Cisco SecureX [EOL] vs IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment comparison

Cisco and IBM are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 66% of IBM users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco SecureX [EOL] and IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Wiz, Tenable, Qualys and others in Vulnerability Management.

To learn more, read our detailed Vulnerability Management Report (Updated: July 2026).

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Vulnerability Management

July 2026

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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

Qualys TotalCloud

Featured Reviews

Robert Orłowski

IT Security Expert at Alior Bank S.A.

Unified risk scoring has improved our cloud visibility and simplifies remediation priorities

Qualys TotalCloud provides unified vulnerability and threat assessment across both IAS and SaaS. This solution provides a single prioritized view of risk, which helps reduce the work I would have to do. We are no longer based on CVSS; we are based on Qualys risk scoring, which is based on CVSS plus internal findings made by Qualys, and then assigns its own score. The TruRisk insight feature has found a small number of assets with high vulnerability scores, though I am cautious since some information is classified. Qualys TotalCloud has positively impacted our bank's performance, and we have definitely seen benefits after implementing this solution.

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Alon K

CTO & VP of Cyber Solutions, Israel at Rockwell Automation

Gives our customers visibility and they don't have to go multiple management consoles anymore

One of the examples is related to forensics. The forensics are amazing because when you have enrichment, and the solutions talk with each other, when you need it, you have the ability to know everything in the organization: when, why, whatever. With just one click you have information from email, from the endpoint, from the web. Let's say that tomorrow morning, you have a ransom[ware] attack in your organization and you would like to know from which email it came, or where the customer saved the file, even though the incident didn't occur at the same moment. With SecureX, you have Cisco Threat Response inside. [With] one click, you get all of the flow. That's amazing value. That also releases resources for our customers. The customers don't have to connect many systems and try to register the event on each system, or to go to the SIEM and do a correlation. That's the one-stop shop for the customers, and that's amazing.

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Dr. Sajid Latif

Guardium Administrator at Interactive Group

Improvements sought in database optimization while benefiting from robust security monitoring

We use the analytical functionality of Guardium, but the analytical functionality is not so powerful or flexible because it does not include the application user ID. It only includes the database user ID. To identify risky users, it does not support end users, so IBM must incorporate this feature into the built-in analytical engine of the Guardium. There is only one problem I experienced while using Guardium: the internal database of the collector is MySQL, which is not so powerful or flexible. When you make a query in a MySQL database, it takes too much time to respond. IBM should replace this MySQL database with a more powerful internal database for the logging mechanism so that Guardium can collect logging data flexibly and ensure optimization. My overall experience with Guardium is good. The only problem is that IBM must replace the internal DB, MySQL, with a more powerful enterprise-level database because enterprises use it at an enterprise level, and MySQL does not support optimally.

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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

"Qualys TotalCloud is an excellent platform, and the beauty of the platform is that we can get all the vulnerabilities, see all the reports in a single dashboard, view them segregated, and easily learn about critical, high, and medium findings with appropriately provided remediation steps."

"If someone were to ask me to review Qualys TotalCloud, I would summarize it as an end-to-end solution for cloud security with visibility and governance-grade controls without needing to manage multiple disconnected tools."

"The most valuable feature is extensibility."

"I would definitely recommend Qualys TotalCloud to other customers."

"Vulnerability and threat detection and assessment of the criticality of the vulnerabilities exposed are most valuable."

"One of Qualys' best features is its categorization, which allows us to see the types of assets, their security postures, and the AI-powered version of the tool."

"I appreciate Qualys TotalCloud's ability to onboard any type of device with ease, including containers."

"Qualys TotalCloud has significantly reduced our workload in terms of managing risks, helping us to be more efficient and save substantial resources."

More Qualys TotalCloud pros

"The forensics are amazing because when you have enrichment, and the solutions talk with each other, when you need it, you have the ability to know everything in the organization: when, why, whatever."

"If management wants to ingest reports at a high level from all of the different products, they would only need one login to SecureX to view this information as opposed to separate logins for each of the integrated products."

"The ability to create firewalls online has been most valuable including the ability to create rules."

"One of the most valuable features is the simplicity of deploying SecureX. It's very easy to do that and then you gain very detailed visibility into everything that's going on in your network and, obviously, at the device level. There's just a wealth of information that you can pull from all of these products that are part of SecureX. You know exactly if you have an issue or not."

