Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs Nutanix Flow Network Security comparison

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Nutanix Flow Network Security

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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

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Ranking in Microsegmentation Software

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud and Data Center Security (1st), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (11th), Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) (8th)

Nutanix Flow Network Security

Ranking in Microsegmentation Software

5th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Microsegmentation Software category, the mindshare of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is 22.7%, down from 27.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nutanix Flow Network Security is 7.0%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsegmentation Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Akamai Guardicore Segmentation	22.7%
Nutanix Flow Network Security	7.0%
Other	70.3%

Microsegmentation Software

Featured Reviews

SachinShelar

Manager, Account Services Delivery at Softcell Technologies Limited

Micro-segmentation has strengthened zero trust security and reduces lateral movement risks

Some of the best features of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation are its granular micro-segmentation and deep visibility, allowing control to process, service level, and full east-west traffic mapping, while it also stands out for AI-assisted policy creation, real-time threat detection, and software-based enforcement. The feature I rely on most in Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is application dependency mapping and visibility, which gives real-time insight into east-west traffic flows, helping us design accurate policies quickly and troubleshoot issues without impacting production environments. Additionally, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation offers a policy simulation test mode, which is very useful to validate rules before enforcement and avoid outages.

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Mohammad Jundiah

Solutions Architect at QDS

Has enabled consistent enforcement of zero-trust policies at the virtual layer

The micro-segmentation feature helps to manage network security effectively because it helps the virtual machines that are already on the cluster and the applications inside the cluster itself. It protects them and helps them communicate with each other without needing a complex external or internal firewall in this use case. Working with the zero-trust security model means never trust but always verify. Every VM, application, and service in your environment must explicitly prove it's allowed to communicate with others. An application would be able to talk to a VM and vice versa. This zero-trust means explicitly proving that they are allowed to talk to each other, with no implicit trust just because they are on the same VLAN, subnet, cluster, or environment. Nutanix Flow brings the zero-trust model natively to the virtual layer inside the Nutanix software itself, the AHV. The AHV software enforces strict communication rules between workloads. Integration between Nutanix Flow and other products natively benefits the infrastructure itself as this is a networking segmentation software coming from Nutanix itself. This provides ultimate compatibility. There is no need for extra firewall VMs such as Palo Alto or third-party switches. Security becomes established at the hypervisor level, which creates a new conglomeration of security segmentation. The network performance analysis that Nutanix Flow Network Security provides is very beneficial and effective.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool is a complete package that offers many features like visibility. You can get a graph with real-time workflows and visibility into server-to-server communication. We get visibility into many things happening within our environment."

"To us, if it prevents downtime, it's priceless."

"The impact of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is very important because it reduced risk for my corporation and organization."

"The real bonus is the fact that we can secure applications, all the way down to the individual services, on each host. It's actually more granular security than we can get out of a traditional firewall."

"In terms of agility, Guardicore Centra is massively easier to control and manage."

"This tool greatly helps in understanding the footprint of the attacks."

"I found the solution to be stable."

"That is primarily because I've seen increased rules. It's kind of caught us a little off guard. With GuardiCore, I have had to deal with their technical support and engineering team in Israel. They are amazing. They are very quick to adapt."

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation pros

"It is a very stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"It allows for policies that enable complete visibility and traffic control."

"We appreciate the fact that this solution allows us to segregate two virtual machines that are in the same cluster."

"The network view was excellent as it allowed us to expand the server view and visualize all connections it made within the environment. This was particularly useful in identifying the path of our data and not just its location within the data center."

"The micro-segmentation feature helps to manage network security effectively because it helps the virtual machines that are already on the cluster and the applications inside the cluster itself, protects them and helps them communicate with each other without needing a complex external or internal firewall in this use case."

"We appreciate the fact that this solution allows us to segregate two virtual machines that are in the same cluster."

"They also introduced that they develop API first and the rest follows."

"Nutanix Flow has a lot of data protection features. It's also valuable for operations and management. It's a big solution that works well with different solutions and is suitable for most business cases."

More Nutanix Flow Network Security pros

Cons

"The maps could go a bit faster. They are useful but slightly slow."

"Needs more customization of honeypots and a vaster catalog of systems able to be mimicked."

"The long-term management of the security policies could be improved with some kind of automation platform, something like Chef or Puppet or Ansible, to help you manage the policies after day-one... to then manage the policies and changes to those policies, going forward, through some type of automation process is not turning out to be really easy."

"It would be very helpful for beginners if the solution had more windows to help with the terms inside instead of going to the documentation."

"The maps could go a bit faster. They are useful but slightly slow."

"The customer support is good, but the documentation is not up to the mark."

"The cost of licensing is the biggest issue for clients with GuardiCore."

