We performed a comparison between IBM Guardium Data Protection and Imperva SecureSphere Database Security based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: IBM Guardium Data Protection and Imperva SecureSphere Database Security have a similar user rating regarding ease of deployment, pricing, and service and support. In terms of features, IBM Guardium Data Protection reviewers felt the software wasn’t user-friendly. In contrast, Imperva SecureSphere Database Security reviewers felt the reporting feature needed improvement.
"The purpose of EBM Guardium is to monitor database activity and who is accessing it. This is the most valuable feature."
"I rate Guardium 10 out of 10 for data activity monitoring and nine for vulnerability assessment. It's easy to implement and does its job. But I would rate it seven out of 10 in terms of advanced features."
"We use IBM Guardium to support security initiatives and combine policies within the organization."
"This is a multi-platform solution that consolidates everything and centralizes support for it."
"Ability to define reports based on SQL query, especially when you have complex report criteria."
"It provides us regulatory compliance proof and evidence for audit."
"Guardium lets you centrally manage aggregators and collectors."
"Efficiency is key and IBM Guardium provides information in a heartbeat, but protects the data with military grade encryption."
"There are three major main use cases of this solution. The first one is to fulfill compliance regulations. Customers—especially the banks, health sector, and manufacturing—need to comply with the regulations in different countries. They have to fulfill compliance regulations around the privacy of data. In order to fulfill those requirements, they're using Imperva. It helps them to fulfill these requirements, and they are not fined by the regulators. That is the first use case why people buy Imperva."
"The functionality is very useable and easy to understand."
"This is a stable product."
"The company focuses on and has a passion for security."
"The performance of the solution is good."
"The most valuable features of Imperva SecureSphere Database Security are vulnerability assessment, enrichment security policy, and security"
"The beauty of it is that it provides segregation of duties. Typically, in the traditional environment, DBAs administer the database, and they have too much access. We are in the process of implementing other Oracle solutions, and it brings some kind of segregation. Just because someone is a DBA does not mean that he or she should have access to all of the data. Some of the data can be masked so that privacy and security are enhanced, especially when it is customer data for an institution like a bank."
"The audit feature is great. It is totally encrypted."
"Could be more user friendly; deployment is a little complex."
"Flexibility could be improved."
"Using the data in native Guardium is difficult, at best."
"More predictive, using Watson AI would be good."
"I would like to see IBM Guardium have other encryption algorithms employed."
"Guardium Data Protection is far better in terms of external integration. But in terms of firewall features, like when you're blocking activities, it's as if Oracle AVDF simply has superior features. This is just from third-party observations, but the users of Oracle AVDF are saying that when it comes to the firewall and protection functionality, they're much more inclined to AVDF."
"An area for improvement would be the user interface - currently, it takes around two to three months to become comfortable using it."
"Right now we're having some issues where it's using a high CPU, we don't know why. So, better testing before the product is ready would help."
"Reporting could be improved."
"The updates could be better."
"Imperva needs to improve their cloud capabilities."
"The solution is expensive."
"Imperva SecureSphere Database Security can improve something in all the versions I have used."
"SecureSphere activity log can be used with Imperva CounterBreach in an effort to protect enterprise data from theft and loss caused."
"Once we read the activity logs on the platform, we cannot open them anywhere else as they are stored in a proprietary format."
"The GUI for this solution could use some improvement."
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IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is ranked 1st in Database Security with 71 reviews while Imperva SecureSphere Database Security is ranked 2nd in Database Security with 52 reviews. IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is rated 8.2, while Imperva SecureSphere Database Security is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of IBM Security Guardium Data Protection writes "Provides visibility, has a single console that shows all information, and collector-aggregator capabilities". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Imperva SecureSphere Database Security writes "The fine-grained auditing available on the platform makes life easier and helps explain anything happening in your database". IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is most compared with Oracle Audit Vault, Oracle Advanced Security, DataSunrise Database Security, Vormetric Application Crypto Suite and Voltage SecureData Enterprise, whereas Imperva SecureSphere Database Security is most compared with Oracle Audit Vault, DataSunrise Database Security, Trustwave DbProtect, jSonar and Imperva DDoS. See our IBM Security Guardium Data Protection vs. Imperva SecureSphere Database Security report.
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We monitor all Database Security reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.