provides the best performance.

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 is the centralized console, which can handle different products that we have."
"The most valuable feature is the centralized console, which can handle different products that we have."
"Overall, this is a pretty good product."
"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."
"We have not reduced manpower, the number of servers has gone up, but the number of incidents has tricked down to single digits."
"The granularity of applying the policies is valuable."
"Good file integrity monitoring features."
"The file integrity monitoring features are the most valuable features of this product."
"The most valuable features of VMware NSX are the tight integration with the VMware Hypervisor natively and the management console. We have a lot of other integrations where you are able to see the virtual machine's end-to-end visibility."
"It is helping me get an entire blueprint done of the source and the target, I was able to make it into a catalog and can set up anything on the cloud quickly."
"It has allowed our customers to scale extend their existing IP subnets and spin up new subnets on-demand for new app web DB tiers, increasing overall VM-to-VM security and policy deployments and helping increase operational efficiency from a network management perspective."
"The most valuable feature of VMware NSX is the ease of use and its user friendly. For example, it is simple to change the subnet masks."
"NSX is one of the simplest network solutions that I've ever worked with."
"This product is like the layer between traditional networking and virtualization, giving you the flexibility to deploy and have network virtualization on different types of firewalls."
"I value the ability to dynamically configure our network on the fly using VMware NSX."
"I have found the system to be very intuitive, functional, and they have great technology."
 

Cons

"I think that technical support in general is not really capable of doing their work. They don't have enough knowledge to provide quick solutions, so we usually try to resolve problems within our team."
"Symantec is lagging on the reporting side."
"The support is very bad. They're not fast at all."
"They need to develop a more flexible product that can be scaled such that it fits well into a small business or a bigger, enterprise-level solution."
"Adding more compatibility with common products like Microsoft would be a plus."
"Could have better reporting capabilities and better support."
"It would be advantageous if Symantec or Broadcom, given the rebranding, could simplify the process, enabling users to leverage the antivirus functionality more easily."
"Agent management is a challenging task."
"It was stable for one year, there was no impact. In the last two months, we had two big incidents."
"There are always issues integrating with Cisco."
"The next release of NSX should try to make Kubernetes and container integration a little easier than it is now. It's quite a complicated process."
"Any technical product has its own limitations in one place or another."
"The engineering team has room for improvement. They should have more of a Knowledge Base about different case studies and should develop more advanced features."
"It's not feature-rich."
"An area for improvement in VMware NSX is that it uses up more resources and is heavy on the network."
"It lacks standard security features, which is why I rate it so low."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is notably more expensive when compared to other solutions."
"Compared to some other solutions, such as CrowdStrike, Symantec is more expensive."
"The product is a bit costly."
"The price of VMware NSX is optimal. Additionally, the price of the solution can be negotiated with the vendor. Many areas of the solution can impact the cost, such as features, time for onboarding, and support needed."
"The licensing is renewed every three years. The cost for implementation and renovation are a huge portion of that price."
"There is a license required for this solution and there is also a support license available. The price of the solution could be better."
"The price of VMware NSX is reasonable."
"The price of this product is too high."
"The solution is reasonable at the local level."
"This solution requires a licence."
"VMware NSX is a cheaper product compared to its competitor, Cisco."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
 

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 Enterprise69
 

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: April 2026.
886,719 professionals have used our research since 2012.