"We've reduced our workload by 20 to 30 percent just from being able to focus on the important things, as this product really does a lot of the grunt work for you."

"Integrates well with our existing security infrastructure."

"Its cybersecurity and resilience have been extremely important for our organization."

"SecureX definitely provides us with contextual awareness throughout our security ecosystem, since it allows us to integrate multiple threat intelligence feeds, as well as multiple security appliances and platforms."

More Cisco SecureX [EOL] pros

"The most valuable feature is that it provides a simple English recommendation on actions that you need to take once a vulnerability is discovered."

"The Vulnerability Assessment feature is quite stable and helps identify numerous vulnerabilities in databases."

"The best feature is that you can see the activity in your data environment and have the ability to get the vulnerability assessments done quickly with scores that can be compared."

"It helped with some of the regulatory requirements, and it also helped with some of the security analytics and analysis, making it worthwhile from that perspective."

"The reporting features are good and there are many built-in reports that can be quickly configured."

Cons

"To improve the user experience, reporting could be simplified for better comprehension by end users and project managers, facilitating issue resolution."

"The vulnerability part is good, but the policy compliance module needs improvement because it involves a lot of manual work. Specifically, the remediation part of the controls requires enhancements."

"The onboarding process is a bit difficult. In the initial phase, it is very difficult to understand the features, what the dashboard contains, and what criteria they are using."

"An area for improvement would be to focus on risks related to AI, such as large language models and potential data leakage."

"I think Qualys TotalCloud needs to improve its handling of zero-day vulnerabilities and supply chain management because modern ransomware attacks not only target prime critical infrastructures but also the supply chain system."

"Qualys TotalCloud has the potential to improve by integrating a hybrid platform for comprehensive management of both on-premises and cloud infrastructures."

"TotalCloud could improve the classification of vulnerabilities. Specifically, it could enhance the categorization of what aspects fall under patches resolved by OS or software updates and what pertains to configuration adjustments."

"The areas in the solution that have room for improvement include the UI/UX design, which should be improved, and they should integrate more artificial intelligence into the product."

More Qualys TotalCloud cons

"It is good that it provides information. However, I think that there needs to be more actionable items for us based on the information provided."

"I would like it to integrate with another solution, e.g., DNA. I would like it to connect to that solution, but not the security aspect."

"They could put in more third-party [integrations]... also more playbooks, out-of-the-box, for automation [would be helpful]."

"The automation and orchestration could be simpler. It could be that all the other parts are that easy to use so that these stick out as a negative, but that's the trickiest part for us. The workflows within the orchestration are just a bit more difficult."

"They could expand into more areas. The more third-parties that we have tied into it, the better. The capabilities are there. As they just continue to involve the product, the more things that you can look into, then the more analytics that you can get. Also, the more data that we can get, then the better off we will be."

"The automation and orchestration could be simpler."

"I would rate this solution 7 out of 10. It's a great idea if it worked consistently, but it has to be way more mature than when I used it."

"The front-end work controls the new algorithm and the firewall rules. The search feature of these rules could be improved."

More Cisco SecureX [EOL] cons

"I wouldn't use it. That would be my advice to others looking into implementing IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment."

"There is only one problem I experienced while using Guardium: the internal database of the collector is MySQL, which is not so powerful or flexible."

"The only problem is that some of the reports come up with blanks and missing data."

"Building policies is not that easy. There are some things that are turned off by default, for example, displaying values."

"It was not as easy to use. The user-friendliness of it was somewhat lower than what I was expecting. It was also lacking in terms of the ease of the setup. There should be an automatic agent for deployment."

"The interface could be improved by having sub-groups of tests, ultimately making the process of collecting tests faster."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Although Qualys TotalCloud is relatively expensive due to its unique automation features, its cost-effectiveness is rated an eight out of ten, with ten being the most costly."

"Qualys TotalCloud is expensive, but it offers a premier solution with no headaches."

"The cost is high, but it meets our organizational needs."

"While Qualys TotalCloud's pricing is currently acceptable, it is becoming increasingly expensive and may soon be considered overpriced."

"TotalCloud's price is about right where I would expect it to be."

"The pricing for TotalCloud is attractive and competitive in the market. Given the features, especially the dashboard, I have no concerns regarding pricing."

"Qualys TotalCloud offers competitive pricing given its comprehensive suite of features, including integration, assessment, remediation, and detection capabilities, all within a single platform."