"Kubernetes is not installed in the way we need it."

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation cons

"For customers who are running Nutanix Flow and AHV, the largest area for improvement is in the disaster recovery environments. To automate the populate of rules from one side to the other side in case of disaster you report everything on the disaster recovery site, and you have all the rules automatically applied. This was something that was being built when I left Nutanix. It might already be available. Additionally, the usability of the rules editor could improve."

"We would like the reporting functionality of this solution to be improved."

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."

"The documentation offered by the product is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

"Nutanix Flow Network Security needs to improve threat hunting, compliance, and policy optimization - these things that security officers would use."

"Last time I used it, it was not handy to see or to analyze traffic logs."

"I would rate Flow Network Security's stability seven out of ten - it could be improved."

More Nutanix Flow Network Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"GuardiCore has made some new changes to the license now. We've seen monthly and annual licenses based on a subscription. We have a few clients that pay anywhere from $25,000 a year."

"The customer would complain about the cost."

"Guardicore Centra provides better value for money than NSX, was the other solution that we looked at, which was too expensive for what it does."

"The pricing is too high."

"The price is the same as other products in the market. There's no price argument to choose one or the other product, it will cost the customer approximately the same."

"Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is expensive."

"The solution is reasonably priced and I would rate it a six out of ten. The tool's licensing costs are yearly."

"This is not a cheap solution but you have to consider the bigger picture, which is what it is giving you."

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation pricing and cost advice

"There are different licensing models."

"The product is available for free use."

"In comparison to other options available in the market, I would rate their pricing as very competitive, probably a two or three out of ten for cost."

"Flow Network Security is available on a three-year license, with annual renewals of the maintenance fee."

"This model is very accessible to implement."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."

"There is an annual subscription to use this solution. There is a 60-day trial to use the solution, it gives you time to decide if you want to continue using the solution."

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884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	11

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Guardicore Centra?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that overall everything worked out really well. The pricing was flexible, and it has worked out well with our budget.

What needs improvement with Guardicore Infection Monkey?

I think the pricing is very high. It is a big cost. The price of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is very expensive, but it is important to the enterprise. I think it is more or less.

What is your primary use case for Guardicore Infection Monkey?

I use Akamai Guardicore Segmentation to block lateral movement of malicious software like ransomware. This is very important to protect my business and my corporation. I create labels for any asset...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nutanix Flow?

There are different models like Nutanix AOS Pro or Ultimate license. The prices are different, but it's not in the same price range as Cisco ACI, for example.

What needs improvement with Nutanix Flow?

Nutanix Flow Network Security needs to improve threat hunting, compliance, and policy optimization - these things that security officers would use. Making these aspects clearer would enable easier ...

What advice do you have for others considering Nutanix Flow?

I am still working with these products. The cloud provider I'm usually using for Nutanix NC2 clusters is Azure. I usually purchase Nutanix directly from Nutanix. The solution is suitable for all ty...

Illumio vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Comparisons

Compared 35% of the time

VMware NSX vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 10% of the time

Cisco Secure Workload vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 9% of the time

TrendAI Deep Security vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 4% of the time

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 1% of the time

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation Competitors

VMware NSX vs Nutanix Flow Network Security

Compared 65% of the time

Illumio vs Nutanix Flow Network Security

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Secure Workload vs Nutanix Flow Network Security

Compared 6% of the time

Hillstone CloudHive vs Nutanix Flow Network Security

Compared 4% of the time

Airgap Zero Trust Enterprise vs Nutanix Flow Network Security

Compared 3% of the time

More Nutanix Flow Network Security Competitors

Product Reports

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Download Akamai Guardicore Segmentation product report

Nutanix Flow Network Security

Download Nutanix Flow Network Security product report

Also Known As

Guardicore Centra, GuardiCore

Nutanix Flow Microsegmentation

Overview

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is a software-based microsegmentation solution that provides the simplest, fastest, and most intuitive way to enforce Zero Trust principles. It enables you to prevent malicious lateral movement in your network through precise segmentation policies, visuals of activity within your IT environment, and network security alerts. Akamai Guardicore Segmentation works across your data centers, multicloud environments, and endpoints. It is faster to deploy than infrastructure segmentation approaches and provides you with unparalleled visibility and control of your network.

Akamai

Flow Network Security is a stateful, distributed, microsegmentation firewall. It is provided as part of NCI Ultimate or as part of the optional Security Add-On package for NCI Pro.

Nutanix

Sample Customers

Santander, Frontier Airlines, OpenLink, Intermountain Healthcare, Cellcom, BancoBASE

JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, Volkswagen SAIC, Brighton and Hove City Council, Foresters Financial, Janus International Group, Cloud Comrade, Serco

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Nutanix Flow Network Security