it_user621024 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant Analyst DBA at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Provides protection, audit, and security of the database.

What is most valuable?

Protection, audit, and security of the database are valuable features.

How has it helped my organization?

It provides us with access protection. It gives audit access to the data that the user doesn't have permission to access.

What needs improvement?

All departments of this product need to be improved.

The goal of the project was to audit the operation of the departments. However, the other departments, such as sales and finance, were audited during the project too.

We began to audit the database transactions of the operations department software. We saw that it was good. We then implemented the audit in the software for the other departments as well.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for a year, as a project for the customer.

Buyer's Guide
Oracle Audit Vault
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Oracle Audit Vault. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
769,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I had problems with the old versions this product. Today, it's more stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were no scalability issues.

How are customer service and support?

I would give the technical support a rating of 9/10.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was complex because you have to understand which data needs protection.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at other solutions, such as firewall protection tools and audit triggers in the database.

What other advice do I have?

Learn how to install it and know how to protect your data.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user592347 - PeerSpot reviewer
Database & Middleware at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
You can customize report templates. Audit report generation is automated.

What is most valuable?

I like the audit report. This product has a lot of report templates and you can customize them.

One of the useful reports is the activity report. Our customer is an insurance company. They want to log every detail regarding financial transaction activities (insert, update and delete). If something happens with the data, they can trace it to the person who performed the activity, and where and when they did it.

How has it helped my organization?

Before we implemented this product, our client had to query the database to create an audit report. With this product, audit report generation is automated.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see better DB firewall documentation. We still don't understand how to configure the DB firewall.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have used Audit Vault for around two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable and runs smoothly. Our servers have never been restarted since the first installation.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not had any issues with scalability.

How is customer service and technical support?

The level of technical support was very low. They sent us an inexperienced technician.

How was the initial setup?

Audit Vault was very easy to install, but not with the DB firewall. That's why we have dropped the DB firewall.

What other advice do I have?

Do the correct hardware sizing, especially if you want to generate detailed audit reports that include the SYS user.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Oracle Audit Vault
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Oracle Audit Vault. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
769,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user560259 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
The PL/SQL auditing feature helps to control code updates. In data-sensitive environments, leveraging the inbuilt compliance reports can be valuable.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of this product are:

  • PL/SQL auditing: It helps to control the code updates in a sensitive environment.

  • Inbuilt compliance reports - In data-sensitive environments where auditing teams require generation of reports for specific database such as SOX-compliant financial databases, HIPAA-compliant healthcare databases or PCI-compliant databases, leveraging these inbuilt reports in Oracle Audit Vault 12c can be of great value.

How has it helped my organization?

We are the implementers of the product to our clients.

What needs improvement?

This product should improve capturing more auditing information for database sessions that connect via applications and also through database links. When the database sessions are generated from the applications that use database links from other databases, by nature the target database won't capture relevant information of the remote sessions. Also in the audit trails, it is of utmost importance who are the data consumers so as to track and control the appropriate use of the information.

There is need to improve capturing of more auditing information for OS logins as well.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not encountered any stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would give the technical support a 7/10, i.e., an above-average rating.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have not used any other solution.

How was the initial setup?

The setup for Audit Vault is relatively simple.

However, configuring personalized reports is a nasty task. There are many variables involved and the documentation is not very good. The way the reports can be personalized must be more visual and requires a drag-and-drop feature rather than creating it in a rudimentary manner.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is an expensive solution. For those customers who do not have any ULA agreements with Oracle, the solution is practically impossible to acquire.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other options.

What other advice do I have?

Those who have already acquired the product, the implementation and use of the product is dependent on its daily use so as to get acquainted with all the features. If they have installed the platform and don't use it regularly, it’s a waste of time and energy.

One day when somebody asks about the audit reports, the database auditors will be in a big problem if they don't know how to generate the requested reports.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are Oracle GOLD Partners.
PeerSpot user
it_user1221 - PeerSpot reviewer
Database Expert at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Great Oracle Database Security Management Tool, minimal processing overhead and great GUI .

Valuable Features:

Audit Vault is a good Oracle Tool to collect all Database Audit Information in a single database repository for managing Database Security. I have used it to collect DB login info , Server access info, SQL statements , before and after images of Data using OS, DB and REDO collectors. Provides and easy to use browser based GUI to generate Standard Reports for Compliance purposes - SOX(Sabanes Oxley) and PCI(Payment Card Industry) compliance and allows custom report generation too.

Room for Improvement:

The underlying Mechanism for collect SQL statements (REDO collector) is still based on Oracle Streams technology. Data in Audit Vault needs to Selected properly and purged at regular intervals else it grows too much to manage. Increases network traffic especially between Audit Vault Server and Source Databases.

Other Advice:

DBA skills needed for proper setup. Also, there are situations when the DBA needs to run Oracle streams commands to manage the streams data flows and also monitor Streams propagation and apply activities. Next release probably will use Golden Gate as the underlying technology instead of Streams.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user4401 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user4401Developer at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor

It is very useful for many companies because it provides standard audit assessment reports covering, privileged users, account management roles and privileges, object management and system management across the enterprise.