"It isn't cheap, but it's reasonable. It helps us to manage things with very few resources."

More Qualys TotalCloud pricing and cost advice

"It comes free with all Cisco products. So, it is a good price."

"It is free. It can't get any better than that."

"The pricing is competitive, especially for education institutions. Licensing can be a little bit difficult to navigate, especially with resellers with Cisco, but for us it has been pretty easy."

"Cisco SecureX is more expensive than Trend Micro. However, considering the integration capabilities with other solutions and the quality of technical support, I believe there's justification for the price difference."

"You can spend less money for another solution, but if you really want to have a good solution you have to pay. We are happy that we are getting such a good solution for what we are spending."

"The product is absolutely free to any customer. As such, the only thing one must keep in mind is that as long as he already has one Cisco security product, irregardless of what that product is, SecureX is available for free."

"It would be nice if they had a different pricing model. Most of our budget for projects goes towards Cisco."

"For the value you get, the pricing of the solution is excellent."

More Cisco SecureX [EOL] pricing and cost advice

"One thing not advantageous for it was that it was a little bit more expensive. I would rate it one out of five in terms of pricing."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

13%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Outsourcing Company

19%

Construction Company

15%

Marketing Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

24%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	30

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	3

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys TotalCloud?

The price is very expensive, actually.

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What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?

To be totally honest, I do not have any best features because I have had a bad experience using this tool, especially...

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What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?

My main use case for Qualys TotalCloud is vulnerability management and exposure management. I use this tool to evalua...

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What needs improvement with IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment?

We use the analytical functionality of Guardium, but the analytical functionality is not so powerful or flexible beca...

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What is your primary use case for IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment?

We are still using IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment. We only use IBM Guardium Data Protection and monitoring, da...

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What advice do you have for others considering IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment?

We do not use IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment for data encryption or any other tool for analytics, or identity ...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys TotalCloud

July 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Cisco SecureX [EOL]

August 2026

Download Cisco SecureX [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

July 2026

IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment report

Download IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment product report

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan

Kenna.AppSec, Kenna.VI

No data available

Overview

Qualys TotalCloud enhances security posture across cloud environments with continuous monitoring, vulnerability management, and risk visualization, ensuring efficient threat assessment and automated remediation for improved cyber risk reduction.

Qualys TotalCloud offers a robust suite of security tools essential for organizations managing multi-cloud infrastructures. By integrating cloud accounts and automating workflows, it supports AWS, Azure, and GCP, offering comprehensive vulnerability management and zero-day detection. The platform's user-friendly design, combined with its extensive risk management and unified threat assessment capabilities, enables organizations to prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities effectively. TruRisk Insights provides clear insights on cyber risks, while the automation options streamline patch management and scanning processes. API integration across IaaS and SaaS environments further enhances resource allocation efficiency and saves time, addressing misconfigurations across cloud environments.

What are the most important features of Qualys TotalCloud?

Accurate Vulnerability Reports: Delivers precise and actionable insights for risk mitigation.
Zero-Day Detection: Identifies and addresses zero-day vulnerabilities proactively.
Unified Threat Assessment: Offers comprehensive evaluation of threats across the environment.
Extensive Risk Management: Manages risks effectively with advanced insights and prioritization.
Continuous Monitoring: Provides non-stop surveillance for vulnerabilities and threats.
Cloud-Native Automation: Streamlines processes and reduces manual efforts using automation.
FlexScan for Internet-Facing VMs: Scans external VMs efficiently to detect vulnerabilities.
Dashboard Risk Visualization: Clear visualization helps prioritize vulnerabilities.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Improved Security Posture: Enhances threat detection and response across clouds.
Time Savings: Automation reduces time spent on manual vulnerability management.
Resource Efficiency: Better allocation of resources through streamlined workflows.
Enhanced Risk Prioritization: Focus on critical vulnerabilities for effective mitigation.
Integrated Cloud Accounts: Facilitates seamless cloud management and security.

Qualys TotalCloud is deployed in sectors needing rigorous vulnerability management, such as finance and healthcare. Companies utilize it to secure multi-cloud environments like AWS, Azure, and GCP, focus on compliance, and integrate security into CI/CD pipelines to detect and remedy threats pre-deployment.

