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ACF2 vs Protegrity’s Data Protection Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 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

ACF2
Ranking in Database Security
13th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Mainframe Security (4th)
Protegrity’s Data Protectio...
Ranking in Database Security
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (29th), Data Masking (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Database Security category, the mindshare of ACF2 is 2.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Protegrity’s Data Protection Platform is 3.2%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Protegrity’s Data Protection Platform3.2%
ACF22.1%
Other94.7%
Database Security
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1077621 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Examiner at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
A reliable, scalable product for security and auditing of our mainframe environment
It is a good product. It has been used for years. As long as it is configured correctly, it is a very stable product. It depends on how an institution or a company configures it. It depends on an institution's risk appetite. You need to make sure it is configured as per the concept of least privilege, and the logging features, detection and control mechanism, and other things like that are enabled. If you configure it to give access to the public, then there could be compromises. You should also have someone who independently checks it to make sure that it is configured keeping security in mind. If it has been configured for a while, when there are enhancements to the product or when you enhance it, you need to make sure that security is also looked at, and it is configured according to an institution's security policies. I would rate it a nine out of 10.
Bethanywalstad Wallister - PeerSpot reviewer
Java Application Developer at Technologies
Data protection platform has secured sensitive test data and supports confident project work
In my opinion, Protegrity's Data Protection Platform has really worked well and has done the best work. What it lacks is quality features, but we cannot expect that unless in profiling types of tools. Masking is layered well in different types of data. I can say that the system works well. I have not had any downsides when working with this platform; most of the time it lags down only when we are working on large volumes of data, and that's when we can experience minimal lags. The needed improvement is that the system can be upgraded to be faster and more flexible when it comes to speed, so it can handle large volumes of data without any challenge.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I am deeply impressed with the quality and depth and breadth of security and functionality in CA’s ACF2 and Top Secret products."
"The most valuable feature is strict and reliable access control to CICS Resources."
"Know that this tool is a great tool, a good tool to use, because you can quickly automate, quickly provision, and deprovision new users, which is essential when you are bringing new people onboard."
"I love their support. The support is great. They are number one."
"Without the product, extracting this information may take us as much as several days; instead, we can get it in real time."
"We use this tool to quickly assign privileges to different users as soon as they come in."
"Excellent real-time reporting that saves time and resources."
"Logging and monitoring are most valuable. It is for the mainframe environment, and it is at the forefront for security and resilience."
"I can fully recommend Protegrity's Data Protection Platform to others looking for data protection and for streamlining data operations in an organization because this is the most flexible platform for managing data in terms of security and production."
"Its technical support team is helpful."
"The solution’s pricing is moderate."
"The product is stable."
"Overall, I have had a positive experience with Protegrity’s Data Protection Platform, as it provides strong data protection capabilities, supports compliance requirements, and helps organizations securely use sensitive data across business and analytics workloads."
"The most valuable feature of Protegrity Data Security is the reduction of information being exposed."
 

Cons

"It needs longer rules. The max rule is 32K."
"The user access review could also be improved. It produces a lot of false positives."
"Reporting can sometimes include false positives."
"They can work on its ability to work in a distributed environment."
"Initial setup could be complex if you rely on contractors to help with implementation."
"I would like my team and me to be able to use simple browsers, like Chrome, to be able to access mainframe data and provision users using the browser.​"
"They can work on its ability to work in a distributed environment. It's a mainframe product. As many companies move to the cloud, depending on what cloud models they choose, such as a public, hybrid, or private cloud, it should be deployable. I am not sure if it can be deployed on those platforms. It has been there since the '50s or '60s, and it's still scalable. It has survived all these years, and it's scalable to many platforms, but I don't know about the cloud."
"Protegrity is using a different OS which has some bugs. Sometimes it's causing an initialization error."
"The solution's UI could be better."
"Protegrity Data Security could improve by having more integration."
"I can see that the price of Protegrity's Data Protection Platform is a bit high, but the setup is flexible, and the licensing terms are easy to manage, usually complying with our enterprise policies."
"Protegrity’s Data Protection Platform could be improved by simplifying deployment and integrations, as well as providing more advanced reporting and dashboard capabilities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"We pay for a few additional services apart from its licenses."
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909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Educational Organization
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
28%
Insurance Company
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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What needs improvement with Protegrity Data Security?
Protegrity’s Data Protection Platform could be improved by simplifying deployment and integrations, as well as providing more advanced reporting and dashboard capabilities. I would like to see a mo...
What is your primary use case for Protegrity Data Security?
I use Protegrity’s Data Protection Platform to protect sensitive customer and business data through data masking, tokenization, and encryption while supporting regulatory compliance with secure dat...
What advice do you have for others considering Protegrity Data Security?
The AI governance and security capabilities are aligned with enterprise requirements, providing policy-based control, data protection, and compliance support for AI, analytics, and workloads. Overa...
 

Also Known As

CA ACF2
Protegrity Data Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sky, Rogers Communications
A $4 billion retail conglomerate and holding company
Find out what your peers are saying about ACF2 vs. Protegrity’s Data Protection Platform and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.