Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs Symantec Data Center Security comparison

Akamai and Broadcom are both solutions in the Cloud and Data Center Security category. Akamai is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.8, while Broadcom is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0. Akamai holds a 22.2% mindshare in CDCS, compared to Broadcom’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Akamai users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 81% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Read 18 Akamai Guardicore Segmentation reviews

8,287 Views
5,552 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Symantec Data Center Security

Read 11 Symantec Data Center Security reviews

797 Views
494 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Symantec Data Center Security

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 14, 2024

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation and Symantec Data Center Security compete in the field of data center security, both offering distinct advantages. Akamai Guardicore appears to have the upper hand due to its advanced micro-segmentation, ease of deployment across various environments, and customer service adaptability.

Features: Akamai Guardicore Segmentation provides advanced micro-segmentation, broad visibility across data centers, and flexible policy management. It ensures quick compliance with auditing requirements and offers proactive threat detection. Symantec Data Center Security offers granular control with robust hardening of systems, providing unified security policy enforcement. It emphasizes precise access controls and comprehensive visibility across systems.

Room for Improvement: Akamai Guardicore faces challenges including high licensing costs, limited integration with major appliances, and a need for more flexible dashboards. Improvements in long-term policy management automation are also needed. Symantec requires simplification of its policy structures, increased flexibility and integration options, and better support for newer operating systems.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is versatile, supporting public, private, and hybrid cloud environments. Its technical support is known for quick adaptation and responsiveness. Symantec Data Center Security supports on-premises and private cloud setups, with robust technical support but could benefit from quicker response times and greater expertise.

Pricing and ROI: Guardicore offers flexible licensing scenarios, perceived as competitive despite high costs, demonstrating ROI through enhanced security and reduced resource needs. Symantec is acknowledged for higher costs but offers reasonable ROI according to some users. Guardicore shows potential for higher returns due to its adaptability in protecting diverse applications and systems.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Symantec Data Center Security Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Symantec Data Center Security

July 2025

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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 Cloud and Data Center Security

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (11th), Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) (6th), Microsegmentation Software (3rd)

Symantec Data Center Security

Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security

11th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Cloud and Data Center Security category, the mindshare of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is 22.2%, down from 24.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Data Center Security is 1.8%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud and Data Center Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Akamai Guardicore Segmentation	22.2%
Symantec Data Center Security	1.8%
Other	76.0%

Cloud and Data Center Security

Featured Reviews

Uday Varma

Solution Architecht at Inspira Enterprise

Offers granular control and ease of policy creation with features like telemetry and micro-segmentation but incident tagging is missing

Our customers use the solution for micro-segmentation within the data center or cloud environments. One customer uses it for their on-premises infrastructure, deployed at the code level across their massive network. Another customer uses it in a data center to monitor microsegmentation for their 500-node workload. Moreover, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation has helped our customers manage and secure traffic between different applications or workloads. Earlier, they were using VMware NSX-v, which offered good logging for distributed services on an analytical level. However, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation provides them with better overall visibility and granular control over-segmentation, even for inter-application and inter-routing traffic.

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Shahram Dehghani

Security Technical Manager at Modaberan Fanavari Pasargad

A robust solution that provides comprehensive protection for data centers, offering agentless security, powerful intrusion prevention, and a wide range of security features

The primary focus of data center security often revolves around serving customers who offer services to other clients within the data center. For example, if I operate a data center and provide security services, third-party customers might purchase virtual machine products within my data center. These products are automatically deployed, and we safeguard these virtual machines using intrusion prevention system features. This aspect is considered the most valuable part because when we set up these security policies, it's as if we're fortifying the entire infrastructure. It's not just about having good technical support; it's about having a robust IPS and comprehensive DOS prevention system on those operating systems. 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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool's most valuable feature is its visibility."

"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."

"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."

"Application Ring-Fencing and Deception Server, which is basically like a honeypot, are pretty useful features."

"The most valuable feature is the visibility of processes and connections."

"The label-based segmentation is the most valuable feature."

"Its deception features are great, providing a rich telemetry of lured origins, and are a great resource for any active defense strategy."

"We like the centralized management of the firewalls. Until we installed Guardicore Centra, we managed all our firewalls individually, so making changes was complicated, difficult, and time-consuming."

