IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks comparison

The compared IBM and Palo Alto Networks solutions aren't in the same category. IBM is ranked #47 in VM , with an average rating of 5.0, and holds a 0.6% mindshare in the category. Palo Alto Networks is ranked #2 in CNAP , with an average rating of 8.6, and holds a 13.8% mindshare. Additionally, 66% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 5, 2025

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks and IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment compete in the security management category. Prisma Cloud generally seems to have the upper hand thanks to its favorable pricing and extensive support options, though IBM Guardium offers robust features for those prioritizing database protection.

Features: Prisma Cloud offers robust cloud visibility and compliance management, coupled with integrated threat detection. It supports environments across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, ensuring comprehensive multicloud protection. IBM Guardium excels in in-depth database scanning, vulnerability identification, and comprehensive reporting, providing granular control over database security, making it ideal for organizations deeply focused on data protection needs.

Room for Improvement: Prisma Cloud could enhance its user interface for improved ease of use and offer deeper integrations with third-party security tools. Auto-remediation features are also areas for enhancement as they can sometimes create unexpected issues. For IBM Guardium, simplifying complex setup procedures and expanding beyond database-focused environments to more diverse IT ecosystems would be beneficial. Improving its integration capabilities with cloud environments could open up more use cases.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Prisma Cloud offers a streamlined, user-friendly deployment process and extensive customer service, contributing to strong customer satisfaction. IBM Guardium, while providing clear guidance, often involves a more complex setup process, though it benefits from dedicated support focusing on client-specific database security challenges. Prisma Cloud leads in customer service satisfaction, especially in cloud-focused scenarios.

Pricing and ROI: Prisma Cloud is competitive in terms of setup costs and yields quick ROI with its adaptive cloud security solutions. Conversely, IBM Guardium may require a higher initial investment but offers substantial returns by reducing database vulnerabilities, crucial for compliance and security planning. Organizations focused on long-term, database-specific security gains might find IBM's offering more advantageous, despite the initial costs.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment vs. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment vs. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

March 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

Zafran Security

Mindshare comparison

Vulnerability Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment	0.6%
Wiz	9.7%
Tenable Nessus	6.6%
Other	83.1%

Vulnerability Management

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks	13.8%
Wiz	22.7%
Microsoft Defender for Cloud	10.7%
Other	52.8%

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)

Featured Reviews

Israel Cavazos Landini

Associate Director IT Security Operations at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

Weekly insights and risk analysis facilitate informed security decisions

I appreciate the weekly insights Zafran provides, which include critical topics for networks and IT security, allowing us to evaluate which insights apply to our environment. The organization score feature is valuable to keep the leadership team updated on how our infrastructure fares security-wise. The applicable risk level versus base risk level feature is beneficial because prior to Zafran, we only used the base risk level, but now understand that risk depends on the asset itself. Zafran is an excellent tool.

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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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Mohammad Qaw

Senior Security Consultant at helpag

It gives you one console to see all of your assets, review their configurations, and build your processes

Most customers use Prisma Cloud for visibility and compliance. Prisma has so many features, but many organizations do not use them. They primarily use the visibility part to connect all their cloud accounts and hosts for visibility to see if they are missing any security controls or if they have any misconfigurations. You can connect it to cloud environments such as Azure, AWS, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba, etc., or to an on-prem data center. Prisma Cloud gives you so many options to automate processes related to your daily operations. When it comes to cybersecurity, you can automate things with their existing APIs. They also have out-of-the-box integrations with many solutions. I have not seen any limitations. Everything is customizable. You can do whatever you want, defining the reporting and custom use cases. They recently updated the UI, so it's much better than before.

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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

"We saw benefits from Zafran Security almost immediately after deploying it."

"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."

"Overall, we have seen about eighty-seven percent reduction of the number of vulnerabilities that require urgency to remediate, specifically the number of criticals."

"Zafran is an excellent tool."

"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."

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

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

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

"I find the CSPM area to be a more valuable and flexible feature."

"The threat detection feature in Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks integrates with cloud-native controls like AWS GuardDuty and similar services on Azure and GCP."

"Syslog CLIs are the best feature."