Qualys

Cisco SecureX is an integrated security platform that connects the breadth of Cisco's integrated security portfolio and the customer's infrastructure to create a consistent experience. The solution unifies visibility, enables automation, and strengthens your security across network, endpoints, cloud, and applications. Cisco SecureX is embedded within every Cisco Security product and supports integrations with SIEM and SOAR, so customers will not need to replace any solution or worry about layering on new technology.

Cisco SecureX Features

Cisco SecureX has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Unified overview: Cisco SecureX offers key metrics on transactions and threats for network, endpoints, cloud and applications. In addition, the SecureX interface is integrated into all Cisco Security technologies.

Automation and an increase in operational efficiency: With Cisco SecureX, you gain better automation of workflows for products of the Cisco Security portfolio and third parties, allowing you to focus on other more important tasks. By eliminating manual work (through automatic identification of threats using analytical data of Cisco Talos and other sources), the solution helps your organization save a significant amount of time.

Security strengthening: Cisco SecureX makes it easy to compare analytical data from a set of various sources with the telemetry received from network, endpoints, e-mail, cloud, and third-party products.

Cisco SecureX Benefits

Some of the benefits of using Cisco SecureX include:

Secure every business endeavor with an open, integrated platform that has out-of-the-box interoperability and scales to meet security needs.

Advance your security maturity level using existing resources.

Turn security from a blocker into an enabler. Cisco SecureX allows you to add new security capabilities for the threat landscape.

Maximize your operational efficiency, helping you get the most from your security investments.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Cisco SecureX users.

PeerSpot user Wouter H., Technical Team Lead Network & Security at Missing Piece BV, shares several reasons why he thinks the solution is fantastic. In his opinion, “SecureX takes all the separate pieces of security within your company, adds in intelligence from different sites and services on the internet, and makes them work together. If an email is received on a machine and malware is being executed, it can be put into lockdown mode. The fact that you can have a single solution that combines endpoint intelligence with email intelligence, firewalls, and publicly available intelligence is really helpful. Also, SecureX provides us with contextual awareness throughout our security ecosystem. Before SecureX, things that were not possible, or that would take days, now literally take seconds to find out.

Michal S., Infrastructure Engineer at a media company, says, “SecureX provides many measurements and has a really good dashboard. Working with it you are able to see things very clearly and you have every detail on a single display. That saves us money and time.” He also adds, “It brings all our data into a central point. It also shows us many data connections between many of our environments. SecureX gives you really good information about potential risks. You are able to find the source of a risk, a potential risk from a user or a machine.”

Blair A., Technology Director at Shawnee Heights USD #450, explains, "One of the most valuable features is the simplicity of deploying SecureX. It's very easy to do that and then you gain very detailed visibility into everything that's going on in your network and, obviously, at the device level. There's just a wealth of information that you can pull from all of these products that are part of SecureX. You know exactly if you have an issue or not."

Cisco

IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment provides robust database security through effective vulnerability insights and remediation recommendations, supporting enterprises in achieving enhanced data protection.

IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment is designed to offer enterprises comprehensive security management. Its monitoring and analytics capabilities enable effective data assessment and vulnerability identification. Integration with LDAP simplifies multi-user access, bolstered by detailed reporting features. The tool aids regulatory compliance and streamlines security processes. Despite its efficacy, improvements are needed in interface usability, automatic deployment, and third-party integration. Enhanced analytical features and a more potent internal database could elevate its functionality.

What are the key features of IBM Guardium?

Vulnerability Identification: Detects and scores database vulnerabilities.
Monitoring Capabilities: Supports effective data aggregation and analytics.
LDAP Integration: Facilitates easy multi-user access.
Customizable Reporting: Offers robust reporting tools with flexible rules.
Regulatory Compliance: Ensures adherence to security standards and regulations.

What benefits do users find valuable in reviews?

Enhanced Security: Strengthens overall security posture.
Efficient Data Assessment: Allows quick scans and swift data understanding.
Improved Visibility: Increases transparency across data activities.
Compliance Assurance: Helps conform to necessary industry regulations.

IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment is widely adopted across enterprise sectors for its robust security management. Organizations frequently employ it for data security, especially when migrating to cloud environments, ensuring the protection of sensitive information throughout its lifecycle. Its capabilities in catalog discovery and activity monitoring make it a preferred choice for businesses requiring advanced security solutions and implementations.

IBM

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

NHS, Rackspace, UNC Pembroke, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Missing Piece

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

July 2026

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