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation pros

"We use the product to prevent unauthorized access to data, systems, and servers. It provides essential features for data center security."

"Good file integrity monitoring features."

"The most valuable feature is the centralized console, which can handle different products that we have."

"The most valuable feature is the endpoint protection system."

"The real strength lies in its straightforward approach, offering just two key policies: prevention and detection."

"The granularity of applying the policies is valuable."

"The console and tools are very user-friendly."

"The ability to finely control permissions and restrictions on servers or assets through a customizable rule set is a key strength."

More Symantec Data Center Security pros

Cons

"The dashboard needs improvement. It should be more flexible so that I can easily see what I want or need to see."

"In our version, when using the terminal server, we cannot exclude user tasks for each session."

"I would rate the stability a six out of ten, where one is low and ten is high stability."

"They can maybe improve their customer service just because they are kind of a small organization, and customer service isn't as big as others such as VMware."

"It doesn't support a PAAC solution (Platforma as a service) in the cloud."

"The product needs a few features like enhanced user policies and payload-level inspection to improve the offering."

"Guardicore Centra should incorporate automation so that we don't require to write custom scripts and APIs. The tool also has limitations on rules where it allows only sixty thousand rules. Our clients have also commented that there are too many manual clicks and effort to do changes. I think that the incorporation of automation can help our clients make changes with confidence and without the possibility of human error."

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

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation cons

"There is room for improvement in enhancing its graphical user interface for a more user-friendly experience."

"This solution clashes with Microsoft defender, which results in performance degradation on the machine."

"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."

"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."

"The product blocks certain processes, even after allowlisting them."

"The support is very bad. They're not fast at all. Trend Micro's support is much better."

"A user or administrator making the policy in the DCS should have a very thorough knowledge of the operating system or policy making. You have to be very specific about the data structure."

More Symantec Data Center Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

"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."

"Compared to the pricing we were seeing from both Illumio and Edgewise, Guardicore was very competitive."

"The customer would complain about the cost."

"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

"The product is a bit costly."

"Compared to some other solutions, such as CrowdStrike, Symantec is more expensive."

"It is notably more expensive when compared to other solutions."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

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

I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive. I know other micro-segmentation tools like Cisco or Illumio, and so I think they are in the middle.

See all answers

What do you like most about Guardicore Infection Monkey?

Initially, I liked the telemetry part. But later, we used the microsegmentation features that we were able to deploy and found that they really stood out from other vendors. It allows us to see mi...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Guardicore Infection Monkey?

When we have more than one interface, we can only have one policy for both interfaces. Normally, you have assets with a production interface and a server interface that are only for management. But...

See all answers

What do you like most about Symantec Data Center Security?

The granularity of applying the policies is valuable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Symantec Data Center Security?

Agent management is a challenging task. We cannot do it from the console. We will have to use other tools.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Symantec Data Center Security?

One key use case for data center security is protecting files within the data center. This is especially important for Linux systems, where locking down specific files is essential to prevent unaut...

See all answers

Comparisons

Illumio vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 45% 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

Zero Networks vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 3% of the time

Cisco ACI vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 3% of the time

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation Competitors

Trend Micro Deep Security vs Symantec Data Center Security

Compared 66% of the time

Symantec Endpoint Security vs Symantec Data Center Security

Compared 24% of the time

VMware NSX vs Symantec Data Center Security

Compared 10% of the time

More Symantec Data Center Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

September 2025

Download Akamai Guardicore Segmentation product report

Buyer's Guide

Symantec Data Center Security

August 2025

Download Symantec Data Center Security product report

Also Known As

Guardicore Centra, GuardiCore

No data available

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

Docker containers make it easy to develop, deploy, and deliver applications where containers can be deployed and brought down in a matter of seconds. This flexibility makes it very useful for DevOps to automate deployment of containers. Symantec Data Center Security: Server Advanced provides agentless Docker container protection that allows you to achieve the performance benefits of Docker without sacrificing security. Full application control enables administrator privilege de-escalation, patch mitigation, and protection against zero day threats in today's heterogeneous data centers.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Symantec Data Center Security

July 2025

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