"Integration is very easy. And because it supports security that spans multi- and hybrid-cloud environments, it's very easy to use."

"Prisma Cloud offers robust runtime scanning capabilities, which is beneficial for security teams."

"Prisma Cloud's comprehensive platform offers a range of features, including runtime security and vulnerability assessments, through its Prisma Cloud Compute component."

"The solution gives us a lot of visibility across all of our cloud solutions."

"Its ease of integration is valuable because we need to get the solution out of the door quickly, so speed and ease matter."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pros

Cons

"Initially, we were somewhat concerned about the scalability of Zafran due to our large asset count and the substantial amount of information we needed to process."

"I think the ability to have some enhanced reporting capabilities is something they can improve on, as they have good reports but we have asked for some specific reporting enhancements."

"The dashboarding and reporting functionality of Zafran Security is an area that definitely could use some improvements."

"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."

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

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

"They should improve the user experience."

"Palo Alto should work on ease-of-use and the user-friendliness to be more competitive with some competing products."

"Prisma Cloud lags behind in terms of security automation capabilities."

"In terms of improvement, there are some small things like hardening and making sure the Linux resources are deployed well but that's more at an operational level."

"We face some GUI issues related to new permissions for AWS. So far, we don't have any automation to complete them through the GUI. We have to manually update the permissions. Our customers have faced some issues with that."

"The innovation side of the solution could be more efficient and more detailed."

"The user interface should be improved and made easier."

"Currently, custom reports are available, but I feel that those reports are targeting just the L1 or L2 engineers because they are very verbose. So, for every alert, there is a proper description, but as a security posture management portal, Prisma Cloud should give me a dashboard that I can present to my stakeholders, such as CSO, CRO, or CTO. It should be at a little bit higher level. They should definitely put effort into reporting because the reporting does not reflect the requirements of a dashboard for your stakeholders. There are a couple of things that are present on the portal, but we don't have the option to customize dashboards or widgets. There are a limited set of widgets, and those widgets don't add value from the perspective of a security team or any professional who is above L1 or L2 level. Because of this, the reach of Prisma Cloud in an organization or the access to Prisma Cloud will be limited only to L1 and L2 engineers. This is something that their development team should look into."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"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."

"Our licensing fees are $18,000 USD per year."

"Almost all the CSPM tools are pretty expensive."

"The pricing is competitive. From what I have seen in the past, it is on par with the others."

"The pricing for Prisma Cloud is high. Providing a pay-as-you-go model or pricing options tailored for medium and small enterprises could help attract more clients."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"Prisma Cloud licensing works on credits."

"From my exposure so far, they have been really flexible on whatever your current state is, with a view to what the future state might be. There's no hard sell. They "get" the journey that you're on, and they're trying to help you embrace cloud security, governance, and compliance as you go."

"Prisma Cloud is cost-efficient, but the credits are on the higher end."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

37%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Performing Arts

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	37
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	55

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zafran Security?

Since we stood Zafran Security up in our private cloud, we handle the maintenance on our side. As we opted not to use...

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What needs improvement with Zafran Security?

In terms of areas for improvement, Zafran Security is doing a really great job as a new and emerging company. Oftenti...

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What is your primary use case for Zafran Security?

My use cases for Zafran Security revolve around two primary areas. One is around vulnerability management and priorit...

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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...

See all answers

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

What is your primary use case for Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks?

Prisma Cloud helps support DevSecOps methodologies, making those responsibilities easier to manage.

See all answers

What Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform do you recommend?

We like Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, since it offers us incredible visibility into our entire cloud system. We...

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What do you think of Aqua Security vs Prisma Cloud?

Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valu...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 29% of the time

Vulcan Cyber vs Zafran Security

Compared 14% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Zafran Security

Compared 9% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs Zafran Security

Compared 7% of the time

Nucleus vs Zafran Security

Compared 6% of the time

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Qualys VMDR vs IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment

Compared 36% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment

Compared 28% of the time

Tenable Nessus vs IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment

Compared 23% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment

Compared 12% of the time

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Wiz vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 9% of the time

Cyera vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 8% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 5% of the time

Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Zafran Security

October 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

October 2025

IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment report

Download IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment product report

Buyer's Guide

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

October 2025

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks report

Download Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks product report

Also Known As

No data available

Prisma Public Cloud, RedLock Cloud 360, RedLock, Twistlock, Aporeto

Overview

Zafran Security integrates with existing security tools to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities effectively, proving that most critical vulnerabilities are not exploitable, optimizing threat management.

Zafran Security introduces an innovative operating model for managing security threats and vulnerabilities. By leveraging the threat exposure management platform, it pinpoints and prioritizes exploitable vulnerabilities, reducing risk through immediate remediation. This platform enhances your hybrid cloud security by normalizing vulnerability signals and integrating specific IT context data, such as CVE runtime presence and internet asset reachability, into its analysis. No longer reliant on patch windows, Zafran Security allows you to manage risks actively.

What are the key features of Zafran Security?

Threat Exposure Management: Utilizes existing tools to prioritize vulnerabilities and manage threats.
Integrative Analysis: Combines security data with IT context for precise vulnerability management.
Real-time Risk Reduction: Enables immediate risk management without waiting for patches.
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility: Functions across diverse cloud environments for comprehensive security.

What benefits can users expect from Zafran Security?

Improved Security: Enhances protection by efficiently identifying and mitigating risks.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces unnecessary patching expenses by confirming non-exploitable vulnerabilities.
Time Savings: Frees developers to focus on root causes by handling immediate threats.
Comprehensive Insight: Offers a holistic view of security threats and vulnerabilities.

In industries where security is paramount, such as finance and healthcare, Zafran Security provides invaluable protection by ensuring that only exploitable vulnerabilities are addressed. It allows entities to maintain robust security measures while allocating resources efficiently, fitting seamlessly into existing security strategies.

Zafran Security

IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment scans data infrastructures (databases, data warehouses and big data environments) to detect vulnerabilities, and suggests remedial actions. The solution identifies exposures such as missing patches, weak passwords, unauthorized changes and misconfigured privileges.

IBM

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks provides comprehensive cloud-native security solutions. It covers dynamic workload identity, automated forensics, and multi-cloud protection, ensuring robust security across diverse cloud platforms.

Prisma Cloud delivers advanced capabilities for managing cloud security across AWS, Azure, and GCP platforms. It offers dynamic workload identity creation, real-time monitoring, and seamless integration into CI/CD pipelines. With automation, centralized dashboards, and enhanced visibility, users effectively manage security misconfigurations and vulnerabilities. While optimizing cloud environments through runtime protection and compliance, Prisma Cloud faces challenges with its navigation, pricing, and limited automation capabilities. Users seek improvements in API security, role-based access controls, and documentation quality, emphasizing the need for enhanced customization and reporting features.

What are the important features of Prisma Cloud?

Dynamic Workload Identity: Enables unique workload identities for security purposes.
Automated Forensics: Offers detailed insights into threats and incidents automatically.
Runtime Protection: Provides ongoing detection and blocking of suspicious activities.
Multi-Cloud Security: Protects environments on AWS, Azure, and GCP simultaneously.
Compliance Management: Assists in meeting regulatory standards across cloud platforms.

What benefits or ROI should users consider in reviews?

Enhanced Security Posture: Strengthens cloud defense lines with proactive monitoring.
Centralized Dashboard: Offers unified oversight of multiple cloud environments.
Efficient Misconfiguration Handling: Quickly identifies and addresses security lapses.
Seamless CI/CD Integration: Integrates security within development workflows.
Improved Visibility: Provides transparent insights into security operations and alerts.

Industries like finance and telecom rely on Prisma Cloud for managing cloud security posture and container security. Teams utilize its capabilities across hybrid and multi-cloud settings to ensure compliance and robust threat protection. Features like misconfiguration detection and runtime monitoring are critical in promoting security objectives in these sectors.

Palo Alto Networks

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Amgen, Genpact, Western Asset, Zipongo, Proofpoint, NerdWallet, Axfood, 21st Century Fox, Veeva Systems, Reinsurance Group of America

Buyer's Guide

IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment vs. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

March 2025

Free Report: IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment vs. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

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